Forsythia and Osoberry: A Pair of Young Tree Shrubs in Summer [Bonsai]

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Let's look at two trees today.

Firstly is the smaller of my two Forsythia trees.

Forsythia

This one has a squat shape with more of a bulbous nebari forming. I always pruned it to stay short from the very beginning, while its sister was allowed to grow lankier.

The tree responded well to fertilizer treatments this year, but no signs of additional growth in July and August. In late Summer, the leaves mature, and new shoots have stopped producing. The sun-bleached leaves start to change from dark green to lemon yellow.

I've been keeping the secondary branches trimmed fairly short each Spring after the tree flowers, and this is when all the new shoots emerge. This is helping the tree to develop a nice thick canopy of clustered leaves. No signs yet that the leaves are capable of reducing in size as a result of increased ramification (branch divisions into smaller limbs).

Historical Information
ID: 0018
Nickname: Angel
Type: Forsythia
Age: 5 years
Grown: cutting
Last repotting: never
Wired: never

Osoberry (Indian Plum)

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This is a flowering shrub. Its most appealing ornamental trait is the sweet cucumber scented leaves in late Spring. When it flowers, the blooms are expected to have this same sweet scent.

I had originally purchased this shrub because it is a beneficial native plant to birds that flowers and forms berries. However, later I learned that this tree only forms berries if a male and female version of the shrub are grown in close proximity, and only the female variety forms the edible berries.

This is most likely a more common male tree, which will never form berries. I would be interested in finding a female to pair it with if I can track one down some day.

The tree was clipped on the top a couple times this year to reduce the height, but other than that it has been growing freely. The plan is to get it to form more bushy side branches.

Lately, the older leaves are yellowing and shriveling up a bit. Round buds are forming at the base of the old leaves on most of the healthiest branches.

This is the first year of growth on this tree, so I am unsure if the buds will open this year, or become dormant and wait for Spring to produce. My guess is this tree looks very hardy, and will probably go through a long dormancy cycle before it wakes up again with new leaves.

Historical Information

ID: 0045
Nickname: Unnamed
Type: Osoberry (Indian Plum)
Age: 1 year
Grown: bare root
Last repotting: never
Wired: never


Photos in this post are all #originalworks by @creativetruth, unless stated otherwise.

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Post Beneficiaries:

This is my way of thanking each of you for your friendship and support. By sharing my talents on Hive, I can also share to help with your needs.

Let my success also grant you some happiness too.

#tree #osoberry #indian-plum #forsythia #hobby #berry #native-plant

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Manually curated by EwkaW from the Qurator Team. Keep up the good work!

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