Page 42 - Tạp chí bonsai cây cảnh BCI 2015Q4

Budi’s Bucida

Creating a Black Olive

From Nursery Material

By Budi Sulistyo, Indonesia

Bottom left; The plant as reating a bonsai from a raw material is something very enjoyable. You can enjoy every step of the pro-
purchased from a nursery in cess when the tree is formerly shaped, how it grows and your choices to make it a good bonsai in the
Puerto Rico. future. You really can express your dream and your sense of beauty in creating the bonsai. Our sharp
Bottom right: Budi asked for a eyes are really needed to decide which plant to choose for our future bonsai. You can go to a nursery or
saw and proceeded to cut off
the top of the tree. Ca place where people collect plants from the wild. Here is one of my experiences with a Bucida spinosa.
I was in Puerto Rico in 2009 after visiting the BCI convention in New Orleans. Puerto Rico is a tropical island
in Central America that has so much similarity in climate with my home town, Java, Indonesia. I went to a
nursery to find some small trees to bring home to be trained as bonsai. Fortunately among so many choices I
found a tree of my dreams: a nice black olive or Bucida spinosa. I could not find such species in my country.

Bucida spinosa is a shrub originating from tropical areas of the
Americas. It has tiny, shiny leaves that make it nice to be a bonsai.
The plant was about 50 cm in height with around 3 cm thick on the
bottom. Here is the tree I got on August 9, 2009.
I chose the tree due to the curving shape of the bottom portion of
the trunk. It had good potential to be a nice tree in the future. After
purchasing the tree, I asked for a saw and I cut the top off the tree.

The sales person was surprised to see me turn this tall plant into a
15-centimeter stump, or about half-a-foot high.

40 | BCI | October/November/December 2015