Osage orange on display

[jk_lewis]

We have a houseful of bodies this weekend. There's me, wife Jackie, our son Kent, his sister Lisa, two of her children, 11-year-old granddaughter Jacqui (off to summer camp today), and 19-year-old grandson Henri, three small dogs and two BIG dogs (and two very overwhelmed cats outside the house, not to mention the 4 horses in the pasture or barn).

In honor of this very rare and quite noisy occasion, I brought my Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) inside to be a small island of peace and quiet.

 

[Jason]

We have a houseful of bodies this weekend. There's me, wife Jackie, our son Kent, his sister Lisa, two of her children, 11-year-old granddaughter Jacqui (off to summer camp today), and 19-year-old grandson Henri, three small dogs and two BIG dogs (and two very overwhelmed cats outside the house, not to mention the 4 horses in the pasture or barn).

In honor of this very rare and quite noisy occasion, I brought my Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) inside to be a small island of peace and quiet.

Good thinking. Pick a nice looking tree that can protect itself too. (those have thorns right?) I hope you remain tranquil.

 

[jk_lewis]

Yeah. LOTS of thorns. They make wiring and deep pruning so much fun.

 

[jk_lewis]

Yeah. LOTS of thorns. They make wiring and deep pruning so much fun.


Glad you like the tree.

 

[RECLAIMEDBARNWOOD]

I've seen this tree a few times now on google searches and love it. You've don a great job on probably no so easy of a tree to work on. Couple questions for you. Did you grow this from seed or collect it? And if I decide to try one do you mind me bugging you with more questions. I've got a lot of Osage on my property here and have been scoping the nebari and taper on all the small ones looking for an opportunity. Might have to try one from seed. I'll attach a pic of one I might try but not sure if its worth it. It's root over old stump and I've never seen this as a bonsai category. Plus I moved out a little soil from the base and it doesn't match the bark and might be years to blend. It's 4 1/2" above nebari and 2 3/4" at 12" off the stump where I would probably chop it.

Best front


Back

 

[jk_lewis]

As far as the color of the roots goes, they're always BRIGHT orange. The bark is orange also, when cleaned with soap and water and a toothbrush, just not as bright. That is, I think, one of the pluses to having an Osage orange bonsai.

They make a LOT of root every year. Here is one year's growth after I repotted:

 

[jk_lewis]

We had a row of them planted along our drive (planted from seed in the early 80s). This was a root sprout from one of those.

Because of the root mass, I don't think I'd try to collect a very large one. They are amazingly fast growing plants.

I did a species guide for Maclura pomifera for the ABS website. There's not great difficulty in growing in a pot -- other than painful thorns that always seem to get a bit infected, and annual repotting (at least down where I live) there's no great secret in making a bonsai of an Osage orange.

 

[RECLAIMEDBARNWOOD]

Do you repot this one every year? And nice pic without the leaves. I like the Osage in general when we cleared a spot to build our house I left one right in the front yard. I pick up all the hedge apples every fall and dump them in the woods but I think it's worth it.

 

[jk_lewis]

Do you repot this one every year?

Pretty much. Unless health improves I may skip this year.

 

[bonsai barry]

You don't see this species of tree done in bonsai very much. I appreciate you posting yours since I'm trying to work a clump of them myself... maybe the only osage orange in CA!

 

[RECLAIMEDBARNWOOD]

I've searched it a lot and jkl has the only pics online