my nandina

[Ross]

Here is a picture of my nandina with green, red, and yellow leaves right now, and a cool picture I took a few days ago of a dragonfly sitting on an elm branch.

 

[Boondock]

Those red leaves and that pot is a brilliant combination! I wish you could get ketoi to photograph it.

 

[Ross]

Those red leaves and that pot is a brilliant combination! I wish you could get ketoi to photograph it.

Thanks Boondock. I only had two or three pots that were even the right size when I was potting it so the decision was pretty easy. Here's two more pics, the first from when it was big, and the second shows it in the front right after I had cut it down and repotted it.

 

[Boondock]

very cool Ross, what was the time-line between chopping and where it is on the first post?

 

[Ross]

very cool Ross, what was the time-line between chopping and where it is on the first post?

I cut it down and repotted it early last spring, and I didn't repot it again this year, so right now it has been one year since I started on it. It grows differently than anything else I have so I'm still trying to figure it out. It grows very fast, and I've had to cut the top half of the foliage off a couple times in the last year to keep it a reasonable size. Here's a close up of the stump and then you can see it in the background completely red a month ago.

 

[Ross]

Here's another picture from today.

 

[bwaynef]

I've heard they can be picky when their roots are messed with. Have you noticed that ...or any other peculiarities?

 

[Ross]

I've heard they can be picky when their roots are messed with. Have you noticed that ...or any other peculiarities?

I'm pretty sure I totally bare-rooted it with a hose and cut off 1/2 to 3/4 of it's roots to get it into this pot, so I'd say it's roots can take some abuse. It doesn't really grow or heal like other plants though, so I am still kinda figuring it out right now.

 

[Ross]

A picture after we got some rare snow here in Dallas.

 

[jk_lewis]

I don't know why more people don't use Nandina for bonsai -- especially small ones. They come in all sorts of leaf sizes and are very tough, hardy plants. And, as you can see here, they have lovely fall and winter color. I had a Nandina forest before I moved here a few years ago, but it was too large and I gave it away. It was startling in the winter.

 

[Yamadori]

The pot and nandina are a great match. Very nice looking. Fantastic color.

 

[ml_work]

I like that, color is great!

Keep LOOkin Up!
Michael

 

[rockm]

"I don't know why more people don't use Nandina for bonsai -- especially small ones"

Mostly because nice trunks with movement like this one are not all that common. For the most part, you get arrow straight, skinny multi trunked crappola at nurseries. To get a decent trunk, you have to look in older landscapes in older neighborhoods. Additionally, new growth on these tends to be very angular and upright and you have to deal with that.

By the way Ross, where'd you get the nice cedar elms?

 

[Ross]

Thanks guys about the nandina. I'm still new to all this and appreciate the positive feedback.

RockM, I have four cedar elms, two I dug up myself and two I bought at an auction. Here's a picture of my smallest one right after I dug it up, and what it looks like now after I just repotted it.

 

[Ross]

R.i.p.

While I was looking for another thread to update I came across this one from 2010 and realized that I never gave this nandina a proper Eulogy.

R.I.P Sweet Nandina, you were a pretty and forgiving tree who brought color to an otherwise green yard. Although you were not strong enough to withstand the large hail that pummeled you to death a couple years ago, your memory will live on, and images of you from better days will hopefully serve to inspire fellow B-Nutters to keep and develop more of your kind, ever protecting them from hail. Amen.

 

[DougB]

Ross I'm sorry for your loss. But thankful for a piece of critical learning.

 

[Ross]

Thanks for the kind words. I was just joking really about the Eulogy, the killer hail storm happened a couple years ago, and truth be told, I learned firsthand about how bad hail can be, but it could happen again today and there isn't much I could do. When I'm up at work, I can't just take off to put my bonsai away, and if I could, I wouldn't be able to move most of them by myself anyways.

 

[jkd2572]

That's the worst threat I have always had for my trees.

 

[Vin]

Any idea on the age of your former friend? Nandina grow all over place around here. I have a half dozen or so in and around the wild areas of my yard but nothing with a trunk like you had. Shame about its demise.

 

[Ross]

Any idea on the age of your former friend? Nandina grow all over place around here. I have a half dozen or so in and around the wild areas of my yard but nothing with a trunk like you had. Shame about its demise.

This one came from my parents' front flower bed right before they moved houses. It had been there for a decade at least, maybe longer because that bed was put in around the late 80's when they ripped up a holly hedge.