Bougainvillea recently defoliated

Hi All

I have been a regular visitor on this site for a long time and this is my very first post.

This is a bougainvillea that was dug out from the front of the house at my parents by my father about 7 years ago and left out in the front lawn for the rubbish man. I rescued the tree after it was laying there for 2 days in the hot Australian Summer and it lived.

These pictures shows the tree after recent defoliation and wiring. The tree is starting to leaf out again. I know the ramification is still many years off, but I thought I’ll show some pics whilst I had my camera out.




I am not too happy with the planting angle and might adjust it a little (turn the tree counter clockwise) next year.



The tree measures approx 75cm in height from the pot. The pot is by Bryan Albright.
Also, the tree has some sharis which I’m not particularly a fan of, especially on a bougainvillea (my opinion). I noticed on many Taiwanese bonsais (The Taiwanese does the best bougainvilleas in my opinion) that where there are sharis/uros, the live vein seems to roll nicely over the shari/uro making them look very natural. Does anyone know how they do this? I’ve let the tree grow wild in a bigger growing pot for a few years and the scars never seem to improve. In the end, I've just left them untreated to rot a little hoping that they will look more natural in a few years.

Any comments welcome.

Cheers

Mark

Hello,
amazing tree, congratulations, shari and deads woods are not naturally on this species, because the wood is not hard , it decays with time , i'm not fan me too .What is the color of the "leaves flowers "?.

Fantastic specimen, great work.
Would love to see a picture of the tree in flower.

Hi Mwkoi,

Nice bougainvillea. Mine doesn't roll over on the dead areas either so perhaps it's a species or area issue?? Below I have before and after pics of a refurb I did on it recently:





May I suggest to avoid rot, you use a wood preserver followed by a wood hardener. I use the Cuprinol brand which you may be able to get down under.

This will keep the wood from rotting

beautiful trunk material, guys. sharing a bougainvillea in progress. working on twigging and a shorter more tapered apex

best wishes, sam

Thanks for all the comments and tips guys. The flowers are purple. Sorry I do not have a good picture of the tree in full flower.
But here is a poor quality picture of the tree just before defoliation showing a few flowers:



Sam, Mambo

Fantastic trunk movements and taper! Mambo, I really like the girth and taper of the branches. Beautifully done. I assume its clip and grow?

Cheers
Mark

Hi Mark,

This one has been with me for some ten years and came with a lot of faults that I have been correcting little by little. I am told it was always grown and styled in a pot from day 1 and was about 200 years old. It came to me with those thick branches so I can take no credit for those, but it is one of the reasons I purchased it!

I have wired it extensively in the past but wiring has been minimal in the last few years. Mainly clip and grow.

Here is a monster I collected yesterday!

that's a beaut

best wishes, sam

Mambo that is certainly a monster keep us posted on development id love to see this one as it progresses... I went to my wifes hometown a while back for pre nup photo shoot and while taking pictures at the beach i saw bougie glabra leaves and flowers, it was spread in tall round bush, i looked under and saw a beautiful gnarled trunk slantingat a 40degree angle the base was around 1ft wide. If not for my then fiance, her mom, and a crew of 4 photographers waiting on me i would have gotten to work on it hahaha. When i came across this thread it reminded me of that tree and what a coinsidence because ill be going back to that town tomorow for my wifes mothers bday... Ive never collected a bougie before but i do have 2 in development. Any important tips on collecting? Keep in mind its on a beach with fine white sand. Ill also post this on questions but i wanted to post thisnright away here bc looking at ur collected bougie its like a light just flashed on in my head... Thanks in advance - jeff

Btw mwkoi, IMHO, the planting angle works fine for me but id bend a couple of the branches on the right upwards to bring the composition together... Eitherway Route you decide to take, very good bougie, impressive work.
Jeff

mwkoi wrote:





Mark

Mark

This to me is a very very very very Nice Bougie indeed.

Its has lots of movement, look to me as if it is dancing. You can be very proud of it!!

There is nothing wrong with it, and don't you dare changing the angle, I will beat you up.

Love and light

Wonderful !

http://www.brundubonsai.fr

http://www.brundubonsai.fr/produits-et-conseils/bonsai-ishizuki-et-penjing

Thanks everyone.

I think I'll keep the current front and see how it goes for the another year or two.

Will be trying to promote ramification this year and will post more pictures as we progress.

Mark