Oregon Myrtlewood as bonsai?

weeble

I have seen posts from a few people who mentioned that they had Oregon Myrtlewood they were trying to bonsai, but nothing about the results! Do they work out? My question is, will the leaves ever get smaller, or am I stuck with the large leaves?

A few weeks ago I dug one up and chopped the snot out of it (it was 8ft tall and growing in a rhody hedge) and potted it up in a 4gal. pot. Even though there's not a lot of movement in the trunk yet, it has a wonderful burly base about the size of a baseball, tapering up to a trunk about 1 1/2 inches thick. So far I have chopped it down from 8 ft to about 2 ft, leaving the bottom three branches, and so far its doing well. A few buds are breaking where I want them for a new leader and such - eventually I'll chop the existing trunk down to about 6 inches, if it works out! All the roots are below the burly lump, I've scored the bark and used rooting hormone on the cuts to (hopefully!) get some nebari roots! I removed the majority of the old roots, leaving just a few feeder roots. Here's a few pics after the butcherage.

Weeble

Attached Images

	myrtlewood2.jpg (59.7 KB, 28 views)
	myrtlewood3.jpg (64.4 KB, 34 views)

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Meowinator

I won't be of much help, but I'll add to your comments that I can find little solid info on them as bonsai (yet).

I don't currently have pics of it, but the one given to me by a dear friend who discovered my avid interest in bonsai has a 'unique' trunk structure. It's still potted, and I imagine it will be 2-3 more years before I convert it. I haven't tried any defoliation (it is in a smaller pot than it should be) even though it's healthy, so I don't know about making leaves smaler.

It has a 'twin trunk' but it isn't split off at the base. Instead, it looks as if it's two separate trees; from soil level they go outward from the same spot (side by side) at a 90 degree angle, then both go straight up. I'm debating if this is suitable or not for bonsai work.

I'd love to hear more about Oregon myrtlewood, so hopefully someone will speak up.