Loropetalum Chinense Black Pearl

[tinusje]

Hello, this is my first post on this forum. Just started a year ago with bonsai, hooked for life!

The plan was to only buy and torture cheap plants from gardencentre, just to get busy, try and fail etc. Max 10 euro's. Well...almost sticked to the plan for a year.

I bought this Loropetalum Chinense Black Pearl on sale, paid 30,- euro's for it (guess $ 33,-).



It should keep the leafs in winter. It doesn't look very healthy at the moment. Some weeks ago it was 'winter' here in The Netherlands, couple nights -9 Celsius. That killed a lot of leafs, I guess. Some years ago I bought a very small one for a buck, it lost it leaves also in a cold winter but it recovered in spring. Nice leafs, no trunk to mention:


So, I hope it is just frostdamage on the leafs and it will recover the same wy as the little one. I like the trunk, the movent and there is a bit of taper. Gonna put it in a large container with some nice soil en let it recover for a while. The lowest part of the trunk should get a lot thicker, I will leave the lowest branche on for that reason.


So ,there it is, my Most Expensive and Fattest tree. So, what do you guys think? I'll post pictures of the development.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Potential here.

 

[JoeH]

Don't worry too much about the leaves, they are deciduous, mine come and go with foliage over the winter.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

You have a good plan. I like this cultivar of loropetalum.

 

[queenofsheba52]

Hi @tinusje, and welcome to this great bonsai forum!

Where in The Nethrelands are you? I have lots of family still living there.

As far as your tree goes, I like the curvy trunk. I started last year also, and bought nursery stock just like you did. I like flowers so I did azaleas mostly. I didn't want to kill an expensive tree with my inexperience, and I learned a lot about big chops, repotting and watering. This spring I hope to obtain a nicer (more expensive) tree or two.

Good luck and enjoy the hobby.

 

[tinusje]

Thank you all!

Hi Queenofsheba, I'm near the town of Breda, about 10k from the Belgian border. I dug up a azalea japonica from my garden, same with rosemary. Fondeled a lot of cheap plants, consensual off course, so I can't wait for the growing season to start. What's my kill ratio? Some seeds and seedlings from last year, bunch of bare-rooted hornbeam for my future forest. And some weeks ago I bought on sale a grape and a ginko. They called it 'bonsai', well....let's keep them alive and make decent trees of them in the future. Don't know if a grape can be called a proper 'bonsai', but I like it. Pics: