Prunus Lusitanica / Portugese Privet

[ElyDave]

Picked one of these up before Christmas half price at the local nursery in a 24cm pot. Did nothing other than cut most of the top out of it to give the direction of new growth, and let it overwinter. Doing a bunch of spring repottings today, I knocked the pot off of this one to find some great shallow rootage. Repotted it into a 30cm shallow plastic training pot. Some good new buds coming, so looking good so far

 

[Woocash]

Picked one of these up before Christmas half price at the local nursery in a 24cm pot. Did nothing other than cut most of the top out of it to give the direction of new growth, and let it overwinter. Doing a bunch of spring repottings today, I knocked the pot off of this one to find some great shallow rootage. Repotted it into a 30cm shallow plastic training pot. Some good new buds coming, so looking good so far

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I’ve got one of these, but I’ve not seen many as bonsai which doesn’t bode well for bonsaiability. I reckon it’ll work well with larger sized bonsai though so I’m planning on growing mine out a bit.

Looks like yours has an interesting start and the beginnings of a nice nebari.

 

[Shibui]

Ligustrum family are known as tough customers and take well to bonsai techniques.
I smile when I see someone has paid money for one. Nurseries are not supposed to sell these here as they are environmental weeds and most gardeners in this area hate them due to having to pull seedlings out of the garden all the time.
We can collect 2 species from roadsides, gardens and nearby forest so I rarely look at small ones unless they have exceptional trunk shape and character for possible mini bonsai.
Have fun with your weeds.

 

[Woocash]

Ligustrum family are known as tough customers and take well to bonsai techniques.
I smile when I see someone has paid money for one. Nurseries are not supposed to sell these here as they are environmental weeds and most gardeners in this area hate them due to having to pull seedlings out of the garden all the time.
We can collect 2 species from roadsides, gardens and nearby forest so I rarely look at small ones unless they have exceptional trunk shape and character for possible mini bonsai.
Have fun with your weeds.

This isn’t a ligustrum though, it’s a prunus. Known as Portuguese Laurel rather than privet, unless I’m mistaken about colloquial names.

 

[Shibui]

Oopps. My apologies for not reading close enough. The leaves look much like the large leaf privet.
Prunus lusitanica is also listed as an environmental weed here. Known variously as 'laurel' or 'cherry laurel'. Birds eat the fruit and spread seeds far and wide so there are plenty of these growing here too. I have not collected any as they seem to have strong, straight trunks and quite open habit here.

 

[ElyDave]

Apols, it is Portugese Laurel, not privet, can't think how I made that typo.

FWIW, I picked up three privet from the roadside last year as someone was remodelling their garden. The two that survived are on this years list to start shaping

 

[Woocash]

Oopps. My apologies for not reading close enough. The leaves look much like the large leaf privet.
Prunus lusitanica is also listed as an environmental weed here. Known variously as 'laurel' or 'cherry laurel'. Birds eat the fruit and spread seeds far and wide so there are plenty of these growing here too. I have not collected any as they seem to have strong, straight trunks and quite open habit here.

Yes that’s the one. They have potential for such interesting trunks and bark, even with the coarse growth and large leaves I’m surprised I haven’t seen more bonsai specimens.