A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A NEW BERBERIS SHOHIN.

Hi everybody,
I bought this Urban Yamadori a year ago at my friend Teunis Jan Klein's place "Deshima". This sweet little plant and 3 others that I bought that day, were selvaged growing around a 50 year old train station that was about to be demolished. I fell for the thickness and movement of that short trunk that was hidden underneath all that young foliage. This is how she looked when I bought her on 5-9-2009:







Above: As you can see in these pictures, the plastic container was broken, so that same day, I replaced it with a similar sized one of my own.

Below: 28-1-2010. I had a good day recovering from my back operation, so I felt like doing something! And this little Berberis thunbergii was not too big to handle, but challenging enough to keep me busy!







Below: After its first styling. In this picture you can see that I left two posible cascading branches on the tree. I wanted to get more used to this little trees new image, before I finally would decide which one to save and use in my design. A few days later I looked at the tree again and than I knew for sure, so I removed the top/back branch. I liked the future of the bottom/front branch that I saved better. And removing the frond/bottom branch, would have ment, that I would be left with a large scar, smack in your face! So the choice was not that difficult after all. But there is no sense in rushing these things!



Below: 19-9-2010. And this is, after a few little more wires were applied, how she looks today after just one year in my garden. Amazing how quick this species grows!



Below: For size!



I cant wait to plant it in a nice blueish/greenish cascade pot. I think that color would look beautiful with the yellow flowers and later on with the dark green/purple red foliage and red berries! I hope you enjoyed this little story?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

That is sweet Hans. From a bush to an ancient, little tree hanging from a cliff in a year's time! Thanks for sharing

Hi Hans

great story you had...and tree!!!


can´t wait see the tree repoted.



Congratulations

Viriato Oliveira

Really nice work, Hans. You have intersting tree

Lovely Hans!

A very good tree Hans and would look very good in the Stone Monkey pot I bought for the Cotoneaster. Unfortunately for you, It's mine.... All mine.

Hans,
beautiful!...a more feminine looking tree. cascading yet gentle looking tree.

regards,
jun

Very nice step ahead in just one year! This species is very fast grower, but I noticed that the variety with permanently red leaves is not very suitable for bonsai, because it is very unpredictable and after each winter there is a heavy dieback of branches, or at least in our zone (Czech Rep.). But this is not the case of this green leaf variety which grows perfectly, I have also started one nice berberis this spring and it sprouted 3 or 4 times during one growing season.
Nicely done, Hans, keep reporting its progress!

Hans, great start to this little one.
How about a rugged shell pot to complement the bark texture.

Top drawer, Hans...

Pat

I am new to IBC, and look very much forward to many visits in the future.

Dear Hans, What a lucky find.... and very nice work too, look forward to see it in a pot.
Yvonne

Good work, Hans!

Lukas Sirotny wrote: ... ... This species is very fast grower, ... ...

Yes, indeed!

And now, dear Hans and everybody, this is me and my question as as beginner....

I have bought a b.t. last October. I repotted her into a training pot and hoped that next spring (2010 I mean) will bud where I would like, but of course she did it where she liked to...
And I have also found out that she is a strong apical grower, too. I did let her grow unrestricted for reasons of growing better trunk, but at some moment I had to prune back the loooooong shoots trying to reach the ceiling, in hope that she would back bud lower...., but again I was strongly disappointed.

Is there something I am missing????
Any advice, please???