Trees in pots... (from Acer I.D.)

[ranunculus]

Apologies Mark ... we seem to have hijacked your acer thread ... hope you get the information that you requested.

[mark smyth]

No problem. All threads go astray.

[Maggi Young]

Mark, as you may remember, we have some small cement troughs which have had acers living in them for nearly thirty years. These are only now beginning to look badly done by!
I'd say get any young acer you like the look off and plant it........ then, as  you say, "torture" it in the bonsai fashion as and when needed. What we did with ours was to plant 'em amd leave 'em! Bit of renewal of top surface every ten years or so, some feeding and, in most years, some watering in the summer. Really no work at all and we have been rewarded by a fabulous display over all these years.
I believe that it has been lack of attention to watering in the last couple of years which has lead to their present decline 
I'll measure the containers later and post the sizes and look for pix of the plants to show .

[t00lie]

  Fabulous form - is it in cultivation?

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Probably being grown up country by some of the Canterbury people Cliff.
If i remember correctly Celmisia incana was listed in the NZAGS seedx a year or two back.

I haven't collected seed as it's at the other end of the South Island.

Cheers dave.

[Lesley Cox]

  Fabulous form - is it in cultivation?

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I haven't collected seed as it's at the other end of the South Island.

Cheers dave.

But that won't stop you this coming summer Dave. On yer bike lad.

[mark smyth]

The garden owner, Margaret Glynn, told me last night the Celmisia came from Susan Tindall. I just phoned her to see if she has any but sadly she doesnt. She suggests Ian Christie.

[ranunculus]

Many thanks for taking the time and trouble to enquire, Mark ... hopefully I will see Ian at the SRGC Conference this weekend.

[Maggi Young]

Mark, as you may remember, we have some small cement troughs which have had acers living in them for nearly thirty years. These are only now beginning to look badly done by!
I'd say get any young acer you like the look off and plant it........ then, as  you say, "torture" it in the bonsai fashion as and when needed. What we did with ours was to plant 'em amd leave 'em! Bit of renewal of top surface every ten years or so, some feeding and, in most years, some watering in the summer. Really no work at all and we have been rewarded by a fabulous display over all these years.
I believe that it has been lack of attention to watering in the last couple of years which has lead to their present decline 
I'll measure the containers later and post the sizes and look for pix of the plants to show .

 Having trouble finding pix of the acers in containers.... here is a scanned slide, from the mid  to late 1980s ..... that bit of garden looks very young then!  You can see the acers around the pond, which is between the sculpture on the  middle left and the pergola.

[Maggi Young]

And here is an acer in apot.... this time one which was growing as a tree in the garden and which has been adapted to be a bonsai type... here is what Ian wrote about it in a bulblog...

Acer in pot

It is not just bulbs that I grow in pots - I have had this Acer growing in a pot for over ten years now. I raised it from seed and it started out in the garden but as always I was too ambitious with the number of trees that I planted so when it reached three meters high I decided that it had to go or be moved - not having any space to move it too I decided to try and cut it down to grow in a pot. I first cut around the roots about 30 cms from the trunk and then I also cut the trunk down to about 30cms in height. It was around this time of year that I lifted the root ball and trimmed all the roots back so they would fit into the pot. The plant had all winter to start making some new roots and in the spring I watched the sawn off trunk with anticipation for any signs of growth buds developing - which they did in abundance. I reduced the number of new growths and only kept the ones I needed to create a tree shape in small scale and every year I reduce the new growth to one growth bud. It is only a Bonsai in t
hat sense of the word that it is a tree growing in a pot. In a way I treated the dug-up-trunk and cut-back roots like a bulb.

[Ragged Robin]

Great idea for small space and all the benefits of change of season colour I was wondering if it would work with Sorbus cashmiriana as a bonsai?

[mark smyth]

Very nice and a sure winner at a bonsai competition

I saw plant labelled as Red Pygmy at a garden centre yesterday but it didnt look like the plant in the photos at the start. I did see what I thought was Red Pygmy but it had another name. Maybe these plants are as mixed up as bulbs.

[mark smyth]

RR I would also consider torturing a Sorbus in a pot.

[Maggi Young]

As well as a number of more "genuine" bonsai that Ian grows, I also have kept a copper beech in a pot for about 20 years.... it's lovely ..... less than four feet high, including its container!

Given some extra feeding on occasion and attention to watering, I see no reason not to attempt any manner of woody subjects in pot or troughs.    A chum has a lovely oak tree in a container on a terrace - I'll try to get  photo before the leaves drop!

[ranunculus]

... And I have kept a very large Salix reticulata in a pot for many a moon (it's dead mind you)!!   

[Maggi Young]

... And I have kept a very large Salix reticulata in a pot for many a moon (it's dead mind you)!!  

That's cheating, Cliff, and does not count!