Big honeysuckle

[radhatter]

Collected a big old box leaf honeysuckle from the front yard when the wife got sick of having to prune it back every year.
It reminds me of the deku tree from Zelda.

Almost completely filled this 24x21” mixing tub. Planted it in pure pumice for now and came back to top dress with sphagnum after taking this picture.

I dug out 2 of these that had spread off this mother plant last year with barely any roots and they barely skipped a beat so I’m expecting this will likely do well in its new container.

 

[NMbonsai]

They are a tough and resilient family. My girlfriend has one that she was given by a neighbor who was moving. It had spent the last 10 years in a pot on a front porch with occasional watering and no fertilizer. She and I pruned off a bunch of dead branches and developed it as a cascade bonsai. It experienced some dieback the first summer but came back strong and continues to flower, last year even into December!

 

[radhatter]

Nice! I’m expecting this one to be ok but the one thing that does concern me is it doesn’t really seem to heal over cut off branches, at least not what I’m observing. Have you seen any healing where you’ve pruned?

 

[NMbonsai]

There were only a few branches bigger than a pencil and one did take a long time to callus over. It looks like you will be working with a lot bigger piece of material. I would just use cut paste and wait. Also, you should probably cut back a little longer than your final plan to allow for some dieback at the cut sites.

 

[radhatter]

There were only a few branches bigger than a pencil and one did take a long time to callus over. It looks like you will be working with a lot bigger piece of material. I would just use cut paste and wait. Also, you should probably cut back a little longer than your final plan to allow for some dieback at the cut sites.

Good tip! Im gonna wait to see this thing spring back and recover before I do any cutting. It’s a mess but I think it’s got potential. Base is over 12” wide

 

[NMbonsai]

Amazing! I hope you have a big pot planned for it. BTW, what color are the flowers?

 

[radhatter]

Amazing! I hope you have a big pot planned for it. BTW, what color are the flowers?

Yellow and very small but all over. The bees and hummingbirds love them though!

 

[Shibui]

I dug a hedge of Lonicera nitida last year. I am assuming that's the same as your box leaf honeysuckle but pretty sure flowers are white?

I got 12 main trunks and numerous layered branches. All survived transplant despite roots chopped real short, trunks and branches chopped way back and 24 hours bare rooted in bags for the trip home. They are absolutely bomb proof - at least for pruning and transplant.
The peeling, craggy trunks are a definite feature, along with small leaves.

 

[radhatter]

I dug a hedge of Lonicera nitida last year. I am assuming that's the same as your box leaf honeysuckle but pretty sure flowers are white?

I got 12 main trunks and numerous layered branches. All survived transplant despite roots chopped real short, trunks and branches chopped way back and 24 hours bare rooted in bags for the trip home. They are absolutely bomb proof - at least for pruning and transplant.
The peeling, craggy trunks are a definite feature, along with small leaves.

Ya they ground layer like crazy, pretty sure if I were really inclined I could get 2 more plants off of this one but it’d involve some cutting. I have 2 more large ones I dug up last year that rooted no problem on barely anything and a handful of small ones. Still on the fence regarding leaving the 2 extras as they’ve sorta grown and become part of the mother plant here but if you include them the base of this thing becomes nearly 18” wide! Time will tell what direction makes sense to take this.

 

[Shibui]

Time will tell what direction makes sense to take this.

I agree. No point rushing good material. It will cope much better with any further work much better when it has recovered from the transplant.
I suspect I can see a multi trunk bonsai among other possibilities. Trunks sort of like a raft style marching away from the main trunk.