aframe
Shohin
When does yours start blooming? When does your cold weather break?
Prunus "Mume" - Japanese Apricot
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- japanese apricot mume
Giga
Masterpiece
Very nice color
leatherback
The Treedeemer
Nice! You want to share it here too, and start off with a flowering mumes thread? http://www.bonsainut.com/threads/show-off-your-mume.25712/
discusmike
Omono
Similar to the lobar in my garden
JudyB
Queen of the Nuts
First bloom last year was Jan 22nd. Our cold weather usually lingers fairly late here, but with the weather nowadays, all bets are off!
JudyB
Queen of the Nuts
discusmike
Omono
Kobai
fredtruck
Omono
The flowers are coming on. Currently, there's only one completely open, near the center on the left side. Many more are on the way.
Maybe next week. The tree is at Boon's. MarkyScott is there right now. He and I have an ongoing inside joke about grafting scions onto incompatible stock. He started it by grafting a piece of shimpaku onto a plum tree in Boon's garden, but putting a little tag on it with my name on it. To get back, we grafted an Ume scion onto his juniper he has at Boon's. ( on a sacrifice branch). The Ume scion had enough energy reserves to bloom!
So now we joke about "graft Ume on it".
So, last November, I "grafted" a JBP twig and a shimpaku twig on a big Olive that Scott has at Boon's. It was raining when I did it which made the grafting tape hard to work with, but it's passable.
So, Scott discovered his new multi-specied Olive, and naturally assumed I had done it, but then I asked if there any Ume on it, and there wasn't. But Boon sent me a picture of the Ume in bloom.
Here ya go, Judy!
Evidently, there was not enough character to the Ume, so, they made a Tanuki out of it!
JudyB
Queen of the Nuts
And still had some left over for the companion tree! Looks like there's still more blooms to come. And looks like it could use a wire job too, hmm?
No wire until about May.
After the blooms fade, all the parts of the tree you see that has flowers will be cut off. Last May, I removed the first two leaves on every stem. So, after it blooms, we cut back to where those leaves were.
New branches will start from those two nodes. By mid May, they will have grown to about twice as long, maybe even three times as long as this picture. In May, I cut back to about 1/2 the length, remove the first two leaves, and wire.
Really, the only part of the wiring that really matters is the first two inches. Where I removed the leaves. That will be the only part kept permanently. And so, I usually only wire about half the length I've kept.
After a month to 6 weeks, the wire begins to cut in. The wood has lignified, so it's removed. That's about the end of June to mid July.
In fall, usually November, I remove all the leaves. And lightly prune into the silhouette I like.
In January, sit back and enjoy the roses! Er... Ume!
After it blooms, cut back to where the first two leaves were... and it all begins again.
