Eugenia Topiary

OTown

Yamadori
Messages
72
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86
Location
Saint Petersburg FL
USDA Zone
10a
Has anyone heard of using Eugenia Topiary as material? I have a couple of large old shrubs that I'm tempted to dig up and make into bonsai. FYI - I'm in the Tampa Bay area of Florida.
 
Welcome to Crazy!

Topiary material can be good or bad. Yours sounds leaning to good.

Sorce
 
Eugenia are pretty commonly used as bonsai, especially in the north, as under lights "indoor for winter" bonsai. Yours shrubs are great starting points for bonsai as you already have trunks with some caliper.

Best time to dig these is while they are in active growth. I don't know the St Petersburg Florida climate very well, but I suspect somewhere in March or April, when they have started flowering is a good time.

You can all in one day dig, and prune back severely pot up and wire up the new bonsai trees. Key is, wait until they are in active growth, you want to see new branches extending and possibly flowers. If done at this time, you can remove 80% of the roots, and 90% of the foliage and still get good back budding and rapid development of new roots.

If you do the digging and repotting now, October-November=December - while the bushes are entering semi-dormancy, you may not get a vigorous response. In fact there is a chance the bushes won't survive.

I have grown Eugenia as an under lights for winter "indoor bonsai". So my experience is limited to smaller specimens. Contact the good people at Wigert's and ask them when the best time to Dig-Chop-Style landscape Eugenia to make them into bonsai. They are friendly, and in Fort Meyer's area, so they know your climate and how Eugenia responds to your climate. See what Wigert's says, as they sell this species as part of their regular inventory, so they have hands on experience. They also stock bonsai supplies, and have a good selection of bonsai pots.

Before your start the project of digging these up, plan on them in training pots for a couple years before you move them to more expensive bonsai pots. Though, you could go direct to bonsai pots. I like using Anderson flats for the training pot, they are 16 x 16 x 5 inches heavy duty plastic flats with mesh bottoms. This size holds about 3 gallons of potting mix. But you can also make wooden training boxes of similar dimensions. Most "off the shelf" bonsai pots are less than 4 inches deep. If you want to avoid having to have custom bonsai pots made for your tree, it is important to reduce the root mass drastically, to create a shallow but wide root system. Do not use deep containers as your training pots, try to find wide, but shallow containers, and flatten the bottom of the root mass to a depth of less than 5 inches. Be sure to wire the newly collected tree into the training pot. It must be secure an not have any wobble, before you fill in with potting media. If it has wobble, newly developing roots will break if the tree is hit by wind, or jostled by kids, yourself when watering or moving the pot around, or by animals moving through the backyard. Wobbly trees loose roots and die. Wire it in firmly, before finishing the filling of the pot with media.

Key is having several pot options, and sufficient potting media on hand before you start to dig. Don't dig spontaneously, have everything ready, then dig.
 
Wigerts - call them for their advice, to check to make sure my advice is reliable.

 
I would ALWAYS recommend listening to “OL”.. (“original Leo.... I’m “oL”... “other Leo”) ;)

I just want to express the sound of my excitement at the thought of digging those specimens, as they are quite nice.. soooo...

*Sounds of excitement*

🤓
 
I ended up digging one up to make room for a bonsai bench and display area. It's in a plastic HD concrete mixing tray and seems to be doing fine.

When I asked at Wigerts, I got the sideways look and an "I've never heard of that species used as bonsai".
 
I ended up digging one up to make room for a bonsai bench and display area. It's in a plastic HD concrete mixing tray and seems to be doing fine.

When I asked at Wigerts, I got the sideways look and an "I've never heard of that species used as bonsai".
Who did you talk to? Every one of the staff I’ve met there is into bonsai and knows their inventory inside and out. Very surprised.
 
I don't remember his name but, he said he has worked with Eric W a long time. Also said they don't carry eugenia.
 
I think Eugenia topiaries are sometimes under Syzygium Paniculatum which is a “Brush Cherry” from NSW Australia. So while they have the Surinam as part of their inventory (sold out ATM) they may not have made the association.
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Eugenia, Syzygium, Psidium, Feijoa, Myrciaria, Ugni, Luma, Plinia and a dozen other genus with a few hundred species are all in the Myrteae tribe, the best known species is Psidium guajava, which is the culinary guava that shows up in the supermarket. All of them are pretty similar, with fruit that ranges from small to large and from tasty to bland to slightly bitter. Biggest differences for bonsai grower is the size of the leaves, Eugenia, Ugni and Luma have the smallest leaves, Psidium guajava or guava has the largest or near the largest leaves. They all make fair to really good bonsai, the ones with smaller leaves being the best. So the exact identity of your landscape shrub doesn't matter. The bonsai techniques will be the same across the different possible identities.

Myrciaria floribunda - is the Florida native guavaberry, and is also in the same tribe with the guava and Eugenia.

I'm surprised Weigert's did not seem to know what you were talking about. You must have caught them "at a bad time". Got the guy that mows the lawn rather than the one that takes care of the bonsai.

All like roughly the same soil and fairly constant moisture. Full sun for good flowering and fruit production, they all will tolerate some shade, usually with less flowering.
 
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