#BonsaiNews: Some will call it murder, I called it grace
IMAGINE spending your entire life in darkness, wallowing away in the deepest, darkest corner of cold, bitter emptiness only to be chopped and reduced to the earth once every so few years.
In fact, the object I am referring to was reduced to equal level of the earth twice in the last 15 years and, before it's first great reduction had been much larger and taller - the object referenced is a Bougainvillea and, according to the former owners of the property, had been growing in the garden since before they owned the property for 10 years.
Estimates put the tree's age at around 25 to 30 years and since Sunday afternoon, this poor creation had been hiding away in a dark corner of our property for far too long.
Now, as rude and disgusting as it may seem to many, I shoveled and shoveled and shoveled until I could safely removed this tree from the earth for the purpose of Urban Yamadori - Yamadori is a bonsai term which basically means 'taken from the mountains (or wild)'.
This terms has changed somewhat over the years and now is mostly relevant as Urban Yamadori as not many people actually remove age-old-bonsai-potential-trees from the wild but, rather their gardens or gardens of neighbors and friends.
I gathered everything I would need, including as brutal as it may seem, an axe. All in all, 25 minutes were spent plotting the careful removal and some 10 minutes were spent on removing various non bougainvillea related neighboring growth before I could start working on removing the vine growth and large thorns the actual plant had grown over the years.
Now, pre-working on the removal of the bougainvillea, I set on finding a suitable container in which to place the tree once I had removed it from the ground.
A cleaned and washed bucket which had previously contained pool acid was used and a mixture of pebbles, peat moss, akadama soil were used as a base-mix at the bottom of the bucket which I had added drainage holes to using a heated screwdriver.
The peat moss (forgot to mention that I added sphagnum moss as well) will ensure that moisture levels remain consistent in the lower parts of the bucket for when I am not able to water the tree due to strange working hours as of late.
Again, fast-forward and the tree has been removed with almost no tiny feeder roots so, a root growing agent was added to the mix.
The remaining open space in the bucket was filled using a mixture of soils which will aid the tree in its recovery. A large stone was also later added to allow spacing between the two larger branches which have grown quite snug to each other.
With bougainvillea, the potential as bonsai is practically limitless.
Being that the tree I removed from the ground has almost always grown completely in the shade with an extremely limited source of natural feed from water and sunlight, it has never produced any flower growth. Hopefully, once fully recovered the tree will one day produce some flowers and I'll actually know for certain what color flower it produces.
Anyone who would like to offer advice in terms of future styling tips are welcome to do so.
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So the story did not end and we can expect its second and third part as and when it would happen, is it so?
Bougainvillea is a universal tree, even in my country there can be seen so many such trees and flowers that covered like an umbrella in many places.
Getting to know such stuff here is make people to have a look at their surrounding too.. You could add one or two pictures of the whole area with the tree before cutting.
And the sunrise snap looks really good too..
Thank you for the feedback. Yes, there will be more follow-ups to come in time, probably going to be a while though. I saw that the bougainvillea had started pushing out tiny new growth this morning - probably just because it has a lot more energy now being that all of the previous growth had been removed.
They most certainly are a beautiful species indeed. I probably should have added more photos showing the area but it looks pretty much the same as the initial pictures.
Yes, that sunrise is marvelous, thank you.
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Hey, what is this white powder on the roots? Rooting hormone?
Kind of, but no. It works almost the same as a rooting hormone but aids more in preventing root rot. We're getting a lot of rain as of late and with all of the peat and sphagnum I put in, I thought it'd be wise to think ahead to prevent possible infection, especially since the tree is in recovery at the moment.
PS. I'm actually glad you saw the article. I'm looking for advice design wise for this tree in the years to come. I want to remove the second growing branch in the long run and also strip the upper parts of the two tallest branches and then allow the tree to shoot out side growth about just after midway up and, then form a canopy with the two 'white horns' sticking out at the top. Thoughts?
I tried to reply to this but I kept getting an error, and the comment was lost. I think Steampeak dropped my login.
Anyway, here are two images I painted using your tree as a guide.
Personally, I think I would be fun to train this tree into a cascade tree, removing a large branch every year or two. Eventually it would resemble a waterfall cascading down multiple rock steps, and making for an ancient looking tree. In the upward style, I would let multiple trunks grow, and train the lateral branches to form a traditional cloud shaped dome, and perhaps some lower tiered branches too to look like a delicate downward stream.
Thanks for the awesome feedback. I honestly didn't think about that. This monster is quite heavy at the moment so I am concerned about it popping out of the bucket.
Think I could maybe create a support system with some of the nearby pillars using some rope and wire to allow it to get into that cascade position and perhaps cut a shape into another bucket which I could then cover the other bucket with and then add more soil which should further weigh down on the trunk, adding more counter weight.
I really love the cascade idea. Initially, I didn't think it would be very much possible at the moment but, I'll definitely see what I can get going at the moment.
Will make for a cool follow up article. Thanks a million.
Bury the whole thing, pot and all, into a pile if it's wobbly.
Good luck taming the monster.
Thanks, I certainly need it. It's not wobbly as much as it is very heavy and lacking the support from most of the roots now being gone. I'll see what I can get done.
I have to go and collect a younger bougainvillea now which I completely forgot about. Can't remember the exact name of the species but, it's got that lovely pale grey/white wood with the soft pink flowers.