Euonymus alatus garden find potential shohin…

[CptnGlyn]

I moved into my current house a few years back. In 2021 we decided to put veg beds in one section of the garden that was pretty overgrown. During clearance of the area, I discovered two Euonymus alatus that had been planted in by the previous owner. The soil was dreadful sucky clay mess covered in pea shingle.
Anyhow, background aside I decided to transplant them. I moved one to a different shrub border and the other I thought might make a half decent shohin, so I potted it up in a basket and awaited spring.
In the winter, I cut back the stubs and unwanted branches and (somewhat sloppily) wired up the next leader.
Photo here is the end of 2021:

 

[CptnGlyn]

As things sprang in to life in 2022, I took it out of the basket, and bare rooted the tree from the clay soil, and popped it into a mica training pot.
Buds started growing and gaining momentum, and as is the unwritten law for E. alatus owners I cut back the shoots, and spent the remaining year staring at it while it stared back at me mockingly.
If a healthy alatus might push a second flush, I assume the repot and root reduction probably prevented that this year….
Oh well, once the leaves have dropped I will cut everything back to one or two nodes and try to remember that mistake next year!
Btw does anyone know what callus formation is like on this species? I assume very slow, and if so I might hollow out the bigger chops…

 

[CptnGlyn]

If anyone is interested, this guy has burst into life this year. Just gotta get myself to hold off on pruning until later in the year!!

Anyone got experience with cutting these back? Seems like each branch produces a node or two with no leaves or visible buds at the base… is it possible to cut back to these nodes and expect buds to appear, or is cutting back to visible buds safer?

 

[cmeg1]

Very cool

 

[dbonsaiw]

Anyone got experience with cutting these back?

Just started experimenting with the species this season. Purchased a few at a big box store and proceeded to whack up them up. They will indeed backbud, although the one I prune back to no branches isn't giving me the buds high up where I wanted them.

 

[brainfree]

These bushes will only put out one flush of growth a year. I’ve discovered it’s best to prune in the winter or early spring, then let it grow out through the summer. Prune only for shape. They do back bud pretty well though and are always sending out new shoots (hoping to try out some thread grafting with mine this summer).

 

[CptnGlyn]

Yeah the first year I potted it up it had two flushes, probably because of the quantity of root it had. Last year I cut it back way too soon.

To clarify my meaning about cutting back to leafless nodes, Here’s a couple of photos. All the shoots seem to have these one of two nodes at the base where I can’t see a bud or anything.

When I cut back, If I cut roughly where the red line is, I’m wondering if this will be an issue… otherwise I will cut to the last leaf or two and hope for inner buds to appear…

 

[MHBonsai]

Nice project! Responding to your earlier question, I have found that they do close wounds, but it takes a while. On mine, I have a chop that was about 2 inches across. It has steadily every year been closing cleanly. They don’t heal like a trident… But I think eventually it will close cuts of that size if the wood underneath is smooth and solid.

 

[CptnGlyn]

I had to go away for a few days during a minor heatwave, so I cut this back a bit before going away to reduce the transpiration rate.
Irritatingly I am now getting a second growth flush, of random buds, but all out on areas that are likely to be cut off come autumn should have just cut it back hard really, but I assumed I would only get one flush like previous years…

 

[CptnGlyn]

End of year prune. Put a small amount of wire on the stubs to adjust the angles very slightly, seems prone to shooting buds in certain areas, so hopefully this will set up future branch placement slightly better if that pattern continues.

Some of the lower cuts are occluding well. The higher not so much but I might carve those slightly instead.

 

[CptnGlyn]

Spring update (if anyone’s interested):

Over winter I roughed out some basic carving of the highest chop wound, which I think instantly improved it, and then yesterday during repotting I changed the drab black mica training pot to this pot I bought for it a couple of years back by Gavin Holden. Hopefully it will provide a good contrast with the autumn colour.

Hopefully the shrinking of the pot will put the breaks on the tree a bit and help with the internode length.

 

[MHBonsai]

Really nice work on the roots, and I like the pot. Should be good contrast with the red foliage!