Prickly Paperbark: August 2024 collection

My biggest task for the spring break was to deal with the prickly paperbarks.

Let’s see how it went. In alphabetical order…

The Formal

I was rather disappointed with this, and I ended up throwing it away. But looking at it now, maybe chopping off the right branch, and planting so that root mass is above the soil might have given something. Oh well.

Here’s what I ended up keeping, which I’ll call a formal upright if it manages to grow some decent branches.

I strongly suspect this one is just going to be a waste of time.

★☆☆☆☆

The Raft

This one was the biggest. It was a lot of work to get out, and then trim into shape. Also, it was getting late, and I was racing the sun. But apparently, you’re going to have to trust me on that, because I stopped taking photos.

This was tall, and the main trunks were pretty straight. So I started cutting until I got to something interesting. Which turned out to be this.

This is actually two trees, but unlike the formal, I’m going to leave them together.

I came out for a better photo the next day.

Kind of ok, but there’s something wrong.

Prickly Paperbark: August 2024 collection — Fixed.

I was initially disappointed with what came out. But I’ve come around to this, and I think this could turn out nicely.

★★★★☆

The Stump

Digging in, and I began to suspect that this might be a problem. Those roots were thick.

There are some roots there, but nothing to write home about.

I wasn’t at all sure what to do about this one. The trunks go very straight very quickly. And the root mass is such a block. I’ve mostly got one trick here… start cutting till we see something interesting.

So I’d need a fairly deep pot for this, at least for now.

Here’s where I’ve ended up. It’s very transitional right now. I need to see what happens with, well, everything.

I’ve seen some bonsais which are clearly stumps with new growth. I’m pretty close to that here. But I think there’s a path here for something different in my collection, which is mostly what I want.

★★★☆☆

The Twins

This would benefit from a pitchfork for scale.

I was uninspired here, so I stuck them back in the dirt and moved on. Then those winds kicked in. When I was cleaning up, I found them blown over. So I stuck them in a pot and called it a night. But that wasn’t a good resolution…

In fairness, that’s obviously the wrong put for that tree.

I cut them down further, and got a more suitable pot.

This one got a lot of poor treatment. I don’t know if it will survive. But on the other hand, I don’t much care.

★☆☆☆☆

Conclusion

Summing up:

A couple that might be interesting given some successful years.
A couple that are probably a waste of time.
I’ve cleared out that hedge in the driveway, which is the biggest win here
I made mistakes in the planting. First, the early images clearly show there were multiple trees growing. Second, they were so close that there were bound to be overlaps.
In some ways this is a numbers game, but I want to be more careful about how many numbers I’m running.