Cheap nursery stock is about all I can afford. Even if I could afford more I doubt I would. I'm very new at creating bonsai trees so I'd hate to purchase a specimen at full price, only to shock it to death through my amateur hands. So what do I do? I troll local nurseries waiting for sales, and this brings us to my Chinese Loropetalum. Normally this 10-gallon plant would have sold for at least $40 but I bought it for $5.
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| Cheap Nursery Stock - Chinese Loropetalum |
I have a couple large Loropetalum in my front yard. They are pretty much out of control, but my wife really loves them because they are a purple island in a sea of green plants and grass. This evergreen shrub has purple leaves most of the year, and pink spider leg like flowers throughout the spring and fall.
Now to be sure, the nursery didn't just give this away - it was somewhat in bad shape plus they needed to make room. But when I look for trees or shrubs I look for interesting characteristics. This guy had a great trunk/stem. It was distorted and kinked, and with a little training and lots of time, it has the potential to be a great bonsai...eventually. So here we go...
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| The first cut |
Underneath the thick canopy is the twisted stem. I cut back on of the main branches but this was to draw focus to secondary branch.
To the right, although far from done, you can really see the stem and it's rather unique characteristics.
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