Anyone tried or saw a bonsai Coma or Saffron Plum?

[Poink88]

I was visiting my in-laws last weekend and bought a Coma or La Coma or Saffron Plum - Sideroxylon celastrinum (or Bumelia celastrina). Online check shows it to be Florida and TX native.

I chopped it down to 10" from 7 feet and have no idea if it will make it. I just like the bark and small leaves but the tree was on a burlap when I bought it and after it got home learned that it was newly collected w/ very little roots. I was told by the nursery that they will back bud w/o any problem.

Anyway, anyone seen a bonsai made out of this tree? Or any experience working on one?

Thanks!

 

[rockm]

I dug a wild plum (don't know the exact species) off my parents' place in east Texas one December 20 years ago. I barerooted it, chopped off all of its roots, plunked it into a five gallon bucket of dirt and forgot about it in the yard. The damn thing rooted and began taking over the place. My parents finally chopped it all down and burned it...

Yeah, it will probably make it. Prunus are tough.

 

[Poink88]

Good to know and I hope it is the same but alas they are not even on the same order/family/genus.

COMA
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Sapotaceae
Genus: Sideroxylon
Species: S. celastrinum

PLUM
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Subfamily: Maloideae or Spiraeoideae [1]
Genus: Prunus
Subgenus: Prunus

 

[misfit11]

I think sometimes my wife thinks I'm in a "bonsai coma".

 

[rockm]

Ooops, saw "Texas" "plum" and made a wrong assumption.

Do a search on Sapodilla bonsai. There are bonsai of this species, primarilyin S.E. Asia

Still sounds like a tough customer:

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/sapodilla.html

 

[Poink88]

Sapodilla is different as well (but related to this)...I grew up air layering those suckers as early as 4 years old. LOL

 

[rockm]

Sometimes working with natives you have to go with what info you can get and make some assumptions--educated guesses. That's how cedar elm bonsai was worked out --and a few others like ashe juniper-- over the years. What worked for related elms, mostly worked for CE, although there were some differences.

Sapodilla is related. The species you're working with may not be that exactly, but it's close.

 

[Poink88]

Thanks rockm.

From the link:

"Propagation: The sapodilla is most commonly propagated by seed, which remain viable for many years if kept dry. Easily germinated, they take five to eight years to bear. Since seed may not come true, vegetative propagation is desirable. Veneer grafting with seedlings as rootstock is the best method . Air layering and rooting of cuttings have not been successful. "

I find this funny since we propagated sapodilla via airlayering and produced several dozens of new trees through it.