5-year Native Tree Challenge - Balbs’ Ninebark

Balbs

Shohin
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Middlesex county, Massachusetts
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Well, here goes. Saw this at a local nursery in the clearance area today. 15 bucks. I loved the bark and trunk movement.
 

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Danteswake

Yamadori
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Central Florida West Coast
USDA Zone
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I am looking forward to this conversation. I wanted to get a Diablo but wasnt sure it would work. Kinda like a Bougainvillea in a sense. Wild and sexy Please update progress.
 

Balbs

Shohin
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Middlesex county, Massachusetts
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Foliage is a little more coarse than a spirea, from what I can tell. Although the long leggy growth seems quite similar. I’ve been doing some reading today and it seems it’s part of the rose family. And, actually, up close, the wood and bark is really similar to some knockout roses I have.
 

Danteswake

Yamadori
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Central Florida West Coast
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So whats the plan to control the legs? Im trying to control my Bougie, which grows crazy legs with no guarantee of back buds. It does but not in the right places. Ninebark are amazing and would really like to know how to tame them.
 

Woocash

Omono
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Nice find. What is the species name of this plant? I’ve never really heard of ninebark and us foreigners might call it something else.
 

Balbs

Shohin
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Middlesex county, Massachusetts
USDA Zone
6A
So whats the plan to control the legs?
Wish I had one! One thought I had was, since the trunk is so wide and squat, perhaps I can try and make sort of a sumo style with a broom canopy. Perhaps repeated trimming of the legs back to a profile would bring the foliage closer to the trunk. I just have no idea how it would respond to that. I get the feeling that selecting a few primary branches and fighting this plants natural habit won’t work well.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
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on the IL-WI border, a mile from ''da Lake''
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My plan would be to bring it down to 3 or 2 or 1 trunks. Just from the photo, I think a single trunk is possible, but I'm not seeing the tree in person. Nice find.

Physocarpus opulifolius ‘SMNPOTWG’ would be the correct registered clonal name. Its trademark name is 'Tiny Wine' Gold', which can also be written Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Tiny Wine Gold' and the trademarked name will lead you to the registered clonal name.

The name implies it is a dwarf variety, probably found as a sport in propagation beds of 'Diabo' or one of the other dwarf and colored forms of the species.

It is a wide spread species, native to most states, or at least 30 some or more states in USA and 2 provinces in Canada. There have been a few shown at bonsai shows if memory serves me correct, and it is occasionally mentioned as a native North American species whose bonsai potential should be explored or exploited more often.
 

Balbs

Shohin
Messages
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Location
Middlesex county, Massachusetts
USDA Zone
6A
Update. The roots were an incredible dense fine matte, so I removed an aggressive amount. The tree has been slow to leaf out, but it’s getting there. We’ll see how the season progresses. I’m fairly confident that most of the branches will come back. 2A6B246F-7CAA-4FC1-A8E1-6D18AE37AD26.jpeg8C47D8C0-BDB0-42C4-81C1-16E675A5F3D6.jpegRight now it’s in an Erin pot, but obviously I’ll have to change that in a few years and find the right one.
 

HorseloverFat

Squarepants with Conkers
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View attachment 388004
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Update pictures. It’s growing strongly lately. Next spring I’ll have to cut it down much shorter, but for now she can get fat and happy.
Looking good!
The fella that I became recently acquainted with has been doing bonsai up here for practically his whole life, works heavily in ninebarks.

I like that pot.
 

Balbs

Shohin
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Location
Middlesex county, Massachusetts
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works heavily in ninebarks
Supposedly they have a lot of dieback. This one did, though I pruned the roots hard so that could be why. I’d be curious to understand how he deals with that.
I like that pot
Thanks! Me too. Not American, though.
 

HorseloverFat

Squarepants with Conkers
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Supposedly they have a lot of dieback. This one did, though I pruned the roots hard so that could be why. I’d be curious to understand how he deals with that.
I will speak with him the next time I’m out there.. I am going to pick up that Acer Tegmentosum ‘white tigress” i’ve been eying up. (I’m “curious” about it ;) )
Thanks! Me too. Not American, though.
Pots can “be” tourists!

🤣🤣🤣
 
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