now this is a fat trunk!!

Back in february i decided to plant a beech hedge at the front of the new house so this buddleia was dug up and rather than throw it away i decided it would just about squeeze into one of my big bonsai pots - (26" x 20" x 7"). It has survived the dig and has the unbelievable circumference of 52" - this will be one fat baby !!





training branches will be a challenge but annually i'll get 100's of new shoots, and the leaves reduce substancialy - not sure about getting flowers though as they form on the end of new branches - often several feet long.

The trunk has a fantastic movement and will be a carving dream !

Very nice,looks great in that pot and it looks as though it has been there forever.I would'nt carve it at all as it looks very old and in good form as it is.

ramonan16 wrote:Very nice,looks great in that pot and it looks as though it has been there forever.I would'nt carve it at all as it looks very old and in good form as it is.

cheers, the only bit that really needs carving is a 45 degree cut on the main trunk where i reduced the height from about 8ft to 18" ! . this area is hidden by the leaves atm but is a very obvious straight cut when you see the tree for real - the rest i agree totally with you - nature is better than any person i've ever seen at producing real aged wood, the aftermath of many carving sessions i've seen on trees look like a bad case of a termite attack - i will give this a little clean up with the sand blaster in a year or so to remove the rotten areas before treating it with preserver though.

Until recently, I thought that it would be as useless to experiment with Buddleia as to try a shohin with a Catalpa.

But someone posted his cascading "butterfly tree" on a French forum, and until I saw yours, I thought it was the only exemple of that species.

Here's the link :

Arbre aux papillons

Marcus,
Very nice find; I like how you pruned your canopy; have fun with it! Alain's link to the cascading tree was also nice; the grower let one branch grow long to enjoy the flowers ... works for me!
Best,
Todd

thanks for the comments and link. it was good to see the way the leaves and shoots reduced on that one too. I have a second slightly smaller trunk potted that is less interesting and i'm going to use this other tree as the experiment for pruning etc. - this way i'll try several different techniques with the aim to get compact growth and flowers.

I think by totally removing all the new buds in spring the second bud break will be much smaller, finer growth. by pinching the tips of the new shoots as soon as the 2nd leaves appear it will create two even finer shoots - i'm going to let these shoots grow freely to see if i can get flower buds to form on much shorted branches - in theory anyway!!

it should make an interesting progression series and i think quite soon we'll have another species that responds to bonsai methods.

Hi Marcus.
Impressive material.
If you want the branches to survive, i would suggest you place the tree in a greenhouse during winter.
Cutting back to the first two leaves works well i found out.
The dead wood part is another thing, it is quickly gone.
Cutting back the first shoots totally, i might consider for the second year.
Exciting to see other buddleya bonsai.
Here i show you my experiment for a shohin, it is 25 cm. high
It is a variety i saw at Kew gardens; Buddleya davi -Black knight- amazing deep blue flowers.
I bought this one at a sale in a normal garden nursery in 2007 and put it in the ground till this spring.
Now it is in a cheap first pot which might do well with those flowers (if all goes well)

regards, Sunip

Great find Marcus. The leaves can be reduced down to as small as 5mm so you should have a spectacular tree in time. Just be careful with the carving, as Sunip says, it will slowly melt away regardless of how you protect it.
Good luck.