Page 47 - BSAM 2016 Q4

Sweet Fragrance
The Charm of Flowering Wisteria Bonsai
By Danilo Scursatone, Italy
Translation by Danilo Scursatone and Joe Grande
variety, the color of the owers is always less intense than those of the medium and short spike, and owers are more sparse, so er and elegant in appearance. Wisteria for starter bonsai can be found in nurseries where it is important to choose gra ed plants. Plants that grow from seed always have reduced owering and sometimes can take many years before they produce owering buds.
To create a wisteria bonsai in a reduced amount of time and get good results, it is possible to resort to the technique of air layering. e air layering must be made on a perennial branch that has been pruned for many years. e layering made in May is ready in August of the same year to be detached from the mother plant and placed in a bonsai pot. It is best for the rst winter to protect it from frost, placing it in a cold frame. e following spring, you can already enjoy a owering bonsai, Although not yet perfect in its bonsai pot, with its rst owering it rewards us of the work done.
A er the drastic pruning of the late winter, applied to stimulate owering, the Wisteria blooms and then emits leaves and growth spurts. ere are two types of growth: short internodes that correspond to the locations where next season’s ower buds are formed and elongation governed by its growth habit which is a vine. As the plant elongates, it should be allowed to grow while pinching branch tips. In July or alternatively at the end of August, the branch generated by the regrowth will be pruned, leaving on it one or two leaves. is action will strengthen the plant and will facilitate the issuance of new ower buds.
It is important to use a rich fertilizer (be careful not to provide too much nitrogen that would result in reduced owering) and plentiful watering during its growth period. e Wisteria does not tolerate being dry and needs a lot of water. In periods of intense heat, place the Wisteria in partial shade on a saucer that holds excess water from regular watering so as to facilitate hydration.
Regarding repotting, it is recommended to partially replace the soil every 2 or 3 years, avoiding soils that are too calcareous. Repotting can be done in the fall or immediately a er owering, removing only the large and little-divided roots that form a tangle in the bottom of the pot.
Before owering, if there are many branches with ower buds, some of these buds can be eliminated. is operation of thinning out the owering mass, results in more elegance and color rendering in the remaining owers. If there are too many owers, not only does the bonsai shape disappear but
branches can dry out from the excessive e ort of owering.
Each wisteria bonsai is unique and the style in which it is shaped is not so critical, as long as you respects the nature of the species. During
the shaping, it is good to organize the overall appearance of the bonsai favoring the oriferous mass to be predominant, but with its mass optically balanced with the bonsai tree.
Choose a pot shape that will complement the intended bonsai style or be in harmony with the structure of the plant. As for the color of the bonsai pot, you will have to take into account the owering and the resulting type of ower. Is good remember that the pot should not prevail in bonsai and in the speci c case of Wisteria, the owers are always the center of attention. Because wisteria is a unique species, from a bonsai point of view, it is possible to break the traditional rules and experiment with unusual pots decorated with landscapes or animals to give us lightness and poetry that blends in well with this species.
Surely, styling a Wisteria will not disappoint. e species’ adaptability to the bonsai pot and therefore of its future development, both from the point of view of creativity, giving the bonsai artist space to free his or her spirit to achieve a bonsai form, which in time will always reward us with new emotions.
April/May/June 2017 | BCI | 45