vine bonsai?

[linlaoboo]

Is it possible?

I just bought a house with a deck and there's this vine that's maybe 10 years old is my guess with multiple trunks 3 to 4 inches thick they're taking over the deck and I'm cutting it down asap to prevent damage.

It's also sendign suckers all over my yard as far as 20 ft away. Is it worth trying to dig it out and bonsai it?

 

[jk_lewis]

Lotsa vines make nice bonsai. Lots also do not.

Your first job is to determine what KIND of vine you have.

If it is eating your porch, I'd bet on Wisteria. But maybe not in NJ.

I have bonsai from Wisteria, English (Boston) ivy, trumpet vine, and have had grape bonsai. I've seen some very nice Virginia creeper bonsai. Many folks use honeysuckle vine as bonsai, tho bush honeysuckle are easier.

 

[JudyB]

I would also guess wisteria, especially as it's sending suckers up so far away, they tend to do that. I have a couple eating up a shrub border....and a couple ash trees. (I figure when the borers kill them they can stay for a while as dead arbor trees...) Can you take a pic?

 

[linlaoboo]

The leaves look a little like the trumpet vine. I'll try to take a picture tomorrow. I was able to free up the deck from it before it's damaged today. Judging by how soft the wood and the stems are, I don't think it'll be a good bonsai subject now that I've cut it down. But the stumb is still in the ground b/c it broke my shovel.

 

[rockm]

Wisteria, bittersweet, boston ivy, ALL make wonderful bonsai if you start with a decent, aged trunk. The wood on all is pretty soft and it tends to rot on larger trunks after collection, BUT they all grow very quickly and can compensate for the loss over time...

 

[JudyB]

The leaves look a little like the trumpet vine. I'll try to take a picture tomorrow. I was able to free up the deck from it before it's damaged today. Judging by how soft the wood and the stems are, I don't think it'll be a good bonsai subject now that I've cut it down. But the stumb is still in the ground b/c it broke my shovel.

Now it Really sounds like wisteria. You can air layer that trunk off to the ground and get yourself a nice specimen wisteria bonsai next spring. You'll have to study how good bonsai are made out of these, they are different than regular trees, as they're built for the flowering, instead of the tree image. Then you can work on killing the stump out, you'd never get all the roots out anyway, and it'll just keep coming back if you dig it. They are tenacious!

 

[Dav4]

It could definitely be a trumpet vine, too. The house I bought three years ago had several trumpet vines planted along the foundation that were growing up and over the roof 20 feet up from multiple trunks erupting from bases 6-7 inches wide. They were chopped at ground level and round up was painted on the cut...three years later, I'm still pulling up (or applying round up to) root suckers up to 15 feet away from the stumps. The leaves of wisteria and trumpet vine are a bit similar...but I find that the bark on larger trumpet vine trunks tends to exfoliate in long strips which I've never seen a wisteria do. Honestly, I never cared about making them into bonsai....I just wanted them off and away from my house.

 

[linlaoboo]

So I dug it out. Never saw any flowers on it so I'm not sure what it is and all I want to do is get it away from my house and judging from the 3 or 4 large tap roots that extends from the stumb over beyond my reach under the deck, I hope the suckers won't keep coming up from the extended roots that I can't get to more than 3 foot away now that the man tree is out. The wood on it is so soft that I basically pull and snap off the tap roots. I probably missed the opprotunity to practice on this vine, guess it wasn't meant to be.

 

[edprocoat]

Linlaoboo, if you are itching wildly with a rash and maybe some blisters or groups of blisters than I bet my first guess looking at those odd shaped green leaves is correct, my guess being Pacific Poison Oak. I hope not, or at least hope you are not allergic to it.

ed

 

[Oliver Muscio]

The leaves look like trumpet vine, not pacific poison oak, which are more rounded, less pointed. Also, it is unlikely he is finding pacific coast poison oak in New Jersey. Wisteria leaves are smoother, not toothed. Expect it to come up everywhere the roots run--mine did!
Oliver

 

[rockm]

It's trumpet vine (campsis radicans), not poison oak. It's also called "cow itch vine," because is can cause a mild allergic skin reaction in some people.

This vine isn't really big enough to mess with for bonsai. This species, however, is capable of producing pretty substantial trunks as it ages. Those trunks can make the foundation for pretty nice bonsai.

 

[Dav4]

Yup, trumpet vine.

 

[linlaoboo]

the base of the thing is at least 6 inches which is larger than any bonsai or prebonsai I have but I was more concerned about my yard at that poin instead of trying to keep this thing alive lol. I thought would be hard to work with and train the soft vinny stems anyways. You're correct the bark shows age.

 

[linlaoboo]

They were already everywhere, through the lawn, under the deck through gravel, through mulched beds around the deck and agaist the foundation. I'll be looking for some liquid solution to kill this thing, can't see myself breaking my back digging all the roots up.

The leaves look like trumpet vine, not pacific poison oak, which are more rounded, less pointed. Also, it is unlikely he is finding pacific coast poison oak in New Jersey. Wisteria leaves are smoother, not toothed. Expect it to come up everywhere the roots run--mine did!
Oliver

 

[rockm]

"thought would be hard to work with and train the soft vinny stems anyway"

Similar to wisteria, but if the trunk is decent, it's worth the extra trouble. Only larger trunks, however, as suitable for use, as the compound leaves are ungainly on smaller trunks, as are the larger blossoms.

Do a search on wisteria bonsai. Wood, leaves and other things are similar to trumpet vine. FWIW, I've had my eye on a few very large trumpet vine trunks for some time. The species is almost as rampant as wisteria and bittersweet in the woods around here. There are several eight ot 12 trunks climbing up pine trees just behind my house...

 

[Oliver Muscio]

They were already everywhere, through the lawn, under the deck through gravel, through mulched beds around the deck and agaist the foundation. I'll be looking for some liquid solution to kill this thing, can't see myself breaking my back digging all the roots up.

Paint the leaves with Roundup where ever it comes up; try to keep the herbicide off the grass. It will take time, but eventually the roots will give up.
Oliver