Black Olive Flowers (Bucida spinosa)

clrosner

Susieq:
Yes, I have a Bahama Cherry, and love the delicate flowers... If I am able, to upload, here are two pictures taken September 13, 2007.

Warmest regards to all!

Carl

Attached Images

	BARBADOS CHERRY 01 070913 a.jpg (58.7 KB, 25 views)
	BARBADOS CHERRY 01 070913 detail A.jpg (49.3 KB, 12 views)

__________________
Carl L. Rosner - near Atlantic City zone 6/7
arteacher3725@yahoo.com

CHECK OUT MY UPDATED WEBSITE AT[B]:
www.carlrosner.com

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susieq

Lovely Carl...... how tall is that one? That appears to the the same thing I have been calling Barbados Cherry. Is this the Malpigghia glabra?

I love working with them and have learned to loose coil wire them when they are still green and flexible. You can do amazing things with them. But they are very brittle and break easily when they get woody but are still small. Every now and then I will go out to my shelves to find that a bird had probably tried to land on one of the smaller branches and snapped it off. Luckily, they bud back on old growth and I can usually get another branch pretty close to where that one came off. I have some cascades in training and also some very informal uprights.

I like the prickly cousin, Singapore Holly, also. I have managed to get some pretty good sized trunks on those. I will try to post some pics after the holidays...

clrosner

Susieq:
My face is red! It must be my (old) mind, since I called it wrong. This is the Barbados Cherry! ...and yes, you are right. see the attached URL:

http://www.bonsai-bci.com/species/malpighia.html

My tree is about 10 or 11 inches tall. I haven't measured it lately....

__________________
Carl L. Rosner - near Atlantic City zone 6/7
arteacher3725@yahoo.com

CHECK OUT MY UPDATED WEBSITE AT[B]:
www.carlrosner.com

susieq

Hi Carl,
Thanks for the link..... actually, Marian Borchers and I used to be members of the same club years ago.....the club died off unfortunately. Reading the discriptions of the different Malpighias, the last one sound more like what we have. Did you ever just let your tree grow wild to see what happened? They get very weepy....very willow like. I don't find this attractive and prefer to keep them trimmed up, compact, which helps to promote more branching.

The care of them in that article is interesting too. My potted one year old cuttings have been in full sun for a good deal of the day during the summer and look very robust. In the winter I pull them off the shelf and put all the tropicals onto little flat bed garden wagons where they live during the cold season. Unless there is a freeze or frost warning they stay outside....except for the olive. I bring him in if it gets below 48. The colder temps above freezing have never seemed to harm the "piggies" or the Fukien Teas.

This year I also have a dozen or so button wood cuttings from the trimmings of my late teacher's collected trees that I still help care for. They are under glass right now. (I use old 10 gallon aquariums upside down as covers for my cutting beds) I am hoping that with the glass over them, they can stay out during the lower temps but if we get a freeze warning, the nursery flats that I use as cutting beds will have to come inside too.

I see that you are in New Jersey. How on earth do you keep tropicals during the winter? It sounds like you are partial to them so I am thinking you probably have quite a few...... Do you have a green house? If so, lucky you.
What other tropicals to you grow?
Susieq

clrosner

Hi Susieq:

you said:"Did you ever just let your tree grow wild to see what happened? They get very weepy....very willow like."

No, I have never allowed the tree to go wild. Every Sunday and Monday, (I have no painting students on those two days) I try to prune-to-shape all my tropicals. By the way, if you check the last line of my signature, you will see the URL for the Gulfstream Bonsai Journal web site. If you read the Autumn issue, I have several articles in the initial issue of that magazine. One in particular is on page 35. It is an article about my "Tree house".

I have limited space for my tropicals, which number about 40. I have one rain tree left, four or five Bougainvilleas, four Wrightia religosa, two Buttonwood, several Ficus retusa and one Ficus salicfolia 89 (from Jim Smith), several others beside the ones mentioned in these posts. I am "playing" with two Phempis acidula, which I am raising from seed, as well as several Fukien Teas including a 15 tree forest, which all the trees came from seeds from my first tree (which I still have).

Obviously, I am "stuck" on tropicals!

warmest regards,

Carl

__________________
Carl L. Rosner - near Atlantic City zone 6/7
arteacher3725@yahoo.com

CHECK OUT MY UPDATED WEBSITE AT[B]:
www.carlrosner.com

susieq

Carl,
I should say you ARE stuck on tropicals.... Sounds like a real nice collection.
So, your Fukien Tea plants breed like rabbits too? I have had to start pulling the seedlings as I would pull weeds. What on earth can one do with all those plants? I would go broke trying to pot them all...

Thank you for the link to the tropical magazine. I actually did go there when it was first mentioned on this site. It is a lovely production and now that you mention it, I do remember reading about your tree house. In a year or two, we plan to move to the Smokey Mountains (probably Tenn) and I will need to have a green house to keep the tropicals in the winter.

You are an art teacher? Oils? I work in a different medium. I have been a wood carver for some years now. My website is www.susanmattix.com
I still work part time as a legal secretary but am planning on leaving that position this coming year sometime to carve full time.

I guess bonsai is a natural draw for people with creative urges.
I have enjoyed our exchange here. Have a wonderful holiday and we will talk again.
Sincerely,
Susan