Page 60 - Ebook cây cảnh Art of Bonsai

60 Top trees: Easy to grow

Potentilla

Potentilla fruticosa

The highlight of this beautiful shrub is its mass of dainty
yellow and orange flowers. Thanks to its resilience, the
potentilla is also an excellent choice for bonsai. You can prune
it back hard and it will send out buds from the old wood. Fine
branches readily develop from pruning alone, and if you want
to make a feature of attractive deadwood and interesting
16in / 40 cm tall
trunk lines, removing lots of branches is the way
Courtesy of Peter Warren
to go. A great choice for
year-round
interest.
Rounded silhouette
in the apex created
by pruning longer
shoots

Shoot tips may die off
in frost, but new buds
emerge all over the Dieback has created
branches and trunk
an interesting hollow
and a shari effect on
Looking closer the trunk
Top: New buds form readily on
old wood in the wake of frost
damage or after pruning.
Center: Flowers vary depending Develop and thicken
on the cultivar. Remove dead the cascading branch This Ron Lang pot is
deliberately placed on
flowers before they turn to seed by leaving it unpruned
an angle to provide an
and sap the tree’s energy. angular counterpoint to
Below: Collected specimens may the sinuous movement
feature sinuous live veins and
hollowed-out trunks; visit
reputable bonsai nurseries to Key features
find interesting material. ∙Flowers develop at the end of new
shoots. If you want to focus on the
flowers, do not prune the new
growth, and fertilize after flowering.
If you want vegetative growth,
fertilize early and prune to shape.
∙Branches soon become brittle and
cannot be bent, so set the basic
skeleton, then use scissors and
directed growth for further shaping.