A Large Kojo-no-mai

leatherback

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Yup, these are nice. I have one about this size growing out. Grow fast too. (Mine went from about 2 to 5 cm in 2 years ground growing). Nice find. In stores hey are often only the 2 year old cuttings.
 

Victorim

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Posted the tree on the British Bonsai Facebook page... became a shit storm. Normal reactions, few likes from notable peeps (Pavel Slovak as an example), newbies saying all sorts, but toxicity hit and there was fireworks between peeps...

Anyway long story short, some comments said were "kojo no mai make shit bonsai", "they dont devlop", "no bonsai masters use these", "have you seen one at nolanders? no!".. and this was from peeps 7-8 years in. One guy got quite mad and made another guy leave, who was well liked..

Whats with the hate for kojo no mai? Yes they are slow to develop, yes maby you wont ever exibition the tree and no you wont get elm like ramification..

Am I missing something here?
 

Sn0W

Shohin
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Just people being stupid, they get caught up in what's considered "proper" it's like they forget we're all in it for the beauty of the trees
 

Cattwooduk

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Eh people want to prove they know their shit by repeating things they read in bonsai rule book 101. Like loads of people on this forum have said though, if it's outside the box and you enjoy it then who cares what's considered 'proper' bonsai.
 

Paulpash

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Tbh this tree is extremely uncommon - thick trunks on a kojo no mai are like hen's teeth - most are finger sized twigs. I have only seen 2 more of similar size, both in the UK - mine and one from bonsai eejit in NI. Mine I bought about 15 years ago and it was in the ground for most of it. I dug it up 2 years ago and it is time to see if I can reduce the root mass enough to move it to a smaller pot.
 

Victorim

Omono
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Tbh this tree is extremely uncommon - thick trunks on a kojo no mai are like hen's teeth - most are finger sized twigs. I have only seen 2 more of similar size, both in the UK - mine and one from bonsai eejit in NI. Mine I bought about 15 years ago and it was in the ground for most of it. I dug it up 2 years ago and it is time to see if I can reduce the root mass enough to move it to a smaller pot.

That's why I've decided not layer the tops. Material that thickness can be easily obtained and I can't see anything that would be fantastic shape wise either.
 

keri-wms

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Very nice, I managed to get some big ones last winter, but not as big as this! The scale of the flowers is great. :)

A word of warning, take it easy with the repotting. I killed most of those ones from last year - 4 of 7 from memory. The main actual mistake was repotting them before they flowered, they initially seemed fine, flowered ....... then the flowers wilted and the trees died or at least died back HARD - to the trunk. Not frost or anything, I might have left too much compost in the rootball.....or maybe the opposite?!!

I've never lost trees so effectively since the first Mugo Pines I tried as a newbie.

So I think it's reasonable to suspect these have touchy roots in terms of timing, and also they might not withstand big rootball reductions either (would have to confirm that with testing).
 

leatherback

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I have only seen 2 more of similar size, both in the UK - mine and one from bonsai eejit in NI. M
Hm.. maybe I am mistaken in the size. But what is the size? I would have said about 2 inch trunk?

As said, i found these to grow quite fast, to be honest.
 

leatherback

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Hm. When i get to my growingplot, ill measure mine. In december when i did a lot of trimming i realized how fast it had grown but did not conciously check the size. Meybe here the darker cooler dutch climate helps.
 

Sn0W

Shohin
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Mine has twin 1" trunks so I'm hoping when I pull back the dirt in a week or so that there's a bigger trunk underneath. Thinking that I might just stick it in the ground and see how fast it develops
 

leatherback

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Who cares what other people think. If you like it then have fun and enjoy it.
Absolutely. It is interesting to find out though which species do well under which circumstances, right?
 

Sn0W

Shohin
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I saw a huge one of these in cadbury garden centre yesterday. Trunk must have been 3 - 4 inches and it was £160. They look amazing when they flower anyway but seeing one that big was impressive. They had some huge euonymus alatas for about the same price. My big one is just starting to pop, will post some pictures when the sun comes back out
 
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