Warpigs Little Christmas Tree Entry

[Warpig]

This will be my entry in the 3 year Christmas tree contest. It is a grouping of four rosemary cuttings to form a small Christmas tree. Given the time limit of 3 years I am planning to separate and repot these guys come early spring into a better soil. Giving the roots plenty of time to get established is going to be big as rosemarys tend to not like their roots messed with too much so I might treat it like a juniper and go with a half repot over 2 years. Here are a couple pictures of the starting material.

 

[B.uneasy]

Interesting

 

[Atom#28]

I look forward to seeing how you handle this. All the rosemary plants at my Lowe's have super spindly, uninteresting trunks.

 

[Warpig]

I look forward to seeing how you handle this. All the rosemary plants at my Lowe's have super spindly, uninteresting trunks.

Yea its pretty hard fighting the urge to open them up to see what I'll be working with. The one thing that has me worried is how bad is the inside going to be shaded out.

 

[Woocash]

Yea its pretty hard fighting the urge to open them up to see what I'll be working with. The one thing that has me worried is how bad is the inside going to be shaded out.

I don't think it’ll be too bad yet. Most likely they’ve not been in the pot together that long In the scheme of things and they’re all pretty young plants too. I’m intrigued though. I do love rosemary.

 

[Warpig]

In the spirit of "the tree will let you know what it wants", going over my rosemary today I noticed that some of the newer growth has started to droop.






I know it's not a matter of light and is stemming from the poor soil. This is why I was shooting for a early spring repot. Rosemary 'can' be repotted at anytime but I feel like I can still hold off for now by just making sure it gets some more water and by misting once a day or two. Rosemary can absorb water through the leaves to help makeup for the poor root uptake for now.

 

[Warpig]

My day of bonsai:

Having just returned from being away from my trees for a week, I knew the rosemary was going to be my problem child from the start. All the other trees are going fine. But this one having such poor soil, being stuck indoors, and haven been bought at a grocery store this one had a uphill battle from the start. They were left in good care so I know that wasn't a issue, as much as to be expected. It just would not hold water at all. So this is how it looked on my return.




It was alittle worse then the photo shows, with plenty of needle loss on the interior. After fighting a long 'bout about just writing it off as a $13 loss, I decided to see if we could save what we could.

It was certainly drying up from the roots up. Knowing that rosemary will take in moisture from the foliage to help make up for the roots, I figured one of the best bets for survival would be to take some cuttings from above where it's dried too. After giving both a healthy dose of a rooting hormone, and some much better soil, these two are born.





I didnt think to get a picture of the base at the time, but it was given a good soaking and is sitting in a tray of water for now. All three will be watched closely over the winter. I dont hold out high hopes, but here's to trying!

And that was my day of bonsai.

 

[Carol 83]

I've tried rosemary inside in the winter in a bonsai pot and in a regular flower pot just as an herb, and no bueno. Good luck with yours.

 

[B.uneasy]

How interesting! This'll be fun to watch.

 

[Warpig]

How interesting! This'll be fun to watch.

Lets hope so. Chance are it's a lost cause, but we'll see.

 

[cishepard]

We are coming closer to the end of the Little Christmas Tree contest. Final photos should be posted in your individual threads, and will be voted on by the general membership starting on April 30.

Time to start thinking about your repotting, final design, wiring, pruning and generally getting the trees in shape for the contest!