Tropical - Defoliation

Morning Folks,

having been repotted since the 2nd of January, and filled in the pot with very fine roots, as seagrapes grow. The tree started to show signs of growing, and it has been hit with 3 passes of weak lawn fertilizer. It was time to defoliate.

records from 98 show 40 leaves after defoliation.
2011 leaf count yields 70 leaves------------ trying for 140. More leaves, more branches, smaller leaves naturally. Full sun.

I also gave the bark a scrubbing as suggested by Jose'. Flakes and brown, nice contrast, not too sharp, but noticeable, fine with me.

Age unknown, this is the one I found hanging for life by one root at the high tide mark. Back in the late 80's I guess ???



Second on the list - Gmelina

easy shrub to work with. All of these plants are over 10 years old.
Not much to say, as the shrub ages the bark cracks and density is gained more by leaf, than branchlets.

Enjoy and feel free to say as you wish, yay or nay.
Khaimraj

Gmelinas

Very nice Khaimraj.

I hope to see the trees with leaves too, it would be interesting to see how you manage to balance the design with such broad leaves.

regards,
jun

Jun,

as far as I know the Gmelina is a relative of the Premna. So with full sun, fertilizer and timed defoliation, the leaves come back out at this size [ ]

I just noticed the image came out without the tape measure to show the size.

As to the seagrape, the idea is increase branching and leaves down to the size of an American quarter or 2.5 cm. We can dream.
Thanks for looking. As I get some time I will add the others as they get defoliated.
Until.
Khaimraj

With tape measure.

Cool trees Khaimraj...if any of them are looking for a home, I'd be very pleased to have one in my meager collection...he might enjoy the trip, from sea to shining sea...

Pat Who's that stranger on the white horse?

This, to me, is where fun comes into bonsai. Not every bonsai has to be a stuffy old pine. Masterpieces? Maybe not, but who cares?

I love them!

R

I say "Yay" Khaimraj. Some great movement in your trees right through to the tips. One of the advantages of clip and grow.

Very nice trees Khaimraj... Keep it going....

Ravi

Hi Khaimraij

I love your trees , can I look forward to see them with leaves?.

Kind regards Yvonne

General response -

Thanks Guys, I thought no one wanted to see these so I stopped watching the topic. Lucky me, I saw this as I scrolled down to reply to John [ moyogi ].
Not much to say, I keep a separate table for small things, mostly cuttings, I couldn't just throw away.

Russell, I tend to follow more the idea behind Count Yorinaga Matsudaira,[http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/days/DaysSep.html] scroll down to half the page.
Just a love for growing plants, as I understand it.

I am not sure what a masterpiece really is as mame' or bean size bonsai would go.

Pat, if the seed of the Gmelina was not so large, I would have just posted you a few. As it is I would have to ask someone to ferry to the US and then post to you.
It is a very fast growing shrub, but you have to realise that it is leaf dense, not branch dense.
Probably why you don't see it more often, too much work to just keep cutting back.

Yvonne,as to the leaves.
It is also very resistant to defoliation, so unless you defoliate 3 times in so many weeks the leaves return to 1/2 an inch [ 12 cm ] after that they go down to 1/8 of an inch [ 5mm or so] but unless you are preparing for an exhibition, that's physically damaging the shrub.
I will select one and show again in a few weeks, will send you a note.
[ also in a few weeks, expect to see an Yvonne inspired Ficus b. re-do -chuckle.]

Ravi, Will thanks for looking and taking the time to comment.
Fading away.
Khaimraj

* If anyone wanted to know, the golden coloured pot with the thick trunked tree was one of those Chinese thingees containing a plastic tree, locked in plaster of paris, coloured with brown acrylic. I
burnt it clean and re-applied a low temperature glaze, couldn't resist immortalizing the kitsch. ha ha

Nice work with the Seagrape. Large leaves are an issue but showing it without leaves solves that - sort of like the approach to showing Hibiscus tiliaceus.
I had a raft style Seagrape that had been worked for many years by the prior oowner. I had it for 5 years. I thought it could take some cold but last years cold killed it to the roots and now only new growth is juvenile suckers. I put it in the ground and the cold this year again hammered it. Oh well, I've plenty of other trees.

The other trees look nice for shohin. Shohin trees can be masterpieces but due to their small size never get the ohs and awes that larger trees get.
Showing them in a 5 point display is one way to give the trees more physical presence. It can be the wooden tiered Asian style stand or a more modern interpretation.
As a general comment I'd suggest better pots for the shohin trees. I know your pot options are limited on your island. How about visiting Florida sometime for our annual convention and bringing an extra suitcase to stuff with shohin pots. There are usually several vendors with lots to offer of both US and imported pots.

Rob,
[ before you read on - yes, they would look better in handmade pots and just presently testing stand ideas - thanks by the way. ]

I am not sure if the Gmelina, can make an above average bonsai, it does not really branch, and lacks qualities that the classic bonsai used for under 6''[15 cm] have.
These usually impress the crowd when they see the age, especially the smaller ones, I have some in thimble sized pots, and also around 10 years of age.
Folk on this side are design insensitive, but memory sensitive, so if it grew in their yard or they ate the fruit or they climbed it, it will impact on them. Which at times is I believe more important in bonsai.

If I can get someone to forget their troubles and slow the heart and breathing only for a few minutes, then my efforts have achieved something important.
I have had many shoulder taps or tugging on my sleeve moments from the elderly as the memories flood into their waking lives.
It's the effect I look for with an oil painting. To get the viewer to contemplate, which what I believe early bonsai was about in China, as oil painting is in the west with Old Masters.

So no one really cares about the pots, in fact they seldom even notice them. Before the 80's Bonsai down here were exhibited in cake pans [ aluminium or iron] and anything else that could be used. Folk were amazed, that you could keep such trees alive in so little soil and the soil was some crap clay mix with stones and manure. Causes many problems with time.

When we upgraded, all the folk noticed were the greater variety of trees and that they were really local plants, not strange "Chinee" things.

As we increased their education, with soil mixes, and pots, wiring, all they continued to see was their memories.
Only folk trained in Art really see and fully appreciate design.

The seagrape is my memory, of as a young boy going to Mayaro, eating the so-called grapes, when the birds let you. I have a seagrape growing on the front lawn, so others can see it is a tree and not some poor windbeaten straggler on our windswept shores.
I doubt if I can do much more than increase the number of leaves and add on maybe a 10 more branches. Unless I find the one ------ that genetic seagrape, which branches well, and has leaves naturally at under 2" [ 5 cm ]
We have miles of seagrape and somewhere, out there it exists.

All of my trees are memories, and I will not push the training to the point of scarring them or in anyway treating them like plastercene. So I will never be a great Bonsaist. I preserve health.
Besides, I put it all into my vocation ---- Multifigurative Imaginative Oil painting.
That effort lasts.
Until.
Khaimraj

* Actually we have no pot problems. We have a scholar stone problem [ or do we ?]
There are a few stoneware wood and gas firing kilns, my largest kiln is also propane fired. I am just about to make plans to fire in two pieces a life-sized porcelain enamelled Guan Yen. My home-made test kiln is electric, where I do the goofy pots.

Stoneware glazes as I am sure you know are based on ash, clay and sand. We have feldspar type substances as well.

There is however, no demand visually or bonsai enthusiasts wise.
Still in a few years, I will be re-making many of my pots, but they will probably be based more closely on Yi-Xing, pear skin and low of colour glazes.

This is it, Khaimraj!
Respect the tree at every stage of our co-existence!
The tree is not ours, it is just being nursed and pampered by us.

Yes, Alexandra,

but that is not a very popular practice. In world supposedly going green and respecting nature, yadda yadda, trees are as plastercene.

I could give you a very sad one about a collected and battered seagrape.
Later.
Khaimraj

also in a few weeks, expect to see an Yvonne inspired Ficus b. re-do -chuckle.]

Khaimraj Seepersad wrote: ... ... In world supposedly going green and respecting nature, yadda yadda, trees are as plastercene.... ...

It is my belief that exactly this is the very cause of the disrespect!
Namely, the concept that the whole world - the nature is not a deed of God for the benefit of humanity as a whole, but rather our own property and possession which we can handle de jure by our own selfish and transient whishes.
But that's another story and of course Off Topic....