Huge 30 year old bougainvillea

Hi everyone and greetings from Australia.
I was browsing the net for bonsai/starters etc and came across a bougainvillea about 2.5 metres tall with a trunk roughly 15 inches in diameter for sale for $100. From the look I believe it to be a Glabra. The lady I bought it off said it was about 30 years old. I decided to buy it and chopped it down with a chainsaw, dug it out and also made quite a few cuttings ranging from 2-6 inches. I have re-potted the main trunk keeping most of the root ball in tact and planted the cuttings. I will post pictures here. I was just wanting to get any advice on possible times before i see growth, what more could be done with the cuttings  and what do you think the chances of new growth/survival are for both the main trunk and the cuttings. I have the Trunk and cuttings in mostly shade, get splashes of sun, is this right? I planted the trunk in a 60 litre tub that i put heaps of drainage holes in and the cuttings in roughly 3 litre pots which i dipped in powder root hormone. I used standard potting mix for all. It is the end of summer here and temps range from 25-35 degrees celcius at the moment and bougainvilleas grow all over the place where i am (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia).
Any input/ideas/suggestions would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks heaps all and look forward to your replies.  

Great buy ! Beautiful bonsai tree one day ...

Thanks Brett, yes I thought it was a great buy as soon as I saw it and couldn't get it out of the ground quickly enough!

Anyone else with advice/ideas/comments would be greatly appreciated.

Peace all  

the cutting in #5 is the best of the lot. pamper this guy and get it to grow. this one has a bright future.

best wishes, sam

The huge trunk with diagonal cut might get a rotting problem ...I hope it will heal.

regards,
jun  

Thanks for the reply Jun. Can you suggest anything that I could do to minimise the chances of the big cut from rotting? Like keep it sheltered from heavy rain, apply a coating/sealer etc. It would be hugely disappointing if it rots and kills the stump   . Are you saying that if the wound rots the whole stump die? I did not think of this as even being an issue. Anyone with suggestions on ways to stop the cut from rotting would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance everybody.

Srini.

And that is exactly what I thought Sam. The larger cutting in pic #5 was the best cutting with a unique shape and the thickest. I really hope it starts to grow and I shall give updates when i do see growth. Thanks for all the replies. Wish me luck.

Cheers everybody

Srini   

You might be ok regarding the rot. It is dry here. A couple of years ago I cut some bougys down flush with the ground (before bonsai). Stumps are still there (and continually send out shoots).

Cheers mate, let's hope so. so far so good. Still no shoots yet on the stump, however all but one of the cuttings are sending out shoots like crazy. Will post some pics to this thread in a few weeks when they are looking nice and green.   

Hi everyone.

Just thought i would post an update with pictures of how much my bougainvillea stump and cuttings have grown in the last month. One of the cuttings even has a few flowers already. I would also love to hear any ideas or see virtuals of how you might go about training the stump branches. Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Have a good weekend all.

Sorry about the first 2 pics being sideways i did think that i had rotated them.   Anyway I'll post some more/better pics in another month or so and show you how things are progressing.

With all the material just let them grow out a bit to strengthen the roots.

Do seal/waterproof all the wounds to preserve the deadwood as long as possible.

Especially with the biggest stump, you will have to incorporate a hollow in its future because it will not heal over quickly. Keep the deadwood as dry as possible for now and you can use it doing the transformation "method" to let the tree tell a story.

On the species, especially if you grow it well, the tree can be hollowed out completely without any negative effects to the health of the tree.

With all said, some fun carving ahead!

Looking forward to its progression.

Lennard

Hey all. Just thought i'd post a pic of how my bougy has progressed over the last 18 months. I had a very bad possum problem on and off for about 15 months and if they didn't keep almost stripping my tree every few weeks it would definitely be a bit more advanced by now. i have now moved so the tree hasn't been attacked for the last 3 months and it's really starting to come along and is looking beautiful in full bloom. I still need to give it another trim in about 2 weeks so post another photo once i've given it a haircut. I think it's starting to look pretty good now and over the coming years will be pretty spectacular. No carving has been done as of yet. I plan to heavily trim back the roots and plant into a nice bonsai pot in about 3 months. now to save the pot and find the right size, colour etc. Any suggestions and feedback on the tree and also pot everyone thinks I should choose would be greatly appreciated. cheers all and I'll post a fresh photo in a couple of weeks.  

No suggestions at all? Would really like to hear opinions of what type/colour of pot I should choose. cheers everyone

YELLOW GLAZED !!!
fair dinkum !





actually - something more like this:

thanks beer city snake, wow that last pot is beautiful! I was thinking about a light blue glazed pot but that light yellow would contrast nicely with the purple flowers. the pot will have to be around 700 by 500 so it is not going to be cheap at all. what are everyone else's thoughts? cheers all.

We always plant purple pansies by yellow ones in our yard and the colors complement each other very well. I too like the last yellow pot Kevin posted.

thanks for the reply steve, so far the general consensus seems to be yellow for the pot. Any other thoughts? to be honest yellow did not even cross my mind as being an option. What does everyone think about the direction that I am going with the tree? critiques and suggestions most welcome

To help choose a pot I'd like to see pics from a few more angles. If this tree has only one obvious front and it is the one you have photographed then the shape of the pot should be chosen for that - rectangle.

But if there are many potential fronts you may go with a round pot.

As for depth, with material this large the depth of the pot is usually determined by the state of the roots. If I was looking after this early tree I would be using a fairly deep training pot and I would be worrying about getting the roots healthy and plentiful so that I could start reducing the depth.

It it is all ready for a bonsai pot I would go for a very simple square/rectangle or round pot in a sandy colour that picks up the same colour as the trunk, but a shade or 2 darker. It would have to be simple else it will create an overwhelming combination of pot and trunk.

I don't have a pot suggestion but those blooms look fantastic! Its coming along nicely

As for a pot, your flowers are pink. So go for a White pot.
I have recently potted my bougie into a white pot. In my opinion it suits it quite well.
Even though there aren't flowers at the time the image was taken

If I were you mate I'd cut away the bottom two branches coming from the trunk sides. They will take forever to become thick enough to look convincing. I'd work on creating the foliage mass higher up and perhaps bring a cascading branch down one side a bit to create asymmetry. With the right care and styling that' sign a be a cracker of a tree!