Nursery Dewdrop

[Just Duane]

Hi all, just sharing a nursery dewdrop that I finally potted up.
August 2009, our club went nursery hunting. At our last stop of the day, I still didn't buy a plant to work on. My sensei called my name out & after crouching down & making my way thru about 50 dewdrops my sensei was standing next to this tree. He said the tree has nice trunk movement, but no taper, but if you can get if cheap, buy it!

Here is the tree when I got it home. 7-8 feet high.

The tree's health was very poor, but it did have movement.

I chopped the tree down to 3 feet & did some heavy fertilizing. 4 months after purchasing the tree, I brought it to our club meeting. My sensei was about to do the initial styling but decided to wait a week to use the tree in a demo at our clubs annual bonsai sale.

 

[Just Duane]

Dew cont

3 months after the trees initial styling by my sensei, I fed heavily and the tree grew like crazy! It was time to place the tree into a bonsai pot.

The roots were a trip! I didn't think it would take me so long to get through all the mess! I had to saw thru twice, just to get the tree to fit in the pot. After a lot of swearing, my sawing was done!

I thinned, cleaned & wired the tree up & it now stands 2 feet 8 inches from the soil.

Still no taper, but it should look ok when it has flower & fruits hanging from the branches. As always, this tree looks better in person

 

[R_F]

Very Nice Duane,

My parents have a giant one in their yard.....now if I could only convince them that the recent freezes killed it and that I need to remove it immediately

Seriously though, I think this is a good design choice for this material. What color blooms does it have? I've seen them with white or purple flowers.

 

[bonhe]

Wow, what a change! Very nice tree. Thanks for sharing the progress. Bonhe

 

[treekutter]

Nice job! what is the species?

 

[Just Duane]

Thanks Ryan, this tree has purple flowers. I really think you should take your parents tree I have to give my sensei the credit for the initial styling ( you can see his feet in one of the pics )

Thank you bonhe & treekutter

Duranta erecta
Common Names: golden dewdrop, pigeonberry, skyflower
Family: Verbenaceae (verbena or vervain Family)

I only know it as golden dewdrop.