I have two Delosperma plants I grew from seed back in 2012 and am now trying to form into bonsais. Surprisingly it works really well. I was expecting them to grow uncontrollably but they keep their shape since a year when potted in a small 5x5x8,5cm pot each.
Actually I've wanted to post photos of them for a while now but it has turned out to be quite difficult to capture them due to their three-dimensionality. I could never focus my camera properly. Below are my best attempts at a photo session with one of the plants. It looks much cooler in real life :D
As you can see it grows many short-leafed branches along the stems while not increasing in size all in all. But it gets thirsty a lot. It never flowers though.
I have another plant to be featured in the next post and since it's fun to watch them grow here is a compilation.
Parents
2 months old
3 months old + one more
6 months old
10 months old (root view)
1 year
August 2014 (before and after the haircut)
Very nice! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot :)
DeleteI think this plant has real possibilities as a Bonsai. It has much shorter leaves and more compact branching than the D. cooperi I have seen. The D. cooperi I am familiar with is a spreading plant with long internodes, even when grown in 12 to 14 hours a day of full sun. Perhaps this is a hybrid, but I like the compact growth a lot. It also seems to have an main upright, woody stem that lends itself to pruning and development of a nice tree-like form. I'll be interested in seeing how you train it and how it responds to the training. Has this D. cooperi ever flowered for you? If so, how wide were the flowers? The flowers on my D. cooperi are approx. 3 to 4 cm in diameter.
ReplyDeleteHi Bob,
DeleteI'm also excited to see what will turn out of this plant. If you look at the older photos I've linked in my post, especially the one from 2013, you'll see those more typical long leaves. I think in dryer environment they have now (I water a lot in the summer, but the pot is small and pumice dries almost immediately it seems) they grow these short darker leaves. The leaves on the side branches are more shorter that the main ones, too.
Also, while they've had extreme growth spurts in the past, both seedling grow much slower and more coordinated now. I don't even have to prune.
They have never flowered for me but you can see on the first linked entry how their parents and their flowers looked like. I've gathered the seed in Japan from those outside growing plants.
Thanks for sharing. I always look forward to your updates!
ReplyDeleteThese look really great as bonsai.
Thanks for visiting :) Delospermas don't seem to spread that much when grown in small pots like they do when grown outside.
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