Cape Cod’s Franklin Tree(s) Franklinia alatamaha

[CapeCodBonsai]

Although I believe this species will prove to be a poor candidate for creating classical bonsai, I wanted to document my efforts to keep at least a few of them alive in pots. I plan to grow them utilizing standard bonsai techniques. The seeds were stratified in moist sphagnum moss inside a ziplock bag placed inside the refrigerator for 30 days. I’ve read that they are prone to root rot so, I transplanted the seeds (individually) into a plastic nursery pot filled with a fine particle mixture of pumice and akadama as soon as I noticed that a radicle had emerged.


The first week after transplanting the newly germinating seeds (May 22, 2024)



So far, so good (August 5, 2024)

From what I’ve read, this is going to be quite a challenging effort but, who doesn’t love a good challenge.

 

[CapeCodBonsai]

Three more Franklin Tree seedlings (along with a Japanese Black Pine seedling). It’s not obvious from the photo but, there are two Franklinia sharing the pot with the JBP.

Although all three are slightly younger, they don’t look quite as healthy as the first batch (in post #2). It might be because the trio weren’t able to handle the hot weather as well as their older classmates. Another possibility is that they were planted in almost pure (small grained) akadama unlike the first batch which was planted in an akadama/pumice mix.