scheffelaria bonsai: need tips

16 years ago

So I have this one that I did a few years ago. It has some interesting thick trunk action down low, but the tops grow so well they unbalance the plant eventually. With a Scheff, is it necessary to keep cutting back or is there another solution to keep the plant in bounds? Or maybe Scheffs are not ideal bonsai material? I do have another scheff that is growing on a rock that was a gift from a friend in Hawaii. It seems to grow more slowly. Thanks for any input. Another picture is below the first one.

{{gwi:19395}}

In fact, here are the cuttings taken from the first pictured plant. One plant is growing down, then back under and up! Certainly vigorous. I'm not trying to bonsai these 2 even though they are in bonsai pots. Scheffs sure are hardy and easy to grow.

{{gwi:19396}}

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Comments (2)

larke
16 years ago
Hi, while they're not traditional bonsai, everyone usually has tried one (and lots succeed). In the first picture, you might want to just cut out some of the trunks and let energy be concentrated in fewer (of an uneven number - more interesting that way). The one growing between two other trunks is kinda weird, though it's your tree of course. You could try getting both plants to put out less leggy growth by providing a ton of high light all day long, just a few inches from their tops (T5 fluorescents make good ones). And the bottom tree could use a haircut (again, your choice of course). What you want to do (don't you?) is grow them in wide, if not deep containers now, to fatten the trunks as much as possible - not something that'll happen soon in a little bonsai pot. Also make sure drainage is very fast and watering infrequent at best.
napapen
15 years ago
The ones from Hawaii are dwarf scheffelaria. Fuku bonsai
is the source On the big Island in Curtistown.

Penny
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