Wild Plum

FredL

OK, here comes my first Show and Tell submission. At least, in modern times. Lighting is poor but I'm eager to get started.

The tree is a wild plum, specifically a Chickasaw Plum, native to this area, but not common. This one and 4 or 5 others like it was collected Feb 1903. It was collected from a fairly large copse of trees that turned out to all have one common root system. The result was that they all came up with a kind of T-bar root and no fine roots at all. Rather like bare root fruit trees. I had no idea whether any would live or not, but all did, sprouting lots of fine roots at the end of the T-bars, creating very undesirable root systems last Summer which I pruned back severely at the beginning of this growing season when I repotted all of them.

The trees started out "Broom Stick" style, with bare trunks and little in the way of usable branches. All are back-budding very well as well as suckering from the base of their trunks.

This year, they continued to sucker and develop more branches. With the roots pruned back close to the trunks, they are also showing signs of developing pretty decent nebari. Although none are anything like suitable material for initial styling as Bonsai, I am delighted with the progress they are showing and, with 8 years left in the 10 year time frame I started with them in, I have great hope for them. Once the root systems are stabilized, I'll think about working on the trunks with some sort of hollowing out process. The growth habit is very straight and jagged, so I feel that most of their development will be clip and grow.

This Spring, a few of the delicate white flowers they display in the Spring on mature trees showed on two of them, Their flowers, as well as the red plums that develop on mature trees, I expect to be among their hilites.

All comments are welcome, Fred

PS Just found out my file is, once again, too big. Will send pics along as soon as I get back from taking my son to his friend's birthday. The sound you hear in the background is the gnashing of my teeth!!!

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FredL

OK, let's try this again. And, yes, that should have been Feb 2003 that the tree was collected.

Fred

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FredL

OK, doesn't look like anybody's going to say anything about my Plum.

So, what would John say?

"Thanks for sharing your Plum with us, Fred. As you say, it's pretty early in the game with it, but you're off to a good start. As it continues to age continue to work with the branch ramification and roots, raising it a little higher in the soil as the roots develop to develop the nebari. The idea about doing some wood carving in the future is excellent; think about trees in old orchards to help form an idea of how to do that. You might want to slant the trunk at, say, a 20 to 30 degree angle to contribute to that line of development. And, yes, these trees do not accept the curving style that a Maple looks best with; jagged is the right idea.

Your comments on the blossoms and fruit are right on target. These trees are at their best in bloom and the contrast between the rugged, jagged branches and hollow trunks and the beauty of the blossoms on older specimens is the vision to shoot for. Another 8 years on this specimen should bring you a long way in that direction if you employ them well.

And, do try to improve the quality of your pictures. This isn't so bad for a first effort, but the quality of our advice does depend alot on the quality of the pictures you send in and we would like to help you as much as we can.".

Why, thank you, John. I guess you really didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, but, coming from you, I sure feel good about this whole Bonsai thing!

Fred

ianb

Fred,

I know what you are going through, though you are probably further along than me, I picked up a prunus mume this spring which is basically a foot long cylinder with straight shoots all over it. Definitely a long term job.

My plans are to try and layer a couple of plants off the top then cut to the lowest shoot to try and get some movement in the trunk, then its into the garden bed for quite a few years (probably 5, will have to see). With strong growth and selective pruning I expect to get a serviceable start on some nice trees with decent movement. Then they will be potted up to work on branch structure and carving of the trunks to try and emulate the really nice japanese ones. Then I just have to wait another 30 years or so for some nice rugged bark Don't you just love Bonsai.

Cheers
Ian

heymikey(deceased)

heyFred; I would have expected a little bit larger trunk on a tree that has been in a grow box for over a 100 years. Seriously, my guess is that 95% of the forum members have never seen or heard of a Chickasaw Plum prior to your mentioning them. I have spent numerous hours in nurseries and perusing texts and I don't recall ever seeing one. That probably limits the field of qualified advice givers. I have a purple-leafed p. Cerasifera in my yard and a p. Mume in a container both of which are prone to basal suckering (pruning seems to exacerbate the suckering response). Apparently Chickasaw is prunus angustifolia and is described as an ornamental (profuse white flowers followed by 1" fruit) often multi-stemmed shrub or small tree which wild animals love to eat. None of the pictures I saw on Google showed very large trunks. If they are prevalent in your area and since you had such success collecting them I would seek some larger trunked specimens (they probably are excellent trunk chop candidates). This way you would end up with a trunk large enough to support some carving work while you're waiting for the smaller ones to develop. Regards, heyMikey!!

TreeBay

Hi Fred,

First time I've seen it, but here's my opinion:

Development really depends on how big the final tree is going to be. If it were to be very small, I could see chopping the trunk back and using the first two branches as apex and first branch. Maybe a change in planting angle, too. (attachment)


If it were to be developed into a larger tree, I would definitely plant the trunk at an angle /
Having it planted straight up and down really limits your options down the road to basically a broom style.
And, I'd probably put it in the ground to develop more quickly.

Good luck,

Matt

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Emperor Fish

Fred,

I think that your 8 year to fruition (apologies!) timeline can be compressed by a few years for this tree.

Matt's idea of a trunk chop is excellent and you could work the chopped area into your deadwood design also.

I see the tree inclined the other way, and planted in a fairly deep, petal shaped pot. I would like to have a go at this tree - it has subtle potential that you may not have realised.

You'll have to forgive the quality of the virtual, technology restrictions.

Regards,

Fish.

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FredL

Thanks very much for the comments, all. Really something to think about. With about 5 of them rather similar to this one, certainly the idea of a radical trunk chop seems like something to try with at least one.

It seems to me that I have seen fruit trees similar to this with rather tall, taperless trunks which have alot of wood whittled away, like old trees in an orchard with trunks that have had alot of decay and woodpecker (I suppose) damage. I think 2 or 3 of mytrunks are thick enough to support something like that.

I'm going to take my young friend Wes (Orn to all of you) to take a look at this copse of trees. Some of the inner trees are pretty big (for this species) and there are many more loke the trees I collected. The trouble with collecting in Bella Vista is that the pace of development is becoming so fast that real nice trees that are in the road right of way are here today and gone tomorrow (the POA has no problem with such trees being collected - in fact, they welcome it).

I really want to thank all of you for helping me with such poor quality photos.

Fred

FredL

Ian, I just reread your commnets and wanted to say that you may be surprised at how rapidly trees grow in growbeds. I know mine have been. One thing I'd suggest you consider is rotating you trees between growbed and pot or box. Root systems tend to develop poorly in growbeds and rotating them gives you a chance to correct the root systems before they get totally out of control. I've been rotating mine or at least digging them up, pruning their roots and replanting them every year. Attila recommends leaving them in their growbeds for two years befor repotting. I think he's been working with older trees for which repotting is more traumatic than it has been with my trees, up to now. I also suspect that root correction becomes less severe after the initial tap root has been cut.

Incidentally, got a compliment from an unexpected source this morning, my wife as we were out walking the dogs. She told me my trees look MUCH better this year than last year at this time and are actually beginning to look like Bonsai! Can you believe it!!

Well, what man cares what his critics say on BonsaiTalk if he can be a hero to his wife and Kids!

Fred