bonsai of Ceiba pentandra

Gourlé

Hello!
I have never seen a photo of Ceiba pentendra bonsai. I live in French Guyana and it's a very big tropical tree.
If you have a bonsai of that tree I'd like to see a photo.
Merci beaucoup
Sébastien Gourlé

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AlainK

Bonjour Sébastien,

The only photo I've found is a seedling rather than a bonsaï:

http://www.bonsai-collectables.com/list.html

It seems this tree (frangipanier) is difficult to grow as a potted plant according to some, but it is said to be popular in Vietnam from what I've read on this French forum:

http://www.parlonsbonsai.com/index....owtopic=9462&hl= (a current thread on the same topic)

Maybe someone knows the name in Vietnamese, this would help for a Google search...

HTH

...De rien

Alain

PS : "Parlons Bonsaï" est un très bon forum francophone.
You can also try these ones :
http://agorabonsai.forumactif.com/ (some of the members are from the "Antilles")
http://www.edgbonsai-fr.com/Forum/i...770cad36063eaf5
http://forum.alloforum.com/?id=2715
http://bonsaimi.apinc.org/SPIP/

Attila

AlainK,

The frangipanier is an entirely different tree. It is the Plumeria.

Gourle,

The Ceiba pentandra or Kapok tree has huge leaves and large fruit, so it definitely has to be trained as a very large bonsai. There is one growing next to my house in the Los Angeles County Arboretum, it is closely related to the Chorisia genus.

I have a few Chorisia in training for bonsai, they are very easy to grow as long as you use a very well draining soil and avoid waterlogging.

They can take almost any rootpruning and any heavy branch pruning, and easily adapt to pot culture.

I have never seen one in bonsai form myself, I may be one of the first ones .
My trees already have a 5 inch rootbase, in a year or two they will have a large enough trunk so that I can start putting them in groth boxes and start developing the branches.

During the first years of training you should forget about the branches and work to develop a good trunkline and great taper. This tree grows very fast, so if you start growing branches too early, the branches will become too thick. It can easily backbud when you cut them back, so developing branches later is no problem.

In my opinion this tree should be at least 4 feet tall as a bonsai in order to be effective, due to the large fruit and flowers.

As I said earlier, the above advice pertains to the Chorisia, but the characteristics of the Ceiba are very similar.

Regards,
Attila

AlainK

You're right!
Where did I get that idea from?
Well, never too late to learn...

Thanks for your info, as we say, I'll go to bed a little less stupid tonight.


Alain