Prunus Mume

[fore]

Great tree Brian, beautiful flowers and the trunk is fantastic. Like the new pot selection too, matches well.

I bought one from Bill V, the Nicholas variety. It's a 2' whip now. I noticed you said you have one of Brents in the ground. Is this what you'd suggest to beef up the trunk for sev. years?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Probably the worst time of year to show an ume...they kind of seem dormant right now, then the leaves turn yellow and drop off and the wait begins! This one seems to have flower buds set again for the winter show. Here is an update.

 

[fredtruck]

Yes, the wait begins. Umes aren't at their most beautiful right now, but soon...

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

My ume is surprisingly still pushing out growth -- red tips everywhere! I know that I'm in a far different climate and the tree itself came from NY, but do you think this is something I should worry about?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

My ume is surprisingly still pushing out growth -- red tips everywhere! I know that I'm in a far different climate and the tree itself came from NY, but do you think this is something I should worry about?

No, still growing is fine, especially if it's young and growing out. One I bought from Brent a few years ago and stuck in the ground is still growing. It's about 12' tall from a 8" whip!

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

Okay, good. Yeah, I got this one from Bill at about 6-8" and it's probably at 5' right now in a 3-gallon grow-bag. I'm excited to see how much further it pushes out next year.

Thanks for the quick response

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Buds-a-swelling...

 

[fredtruck]

It won't be long, now. The tree is looking good.

 

[edprocoat]

Probably the worst time of year to show an ume...they kind of seem dormant right now, then the leaves turn yellow and drop off and the wait begins! This one seems to have flower buds set again for the winter show. Here is an update.

Brian, no worry about how it looks this time of year its a fine looking tree any way you look at it.

ed

 

[Dan W.]

Jealous....We're still just getting in to the full swing of winter here...and for at least another 2-3 months.

 

[0soyoung]

Brian,

IMHO, you've got a lot of work to do to bring this tree up to what I've come to believe are your standards. I find this tree to be exceedingly dull. All I see is two straight lines with a racing stripe for emphasis. The seasonal foliage toupe really doesn't help at this point.

... just sayin'.

 

[JudyB]

Can't wait to see this blossom, is it normally this early?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Brian,

IMHO, you've got a lot of work to do to bring this tree up to what I've come to believe are your standards. I find this tree to be exceedingly dull. All I see is two straight lines with a racing stripe for emphasis. The seasonal foliage toupe really doesn't help at this point.

... just sayin'.

Osoyoung, guess there's not much to say, other than it's year 2 of a 10 year project, and I really dig where its headed, fine with me if you don't. Granted (paraphrasing politely), it's not exceptional stock..but if you can find a better 4" ume trunk for $300 here, jump on it.

Judy, yes, it seems early, but this is the third winter and only its second time blooming for me. It was a bit later last year, but not by much.

 

[Dav4]

Brian, don't bother with this one...it's beneath you. I'll take it off your hands if you like.

FWIW, my ume already bloomed 2 weeks ago.

 

[JudyB]

FWIW, my ume already bloomed 2 weeks ago.

And where would we find the photos of this blooming? For those of us without the blessing of having one, we live to see others....

 

[fredtruck]

I'm beginning to think that ume are very opportunistic about blooming. Mine has fluctuated in a roughly 2 month time slot. I think that once fall has set in and the leaves are down, ume will bloom when the conditions are right.

At the moment, mine is preparing its second flush of flowers.

 

[Ron Dennis]

Brian, you know I love your Ume so why would you be thinking of shipping this tree off to N. GA. I am less than 5 minutes away and will run by this afternoon to take it off your hands. I may even bring a case of beer or would you rather have a good wine.

Seriously, do you know how old is your Ume? Any guess? And I think you said above this is the second year for blooms. Looking forward to the photos this year.

Mine hasn't completely lost its leaves yet

 

[Dav4]

And where would we find the photos of this blooming? For those of us without the blessing of having one, we live to see others....

Honestly, my tree isn't very happy right now and the bloom this year was pathetic...only one flower. Here is a link to a thread I started on my ume a few years ago. There some descent pics of the flowers in there.
http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?4836-My-Ume

 

[tom tynan]

Brian....I think it is a great piece of material and you have taken it far at this point. One of the growing traits of all Prunus sp. is the tendency to grow almost a pure cylindical trunk - so it is very difficult to create taper. That said - the right angle between the lower and upper trunk has been softened by the carving and adjusting the planting angle. In time it will improve - esp. if you can expose some surface rootage and perhaps if there is some budding or suckers at the base of the tree. Letting these lower shoots really run - could create some lower trunk mass.

To find a Prunus Mume trunk at 4" diameter for less than $300 is next to impossible here in the US and other than a few backyard growers - no one has this material. There is a great article in a very old issue of International Bonsai that illustrates howto build trunk mass and taper - but it involves multiple lower trunk chops. A few recent issue of Bonsai Focus also highlight Prunus sp. - but mostly older collected material from Japan - the stuff we all want but cannot get here in the US.

The Prunus. sp. almost never look good when in full leaf - as compared to a maple or beech as examples. With heat and stress they quickly start to look tired and this summer stress can result in a dropping of leaves or little flowering in the late winter or early spring. I wonder how in Japan with their fondness for the species and their summer heat - how they manage to care for these so well. Again - great work and in a few more years - perhaps less than 8 - you should have quite a tree. Your tree shows - that it takes considerable time to build a full, healthy branch structure to support flowering. Tom...

 

[fredtruck]

>>I wonder how in Japan with their fondness for the species and their summer heat - how they manage to care for these so well.

In Japan, they don't show ume in the summer or spring very often because, as you stated, they show signs of stress, often. But I've seen pictures of ume shown with leaves, and I think you'll see that more and more. These trees just need a huge amount of water. And they need to be fed like crazy...or at least, I do. I have mine on an automatic watering system and it gets watered 4 minutes three times a day in the spring, summer and well into fall. As you can see, the pot is very small--9.5" in diameter, but my tree was shown a couple of times in late spring and at the end of the summer with good results.