King Edward VII Flowering Currant

[Redwood Ryan]

Bought this for a whole $5 at the local nursery. It flowers, it fruits, and it is compact. I believe this is the website for it:

http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/2309/king-edward-vii-flowering-currant.php

Anyway, here is the shrub. Anyone ever even heard of it? I'm wondering whether or not I can repot it now. I plan on keeping it as a shohin. It has some decent nebari, but I won't really be able to show it until I repot. Any thoughts?

First bought:

After some pruning of the dead branches:

The leaf, which will hopefully reduce:

Ryan

 

[mcpesq817]

You might want to head to the National Arboretum this weekend for the annual bonsai spring show. You can get a lot of good material in the price range you have been buying your trees for. Not to mention, the material is traditional bonsai material, and not random species that might not be bonsai'able.

 

[Redwood Ryan]

Yes I plan on going tomorrow. This was only $5 and it couldn't hurt to try some styling on it. Who says it can't be used.

 

[mcpesq817]

I didn't say it can't be used. I just think money is usually better spent on material that is traditionally used. Quick google image search on currant bonsai comes up with very few instances - a couple nice ones, but they had a lot of character.

You can probably get a lot more mileage out of a trident maple or chinese elm or cotoneaster at that price. Just saying.

 

[Redwood Ryan]

I didn't say it can't be used. I just think money is usually better spent on material that is traditionally used. Quick google image search on currant bonsai comes up with very few instances - a couple nice ones, but they had a lot of character.

You can probably get a lot more mileage out of a trident maple or chinese elm or cotoneaster at that price. Just saying.

Yes you are correct and I couldn't agree more.

 

[rockm]

You also might want to pop it up in the pot to take a look at the roots. The soil looks like its a mess...

 

[Redwood Ryan]

You also might want to pop it up in the pot to take a look at the roots. The soil looks like its a mess...

I agree that the soil is awful, but I am unsure about whether or not I could repot this thing. I guess it wouldn't hurt to do it now....

 

[Greg Brenden]

Here's one I collected from the wild 3 yrs ago and potted in a bonsai pot this spring. It's the same species you've got and I think Monrovia just tacked on the fancy name to make it their own. They are native to this area in Oregon. Hummingbirds love them. The trunk is 2 1/2" at soil level and tapers to 1". Tree was approx. 4" high when photo was taken. Pot is 3" deep. You can also see where I pruned out some larger sacrifice branches. This species does callous over cuts but grudgingly.

 

[Redwood Ryan]

Very nice Greg, thank you!

Do you know when it would be safe to do a repot? Seeing as how bad the soil is I would love to be able to get it out and into something better draining.

 

[Greg Brenden]

Very nice Greg, thank you!

Do you know when it would be safe to do a repot? Seeing as how bad the soil is I would love to be able to get it out and into something better draining.

Ryan--I potted this little guy late February when the buds were obviously swollen but hadn't broken yet. It was a first potting from a plastic collander to the pot you see. I fertilized it liberally the three years it was in the collander so I was able to cut back the thicker roots it still had from the initial collecting from the wild. There were lots of fine feeder roots close in to the trunk that allowed radical cut back of the thicker roots. I also used straight pumice in the collander which encourages root growth.

I think you could slip your tree from its nursery can and loosen the soil around the outside edge and pot to a slightly larger can into straight pumice for the rest of this growing season. Fertilize well the rest of the growing season and do a proper re-potting next spring before the buds break.