Vietnamese blue bell. Branch die back.

It's coming from Weigerts... I'll post a couple pics from the website and the nice guy working there yesterday (Chris) that sent me some pics from his phone. It's a "Pre-bonsai" as it's in a 12" plastic pot and not in Bonsai soil. I was told to replant it next spring (looking for a bonsai pot too, if you have any recommendations). Does it make sense to wait until next spring? I need to get bonsai soil as I'm told in isn't in bonsai soil currently.
Very nice tree! Since you sounded quite new to this species and your location is quite suit to this tree. For winter, I would try to keep it above 40 F. I am pretty certain they can take a bit colder than that if day time bounce back to 50s or above. I brought mine in when we have a prolong cold... like a few days with the low below 40.
I think you will like it. It's easy plant and they flower so profusely... with grape fragrance as a bonus.
 
I’m in west Monroe Louisiana and I’ve had one for 2yrs now.
It blooms non stop. I just had to kill thrips but otherwise, it’s healthy. Mine is getting full sun until about 2pm and then is under the shade cloth. I water it everyday. I repotted mine about a month ago and man I cut the roots back HARD!! Was actually biting my nails a bit but it only yellowed and then dropped maybe a handful of leaves, did not skip a beat.. I keep it on top of a water tray I keep filled with water, the tree doesn’t sit in the water but I have roots pouring out of the drainage holes already doing just fine submerged in the water water. They are growing in the water.
I feed the crap out of it too.. I don’t think they like acidic very much but I may be wrong.. as has been stated, there isn’t a lot of info about their care. But it didn’t seem to like acidic fertilizer.
I keep organic fertilizer in tea bags on top all year long and also hit it probably once or twice a week with a weak liquid fertilizer solution.
In the winter it stays outside here most of the time. As do all of my tropicals.. when I see forecasts below 40 I’ll move them inside and then put them back out in the morning. I don’t have a bunch to move around but we really just don’t get a whole lots of cold here that would kill tropical bonsai.. do not let it freeze. Frost will kill its leaves but I’ve screwed up more than once and left them out under a pretty thick frost and they are all just fine and full of vigor. I do agree tropical can take a lot more cold than we give them credit for.. best practice though is to greenhouse them.
 
I’m in west Monroe Louisiana and I’ve had one for 2yrs now.
It blooms non stop. I just had to kill thrips but otherwise, it’s healthy. Mine is getting full sun until about 2pm and then is under the shade cloth. I water it everyday. I repotted mine about a month ago and man I cut the roots back HARD!! Was actually biting my nails a bit but it only yellowed and then dropped maybe a handful of leaves, did not skip a beat.. I keep it on top of a water tray I keep filled with water, the tree doesn’t sit in the water but I have roots pouring out of the drainage holes already doing just fine submerged in the water water. They are growing in the water.
I feed the crap out of it too.. I don’t think they like acidic very much but I may be wrong.. as has been stated, there isn’t a lot of info about their care. But it didn’t seem to like acidic fertilizer.
I keep organic fertilizer in tea bags on top all year long and also hit it probably once or twice a week with a weak liquid fertilizer solution.
In the winter it stays outside here most of the time. As do all of my tropicals.. when I see forecasts below 40 I’ll move them inside and then put them back out in the morning. I don’t have a bunch to move around but we really just don’t get a whole lots of cold here that would kill tropical bonsai.. do not let it freeze. Frost will kill its leaves but I’ve screwed up more than once and left them out under a pretty thick frost and they are all just fine and full of vigor. I do agree tropical can take a lot more cold than we give them credit for.. best practice though is to greenhouse them.
Out of curiosity, how big is yours? I ask as it sounds like you do a fair amount of fertilizing... Also, when you re-potted, did you put it into a similarly sized (diameter) pot? I'm wondering what to do with mine that's in a 12" and I'd like to not go bigger if possible; maybe even slightly smaller? Thanks for the info!
 
I pulled mine out of a nursery pot and the roots were girdled so badly I pretty much cut back to within 2-3” of the trunk and left some root stubs. When I cut the roots on both the front and back of the tree they were girdled so bad under the trunk there was a void I couldn’t even see until I cut all those roots away.. I was actually nervous the tree wouldn’t survive but like I said, it has roots growing out of the drain holes already lol. And I did all that root work 1-2 months ago. I potted it into a good bonsai soil with a little organic matter. The tree is about 16” tall from the soil to the apex tip. Twin trunk with a 3” base. I potted it into an oval pot approximately 3” deep X 9” long X 5” wide from a big nursery container. I’ll post some photos if I can get home at a decent hour to take photos in the light. I’m an HVAC tech and we’re working 75+hrs right now.
 
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Actually found one just after I repotted it. You can see the water tray underneath the pot and there’s a couple bricks in there. I fill the tray up everyday to the bottom of the pot. I have several trees I do this with. It helps a lot with humidity
 

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Actually found one just after I repotted it. You can see the water tray underneath the pot and there’s a couple bricks in there. I fill the tray up everyday to the bottom of the pot. I have several trees I do this with. It helps a lot with humidity
Pretty!
 
Actually found one just after I repotted it. You can see the water tray underneath the pot and there’s a couple bricks in there. I fill the tray up everyday to the bottom of the pot. I have several trees I do this with. It helps a lot with humidity
That's a nice one!
 
Actually found one just after I repotted it. You can see the water tray underneath the pot and there’s a couple bricks in there. I fill the tray up everyday to the bottom of the pot. I have several trees I do this with. It helps a lot with humidity
So you're the one making it Humid in LA. :) Nice tree.
 
Mines getting healthier, so after it was done flowering I cut the OP dead branches off a few days ago. I love the thorns. :)

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Very nice!
The variety I have I believe is some sort of subspecies… it has thorns all over it but they are very small thorns. Underhill bonsai in Folsom, Louisiana has a lot of Vietnamese bluebell as well that have much larger leaves and thorns than the one in my collection.
 
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