Antelope Bitterbrush

[Enfield Snapper]

I dug up this tiny antelope bitterbrush (purshia tridentata) in July while visiting my parents in the desert of southwest Washington. It's only about 3-4 inches tall. I didn't take any pictures of the roots, but they were about a foot long with feeders only on the ends. I didn't get all of them, either. I wasn't sure how it would react to collection, but I kind of coiled the long roots and put it into a 5 inch deep pot with 100% sand, which was the best I had available.



In September we had all the fires in Oregon. The temperatures dropped by about 20F and the little bitterbrush got confused. It dropped all its leaves and just went to sleep. I was a little worried about that. But here it is without leaves.



Fortunately it just started waking up. Sand is really hard to judge for watering and I was curious to see whether it would produce any roots higher up with more water regularly available to it, so it got its first repot a couple days ago.



This is about 10 times the root mass it had when I dug it up, so I was really happy with the results. I reduced it to the clump of roots at the top and put it in a 1/4 gallon fabric grow pot (which is shallower than the original but still oversized) of diatomaceous earth and pumice. It will probably stay there for the next couple years unless it gets unruly.

 

[Enfield Snapper]

I meant southeast Washington. The southwest is definitely not desert.

 

[moke]

Nice, They grow all around my location in Utah and I am always looking for a smaller one for collection but haven't had luck with finding any that look collectable. I did start a bunch of Purshia Stansburiana from seed last spring that are doing well they are very similar to the tridentata, but man I wish I could find something around the size you have there. Hopefully it lives for you, keep us updated, I'll be watching this thread for sure. I think they have good potential for bonsai, good luck.

 

[Enfield Snapper]

haven't had luck with finding any that look collectable. I did start a bunch of Purshia Stansburiana from seed

I'm interested in seeing what you have so far.
I also tried to collect a sagebrush (artemisia tridentata) and that failed spectacularly - they have to go super deep at my parents' house to get any water at all. I didn't get any feeders and it seemed to be dead before I even got back to Portland. If you have the means, layering might be a good way to collect. Sagebrush and bitterbrush both groundlayer naturally.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Cool! I was completely unfamiliar with this species.

 

[Enfield Snapper]

Cool! I was completely unfamiliar with this species.

Strangely I was too, until this last summer. I didn't really get interested in plants until a year ago, so I always just saw these as sagebrush, which is very similar. But I'm actually really excited about this one.

 

[moke]

I'm interested in seeing what you have so far.
I also tried to collect a sagebrush (artemisia tridentata) and that failed spectacularly - they have to go super deep at my parents' house to get any water at all. I didn't get any feeders and it seemed to be dead before I even got back to Portland. If you have the means, layering might be a good way to collect. Sagebrush and bitterbrush both groundlayer naturally.

I’ll share some pics soon of the seedlings and a pic of an awesome sagebrush I collected a year ago as well, I’ve also noticed a lot of the bitterbrush branches touching the ground have rooted, I’m still looking for the one worth collecting. I’ve also considered layering one as well.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Definitely NOT a house plant nor repotting season. Why these 2 mistakes?

 

[Enfield Snapper]

Definitely NOT a house plant nor repotting season. Why these 2 mistakes?

It's not inside and it has never has been. I'm not sure why you thought it was. If it had been, the smoke in September would have been irrelevant.

I understand that it's early. I mentioned that it was waking up already. It's not the first of my trees or landscape trees in my area to do so. If it turns out to have been a mistake to repot, then it was a mistake. But you know what? I started bonsai a year ago. It's expected.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Definitely NOT a house plant nor repotting season. Why these 2 mistakes?

Haha! IS there a bad season for re-potting in Oregon?

Just playing.

 

[moke]

Here's the Purshia Stansburiana seedling pics I promised and almost forgot until I spotted them in the shed today, they aren't much to look at right now but give them 100 years then we'll see.