Hydrangea Bonsai from 1999

My Neighbour, Joan, is forever moving things around in her garden....very convenient for her to have a Nursery and such nice guys, hihihihihi, next door.  When we transplanted her Hydrangeas two years ago, I noticed this one with an amazing base, forming a clump.  I asked her for it and we swop it with newer hybrids, she was very happy and I was ecstatic to say the least.

This is her second year in a pot and she flowered.  Altough I did put Oak leaves in the soil mix to turn her blue she is still pink, but hell I don't mind isn't she great?

I think this is the first one in the world, for if you search for Hydrangea bonsai you don't get any.... Here we call them Christmas Roses for they flower now...

The clump last year in August, just transplanted.



Look at this base!!



And voila the flowers, sorry for the paint job in the background, but my sheet wasn't big enough. What do you think, Hydrangea in the form of a Hydrangea....Does this count as a Naturalistic bonsai? HIhihihiihiii



Love and light

Andre, I love your tree; she's a beauty. Id this her final pot or do you have something else in mind? I want to search for an old H. this year after seeing yours!

Hi,

There are several around me mostly belonging to the older club members who make bonsai from just about anything they can dig up for free. also there are several buddlea bonsai locally to me, another unusual species.

it is tricky to progress the tree and make big improvements as it is better cut right back to virtually nothing frequently, but it will always give a nice image in bloom

Hi Andre

Marcus' Words could have been mine...the plant look lovely with the flowers   , very nice with the look to the nebari...with time will a bigger trunk make it more treelike. why not give it a bigger pot.

On the first photo...is it a suiseki in the right corner?

Kind regards Yvonne

Thanks Todd, You and Yvonne agree to place it in a bigger pot, will do so in August. That will give me the chance to make the soil even more acidic, so it can turn blue.

Marcus I would love to see other peoples Hydrangea bonsai, can anyone post pictures on here if they have any?

Thanks Yvonne. Yes that is my most valuable and loved beloved stone. Do you want to see it? Of course you do, I will show you later.

Anyone have any Hydrangea bonsai?

Love and light

Andre',

that is really beautiful!!
And I am not a lover of pink anything.

Hi-dran-gee- ah grows down here as well [ that's the pronunciation from a Canadian book years ago, I always remember it with a smile,and I gather other folk say - hi-drain-gee-ah.]
Nothing but compliments to you.
Later.
Khaimraj

This year this Darling bush gave me 55 blooms!

All much smaller than last year.  So Hydraenga not only reduce their leaves but their flowers aswell!

Still not a trace of blue...mmmmm so the story of Oak leaves turning Hydraengas blue...Yhe right!  How long must I wait. hih i

I havnt trimmed any branches. I did the previoius year. But the branches I cut, weened..... very sad. So now I wait for the bush to ween the branches first and then Ill cut them.

Isnt she gorgeous!






Love and light.

The image hydrae 12 is a real beauty. What about the moss you have between roots on the first pics. Is there any reason to remove it from the older plant?
Vlad

This is lovely!

Congratulations, that's a really nice tree, I'd never have thought it would work.

The old codgers around here add steel wool (from a car body shop or soap-free scouring pads) or iron filing to the surface of the soil to turn hydrangeas blue. If it works for plants in the ground then just a little ought to work for one in a pot?

I like it. You mentioned that branches that were pruned died on you. It might be a timing issue as to when you pruned. I don't know the correct answer. One thing I found with boxwood, (Buxus) if you prune only a few branches, there is a tendency to loose them, but if you prune all, just shortening the ones you want to keep a little, and the others as appropriate for styling, when all growing tips are cut, the response is good, no branches get lost. Just my thought, anyone else have better information? I'd like to see this clump opened up a little, so we can see the tree under the foliage, but is is a nice bonsai as is. Your leaves are reducing nicely. I'd love to see this again in the future.

The ball type flowered hydrangeas are not often used for bonsai, but the ones with the loose flower clusters have a long tradition of being used. First I remember seeing was in Murata's book The Four Seasons of Bonsai. Others have used them too including Bill Valvanis.

Bill Valvanis has a hydrangea or two in his collection, here is an image from his summer display post on BSG and a close up. http://bonsaistudygroup.com/general-discussion/summer-display/



From Bill Valvanis' Blog, the blog url is http://valavanisbonsaiblog.com/

2 hydrangea on display June 2014 at 4th FuGa Bonsai Exhibition sponsored by S-Cube & Seiji Morimae.

hi andre.

nice clump.
from what i have seen, these tend to be pink when grown in acidic soil and blue in limy soil.
so if you really want blue flowers you might want to try to raise the soil's pH.
well... you might want to experiment on a less valuable one first.

Maybe feed it with Azalea food.......

Thank you my Friends....

I will cover the roots a little more. And you are right Leo....I should have 'dressed' the tree a little more, but I was so chuffed with myself that one doesnt notice the dribble around your childs mounth.... I will attend to it next time.

I will try the iron filings, azalea food and everything else. This Christmas Rose will be blueeeeee ....

HO HO HO ...

Shame on you! Stop posting things like this! Now you are going to make me dig my hydrangeas Baba!