Australian brush cherry

Is it ok to style a cherry this time of year? In zone 6 btw, boston area.

Are you talking about Eugenia (or Syzygium, think the name was recently changed)? How much styling are you contemplating - lots of cutting, just wiring, repotting...

I have one data point for you - in a class last September or October, one of the plants we worked on was dwarf brush cherry. It was in a 1 gal nursery pot, and it got the "full workup". We unpotted and did major root reduction, and potted into a bonsai pot. Also did lots of top pruning and full wiring. The tree bounced back with incredible vigor and grew strongly throughout the winter. I had it under fluorescents along with a jaboticaba, both did very well...and are still doing well. They've been brought inside and will be trimmed and wired in the next week or two.

Chris

I wouldn't do roots on a tropical or sub-tropical now BUT in about a month I'll wire everything that comes indoors, winter in my opinion, is a great time to wire tropicals to help avoid wiring scars..Plus it gives you something to do with your trees..

Chris- I always stayed away from Eugenia because of its hatred for hard water even though I LOVE them. The poor thing would only suffer through the dry wood-stove heated, lime watery, winter I would be forced to torture it with.
-Jay

Jay, if you start collecting rainwater, then that will remove one of the excuses you listed! I don't know how dry your conditions are - but I didn't use any humidification last winter, though I sometimes sprayed the plants and vicinity with water. Didn't really pay attention to the humidity levels...the room the plants are in is fairly cool, mainly 50s at night, 60s during day, so the humidity may not have been very low. I'll have to pay attention this winter.

I agree about the repotting...as for the wiring scars...brush cherry was OK during the winter but the jaboticaba grew enough that the wire started cutting in by the end of the winter.

Chris

my house gets near 32-37% humidity if you can believe it, thats desert dry. It's tough on the plants but thats wood heat for ya. I think the Eugenia had pretty demanding humidity issues as well that kept me away. Unless I start melting snow for clean water (which trust me is a thought I've had recently) all the trees need to live with my hard water for at least the winter. They do ok, but most of the severe calcifuge plants go dormant so they only need a splash here and there during the winter months and make do fine. I tend to shy away from species that I have doubts about with regard to their up-keeping. I work with stuff I KNOW I can keep thriving, I'm not good enough yet to branch out into the "special needs" trees but I'm getting there. I may revisit the eugenia again soon.