My mini/dwarf crape myrtle project....

[Wee]

Thanks to some help from the great folks here on the forum I figured out what I bought from an older nursery....It is a Ruby Dazzle mini/dwarf crape myrtle, they were developed for their pancake shape and colorful foliage not the flowers....If it blooms the flowers should be pink but they will be few and far between.

Here is what it looked like when I got it home....Not bad for $20.

Made a wood training box for it today....Had everything but the mesh already so the cost was almost nothing and I enjoy makes stuff anyway....What else was I gonna do an a rainy 4th of July.

I found a nice TV stand that works well for a pruning stand....I'll have the guys in the shop cut a nice piece of stone to lay in the inset.

As I bought it.... $4.17 at Goodwill.

After pruned it down to Bonsai size....

I did some pruning tonight on the CM as well....Still have a lot to go just taking my time...

I'll get into the training pot sometime over the weekend and post more pics....

Brian

 

[berobinson82]

Are you quite sure that repotting a CM in the dead of summer is the best for the health of the tree?

http://www.bonsaitoolchest.com/download/crape_myrtle.pdf

 

[Wee]

Nope...It would be best to wait till late winter or early spring....But it was only $20 and I'm trying to learn....I would only have to take about 3 inches off the bottom to get it into the training pot....When I take it out of it's nursery pot and see just how big the root ball is I'll make my final decision on re-poting or not....I plan on keeping most of the soil and only add a drainage layer and some bonsai type soil to fill in the gaps.

Brian

 

[berobinson82]

I completely understand and appreciate doing out of season work as learning exercises. Another option is to start practicing patience. Spring is less than a year away and one way to judge if you repotted correctly is the plant responding well.

Im not trying to be a rain cloud. I killed a bunch of trees earlier in my hobby from impatience and out of season work, surely. Either way, good luck and have fun.

 

[Wee]

Well I did it anyway....Root system seemed healthy....I had to saw off about 2" of the root ball.....Only cut thru one root with any size to is that far down the pot....Then worked the roots loose and cut them down to fit into the training pot....I feel like I cut about half the roots off....I give it a 50/50 chance of living....I felt kinda remorseful after chopping the little trees roots off.

I'll keep it in the shade for a couple of weeks to see how it does.

You can see my first project I did about a week ago in the above pic....Small boxwood and it's putting on new growth.

Here is a pic of a boxwood I literally tired to kill last fall...It was in the front of the house and the wife wanted it gone...So I just took the saw to it and figured it would die....Nope it started putting on new growth and I picked up the Bonsai interest so I dug it up last Sunday.....It is also putting on new growth and I had to cut the roots way down to get into the training pot.....It's ugly but I figured it would be good practice.

Brian

 

[Wee]

I built a shelf on the shady side of my shed....I found the copper watering pot at Goodwill a few months ago.

Brian

 

[Jason_mazzy]

It is my experience you cannot kill a crepe myrtle lol.

 

[jkd2572]

Grow like weeds they do.

 

[Wee]

I sure Ya'll are right....I'm prolly the only guy with a bonsai protected from roof rain off with the side panel off a dirt late model....The CM will only stay there for a few weeks till it recuperates from the re-potting....Then to the morning sun only side of the shed for a few more....I need to put some gutters on the shed and collect the rainwater to water with....Always something to do around the house.

Brian

 

[will0911]

id give that tree more than 50/50 chance...you seemed to have done everything right. Didn't take off too much root or branches. Maybe this winter when it drops the leaves you can take a picture so we can see the branch structure better...youll probably have to brave as you will more than likely be told to chop it back far. They grow pretty fast though so that tree will start to look pretty good in a few years if not sooner. good job! i like the wooden bonsai pot.

 

[Wee]

So far so good...It's putting on tiny new growth....I did have some scale show up but I sprayed with the dish soap, cooking oil, water and alcohol and it did the trick....I have a few yellow leaves but I expected more....I just wish it would stop raining the poor thing could use atleast a little sunlight.

Brian

 

[Wee]

Been almost a month and not only is it still putting on new growth....It's even putting on flower buds....I'll let a few bloom and then pull the rest off....I tried my hand at some wiring....I have one limb I'm trying to get to graft to a cut off limb/nub above... I have no clue if it will work or not.....It hasn't yet but I will wait and see. Most of these limbs may wind being trimmed off anyway. Best part is it's still alive and seems to be doing well.

Brian

 

[Eric Group]

Why don't you want to let the tree bloom?

I don't think you have really harmed the vigor of this tree or it wouldn't be growing and producing blooms for you. JMHO...

I have been working with Crepe Myrtles for years, and I tend to miss out on the blooms too often because I get too anxious to prune the leggy growth which means they don't wind up popinjay buds... If I was you, I would let it bloom, then prune the berries off after that and let her sit until next Spring before you do anything else with it.

JMHO... This tree doesn't need to be insulted any further right now, let it do its thing and then clean him up before the fall. No reason to have blooming trees if you don't let them bloom sometimes! I feel the same way about azaleas! I know there are reasons to remove the flowers sometimes, but it just breaks my heart to do it! Lol