Yaupon Holly

[HtxBonsai]

Work was dead this morning because of the holiday, so I made it out to a bonsai nursery on the other side of Houston.

@markyscott Thanks for the heads up on Timeless Trees. I didn't realize the owner (whose name escapes me now) was the president of the Houston Bonsai Society. I talked to Ray and a younger guy who was prepping this AMAZING forest to go up to Rochester.

Anyway, I talked with Ray about good trees for beginners and how I love the style of the giant sprawling live oaks you see down here in the south and he showed me a few Holly trees that were set up as pre bonsai.

I found one that stood out to me and went to check out and Ray handed me a little baby Bougainvillia as a gift.

this place is literally on the opposite side of Houston as me (took me about 45 minutes highway driving to get there) but was well worth the journey. I may be able to convince the wife to head out there tomorrow for some of their 7th anniversary celebration.

tl;dr
I bought a Yaupon Holly to style like a live oak, was told to wait til the spring to repot it, and would like to know if it's okay to wire the tree at this point or if I should just leave it be. I don't plan on doing any sort of pruning etc, trying to be less impulsive in my decisions.

Attached a picture, and one of the little Bougainvillea as well.

 

[aml1014]

Your fine to wire it right now, in my climate I stop pruning for the most part this time of year to give energy for the trees to store over winter. In houston you have a longer growing season so you may be able to do pruning on it now as well, but I'd wait for the other Houston people to chime in on that.

Aaron

 

[Vin]

Aaron is correct. Be careful with the wiring. Smaller branches will only bend to a certain point and then just snap. They back bud like crazy and are pretty fun to work with. Good luck.

 

[markyscott]

Glad you found what you were looking for. I don't know about that Dallas Cowboys banner on your house, but I'm willing to overlook it for a fellow HBS club member. Hurley is the owner of Timeless Trees and the President of the club. I'm the Vice President.

As for your Yaupon, I'd suggest you leave it alone for right now. It won't do you any good to wire that older growth - it gets stiff and brittle quick - you won't be able to put much movement on those old branches. Best to wire young growth on Yaupon on the spring. Here's a thread and a link:

http://www.bonsainut.com/threads/collected-yaupon.21760/
https://bonsaitonight.com/2016/07/26/developing-yaupon-holly-bonsai-a-tale-of-when-not-to-cut/

For now you'll want it to grow and (hopefully) bud back a bit. Winter is time for repotting and cutback. These trees develop very quickly.

Hope to see you at the meetings down the road.

Scott

 

[HtxBonsai]

Glad you found what you were looking for. I don't know about that Dallas Cowboys banner on your house, but I'm willing to overlook it for a fellow HBS club member. Hurley is the owner of Timeless Trees and the President of the club. I'm the Vice President.

As for your Yaupon, I'd suggest you leave it alone for right now. It won't do you any good to wire that older growth - it gets stiff and brittle quick - you won't be able to put much movement on those old branches. Best to wire young growth on Yaupon on the spring. Here's a thread and a link:

http://www.bonsainut.com/threads/collected-yaupon.21760/
https://bonsaitonight.com/2016/07/26/developing-yaupon-holly-bonsai-a-tale-of-when-not-to-cut/

For now you'll want it to grow and (hopefully) bud back a bit. Winter is time for repotting and cutback. These trees develop very quickly.

Hope to see you at the meetings down the road.

Scott

ha. That's the neighbor's house. Don't worry.

So I SHOULD repot? Ray told me I should wait until the spring and that repotting right now would be a bad idea.

Will check the links out and play the waiting game, it seems.

 

[markyscott]

ha. That's the neighbor's house. Don't worry.

So I SHOULD repot? Ray told me I should wait until the spring and that repotting right now would be a bad idea.

Will check the links out and play the waiting game, it seems.

That's a relief, but I don't know about your taste in neighbors.

Don't repot now. Winter/Spring are the same season here - repot in February/March. It'll be here sooner than you think.

Scott

 

[M. Frary]

That's a relief, but I don't know about your taste i

Slow cook them and slather them in BBQ sauce they taste just like Green Bay Packers fans. Not as cheesy but close.

 

[markyscott]

Slow cook them and slather them in BBQ sauce they taste just like Green Bay Packers fans. Not as cheesy but close.

We do like our BBQ!

 

[Forrestford]

How’s your holly? I just picked one up today with the same idea in mind.