Hydrangea wiring?

I've very recently come into the possession of a couple of decent sized hydrangea bushes that i'd like to try using for bonsai. I was just wondering if its even possible to wire hydrangea branches or if they're too brittle?

I don't know if anyone has tried. This is not a bonsai subject I have seen used. Also Hydrangea has a different internal structure than a tree.

I saw a few hydrangea bonsais, but didnt like them; big leaves, big flowers, thin branches...
And they were not looking like a tree also.

the only reason i'm even considering using them is because a nursery not too far from me has a hydrangea bonsai that i've always had a bit of a soft spot for, though i'm honestly not too sure if the odd twist or bend in its trunk is due to wiring or some other sort of technical black magic

Do you know the species/variety? Pee gee hydrangea, H. paniculata, is more of a tall, woody "trunky" hydrangea, and I have seen these as bonsai. I would think that bending a trunk or anything but small, tender branches would be difficult.

suiseki133 wrote:the only reason i'm even considering using them is because a nursery not too far from me has a hydrangea bonsai that i've always had a bit of a soft spot for, though i'm honestly not too sure if the odd twist or bend in its trunk is due to wiring or some other sort of technical black magic

Can you get a picture of it? Please?

though i havent as yet had a chance to get a photo of the example i've seen, i've tried wiring a couple of branches on mine and i think it might work, though they're all incredibly brittle and seem to only be willing to bed by about 5mm initially, then if i'm lucky 2-3mm every 5 days or so afterwards through the use of a lot of guide wires with small torniquets in them

Russell Coker wrote:

Do you know the species/variety? Pee gee hydrangea, H. paniculata, is more of a tall, woody "trunky" hydrangea, and I have seen these as bonsai. I would think that bending a trunk or anything but small, tender branches would be difficult.

That would be interesting to see...talk about challenging material! We have one in the yard and the leaves are large, growth coarse, and flowers huge.

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This little hydrangea was a purchased for six bucks in a big box nursery close-out two years ago. It was eighteen inches high with a 2 1/2 inch diameter trunk. I chopped it to eight inches high the first year and this past spring, root pruned and planted it in bonsai soil in this pot. The new shoots are supple and respond well to wiring, setting in about six weeks. Older growth is brittle and easy to prune. It hasn't bloomed yet. The leaf size which is now under an inch, is gradually reducing through the course of the summer in full sun. I remove half a dozen of the largest leaves weekly.

I find very little about about hydranga bonsai and welcome suggestions.

My 'best' ones are both very much raw material at the moment, but they're both a hell of a lot more than 18" high lol
The first has a huge whip of a branch with well developed buds that just dont seem to want to open despite the rest of it being fairly healthy (or at least it looks to be, even though it only had one or two feeder roots on it when i rescued it from the trash).
The other one is about 4 or 5 inches at the base with lots and lots of extra branches that are all about 30" long or more, most of which were left because the transplant was a little more traumatic than i would have preferred (its original owner's car slipped on part of his garden and tore it out of the ground) and i had to be really careful with not stressing it anymore afterwards

I have almost no experience with Hydrangea as bonsai, but am assuming that before you start wiring, after your plant is stress-free, consider the trunk size, and when it has the girth you want to work with, chop the shrub back. Give it a year to recover, leaving it in its nursery container. In early spring consider hard pruning to shape, and after a summer of new growth and recovery, your now, bonsai-in-training hydrangea, will be ready in spring to be root pruned and transplanted into a bonsai pot and soil. My garden hydrangeas take alot of heavy pruning and push new growth through the entire growing season. If you want to accelerate new young growth for a season before you transplant into a smaller pot, just take the plant out of its container, knock off two thirds of the soil, trim long thick roots way back, and replace the garden soil with bonsai soil. Now, your water and fertilizer program must step up for a season to promote ultimate growth to work with before transplanting into a bonsai pot. Then you can think about wiring.

JimLewis wrote:

suiseki133 wrote:the only reason i'm even considering using them is because a nursery not too far from me has a hydrangea bonsai that i've always had a bit of a soft spot for, though i'm honestly not too sure if the odd twist or bend in its trunk is due to wiring or some other sort of technical black magic

Can you get a picture of it? Please?

Here it is, please excuse the really crappy photo
I'm pretty sure its just a fairly typical mop head variety

as promised, here are some extra photos of it, though most focus on the trunk because i think its by far the most interesting bit

Wow! I would have never thought hydrangea can have that kind of deadwood.

Nice!

Nice trunk, with that you certainly have material worth the effort to work on.

There was a hydrangea exhibited in the Chicago 2012 show. I didn't take a photo of it because it didn't 'send me', but in this You Tube video of the show judge's critique of the show. He specifically mentions the hydrangea, and he awarded it a ribbon. About half way through.

Hope this helps, you have a great trunk & nebari, and that is 75% of what it takes to make a convincing bonsai. You just need to work the branching and foliage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy-p3Px802s

Leo Schordje wrote:Nice trunk, with that you certainly have material worth the effort to work on.

There was a hydrangea exhibited in the Chicago 2012 show. I didn't take a photo of it because it didn't 'send me', but in this You Tube video of the show judge's critique of the show. He specifically mentions the hydrangea, and he awarded it a ribbon. About half way through.

Hope this helps, you have a great trunk & nebari, and that is 75% of what it takes to make a convincing bonsai. You just need to work the branching and foliage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy-p3Px802s

Unfortunately this one isn't mine, its simply an impressive example owned by a local nursery, my biggest one is comparable in terms of the size of its trunk and nebari, but unlike this one it doesnt have any major sections of deadwood. I'll add some photos of mine soon

Any updates? How is this tree doing?

I found 2 hydrangeas near me at a nursery with trunks like this (as fat as cans of Pepsi).

I am contemplating buying one but wanted to know how yours are doing!

Thanks

EpicusMaximus wrote:Any updates? How is this tree doing?

I found 2 hydrangeas near me at a nursery with trunks like this (as fat as cans of Pepsi).

I am contemplating buying one but wanted to know how yours are doing!

Thanks

WOW very envious of those by the sounds of them, the bigger half of mine died during a heatwave of 35-40 degree days that lasted a little under 2 weeks earlier this year, though i still have another with a twisted trunk that's growing strong, I found you could wire and bend branches little by little when they're extremely young and green, but after they harden off its more or less impossible to make them do much as far as shape is concerned

Thanks.

They are as thick as cans but probably only 3-4 inches in height although the foliage and branches are perhaps 1 foot long.

I will go and look at them again tomorrow and upload some
Pictures for your opinion.

Unfortunately they are not cheap like yours. They were priced around $30.

I've visited most nurseries around me and it was my first time seeing hydrngea like this. It reminded me of this thread.

I have a hydrangea with a trunk more like a Bud Light than a Pepsi, thats been coming along for several years since my nursery purchase but where I live in upstate NY the woody little branches have a hard time making it through the winter. If it wasn't a bonsai...still a garden plant I'd never notice, but the tiny branches die ,so growth is slow.