Cestrum nocturnum(Night blooming jasmine) - An unusual nursery stock find

[Pygo]

A few weeks ago, I found this night blooming jasmine at my trusty Lowe’s garden center. The trunk was a little more squat looking than I was looking for, but I couldn’t pass it up due to the killer surface roots and fat, gnarled trunk.
I gave it a light trim at first, because I had no idea what the needs of this plant were like. But eventually I chopped it back even harder(I really should’ve gone even lower, I have some stubs that still need more trimming



Turns out, this thing will back bud from anywhere and a chop is nothing to worry about. Within days, there were buds all over the old chopped branches, coming out of various parts of the trunk, and I even have a couple branches coming from the roots on the left side that I can’t quite pinch back.


Here it is today, only 3 weeks from date of purchase. Today’s photo was meant to capture the mushrooms, so sorry for the bad angle lol. But, you can see just how well this this has leafed out in such a short time.

I’m debating on whether to chop it back hard to fix the errors of my initial chop or shake off some of this soil and get it into a smaller pot sooner than later. Can’t decide which to do first, but I imagine this plant is strong enough to handle either at this time of year.

I look forward to updating as this tree progresses!

 

[NMbonsai]

That is a beautiful base on that plant. A great find. I have no experience working with Cestrum as bonsai but I have grown them as house plants in the past. I am in climate Zone 7a so I cannot grow them outdoors year round, but I would put them out all summer in a shady spot, where they thrived. They are very sensitive to cold, so one night below 50 degrees F and they were goners. The other thing to be aware of is that; because it is a member of the nightshade family, every part of the plant is poisonous, including the leaves, sap and flowers; so don't lick your fingers while you are working on it! (just kidding).
Speaking of flowers, they are small greenish white bells that have the most intense fragrance of any flower I have smelled, including true jasmine and gardenia. The fragrance is almost overpowering indoors.
When I grew them years ago, I always knew when they were blooming as soon as I opened the plant room door.
If you are growing your Cestrum as a bonsai, you may never see any flowers, as you would be removing buds as you start pruning to develop ramification.

 

[Pygo]

That is a beautiful base on that plant. A great find. I have no experience working with Cestrum as bonsai but I have grown them as house plants in the past. I am in climate Zone 7a so I cannot grow them outdoors year round, but I would put them out all summer in a shady spot, where they thrived. They are very sensitive to cold, so one night below 50 degrees F and they were goners. The other thing to be aware of is that; because it is a member of the nightshade family, every part of the plant is poisonous, including the leaves, sap and flowers; so don't lick your fingers while you are working on it! (just kidding).
Speaking of flowers, they are small greenish white bells that have the most intense fragrance of any flower I have smelled, including true jasmine and gardenia. The fragrance is almost overpowering indoors.
When I grew them years ago, I always knew when they were blooming as soon as I opened the plant room door.
If you are growing your Cestrum as a bonsai, you may never see any flowers, as you would be removing buds as you start pruning to develop ramification.

Thank you for the info! There's not a whole lot online about these, so every little bit helps. I've been trimming it pretty regularly since getting it(branches grow ridiculously fast!), but hopefully i get to experience the fragrance sooner or later. If you had to guess, how aggressive can you be with root pruning on these? I think the biggest next step is getting it into a smaller pot, but I'm afraid to touch the roots without having any info on it lol. I'm assuming it's pretty hardy due to how quickly it backbuds after chopping the top, but roots can be a totally different ballgame, so some reassurance would be nice

 

[Pygo]

This soil is RICH with mycelium. Ever since buying, I’ve gotten a flush of mushrooms basically every other time I water lol. Not sure I updated anywhere else, but I had trimmed back the woody branches even more from the initial chop. This photo is a few weeks old, but I’ve chased back the new branches a number of times since then. They’re growing too fast for me to really sit and think about placement, so it just gets a rough haircut every couple of weeks and we’re going to see where it takes us lol. I think next spring when I get it into a smaller pot, it should slow down some and I’ll be able to be a little more deliberate with the branching.

 

[NMbonsai]

I really can't give you much information on the roots or how they would respond to pruning because I only grew Cestrum as house plants, never as bonsai. When I did repot, it was always up-potting to a larger sized pot. However, I agree with your assessment that, being such a vigorous grower, your tree will probably tolerate some root pruning to make the transition to a smaller pot.

 

[Melospiza]

Curious to see how you ramify this species. When cut back, they throw out vigorous straight branches that grow a few feet and then flower at the ends (the flowers have the most intoxicating scent I've ever experienced). Their branching is straight and coarse, and when cut back, they throw up shoots from all over the plant, not just the tips. In this sense, they grow like crape myrtles or perhaps oleander.

 

[namnhi]

I have one. They back bud well and drink water like a hog. I will repot mine next Spring.

 

[Pygo]

Curious to see how you ramify this species. When cut back, they throw out vigorous straight branches that grow a few feet and then flower at the ends (the flowers have the most intoxicating scent I've ever experienced). Their branching is straight and coarse, and when cut back, they throw up shoots from all over the plant, not just the tips. In this sense, they grow like crape myrtles or perhaps oleander.

I'm also curious to see how it turns out lol. I've already cut it back a few times and like you said, it throws out lots of straight shoots from all over with long internodes. I think it might be kind of tough to get proper ramification on this, but I think the canopy will fill in to a point that it isn't noticeable lol. So far, I just pinch off any buds that come from undesirable spots(like the freakin roots!), then roughly trim back to the nearest desirable node. It's going to be a challenge if I can't shorten the internode length sooner than later, but I think it's well on its way!

 

[Tieball]

I would keep the roots fully covered for now and for quite awhile. Some nice secondary root shoots will develop to create an even better root base.