Contorted White Flowering Ume (Apricot)

[Dan W.]

I just picked this up in Colorado on Saturday. I missed the bloom (barely.. there were still a few dry flowers on the tree). But the buds are just starting to bloom so I re-potted last night and did some minor pruning.

This one reminded me of Fred's ume. His sticks in my memory easily, so when I found this one it was a no brainer for me. Plus I've wanted to try ume fro quite a while.

I know the pot is large compared to what most of you would use... but... you don't live in Wyoming...lol. (The pot I put it in is half the pot I bought it in.) - But we'll see, if I do well with it for a couple of years, and after I get a mist sytem along with addtional shade cloth in my yard I may be able to reduce pot sizes.

These first pics are around where I'm imagining the front may end up:
.........

 

[Dan W.]

Pic for size and with the original pot:
.........

I love the contortions in the branches and twigs.

Here's a pic from the top:
......

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Cool, enjoy!

 

[Poink88]

Looks like a fun project.

I am still looking for a "proper" ume. For the mean time, I bought a garden variety plum LOL.

 

[fredtruck]

You've got a really nice start. All the best!

 

[Dan W.]

Thanks Brian, Dario and Fred.

Dario, he had another one there; it didn't have as much twisting and contorting. But if you're interested I can check to see if it's still available when I'm back down there.

 

[Dan W.]

Flower buds are swelling much faster than I expected. I might be in for an early Christmas show at this rate...

 

[Dan W.]

Blooms!!!

The first flower is completely open today!

Enjoy the pics!.. And let some of the negativity in recent posts wash away...















And Go Broncos!

 

[bonhe]

very nice flower!
Thanks for sharing.
Bonhe

 

[garywood]

Dan, I can small the aroma just looking at the flowers ;-) I do love Ume. Good job!

 

[fredtruck]

Way to go! You have a lot of flower buds on that tree. How tall is it?

 

[Dan W.]

Thanks Fred,

The tree is 25" tall. I was worried about it because the leaves were curled up for much of the summer, but after reading Brian's blog I realized it may not be a bad thing.

 

[Cadillactaste]

I have read...the contorted variety are harder to find...beautiful tree.

 

[Poink88]

Very nice flowers.

 

[edprocoat]

Nice flowers and even better photography, thanks for sharing !

ed

 

[Joedes3]

Dan, thanks for the pictures.
I live just north of Boston and we are going to get up to a foot of snow tomorrow.
Spring is still a long way off.
Joedes

 

[Beng]

VERY rare variety nice tree. I too have one I got a few years back the knobs a are normal with times they will fade into the bark.

 

[Dan W.]

Thanks everyone! More pictures soon!

Joedes, winter is still a long way off here too. We've been getting snow all day here. This one has been pushing flower buds all through the winter whether temps were freezing or not. I bring it in to enjoy the flowers for short periods, but take it back into the garage the rest of the time.

 

[Dan W.]

Good news / Bad news

Well, I never quite got to see full bloom. That's the bad news.

The good news is that I was able to share the flowers and smells with a lot of people who really enjoyed my tree.

Our club had the privilege of helping teach a 5 week (2 day per week) course on bonsai to an art class of 12-13 year olds, at our local middle school. The day I was able to take this tree in to share flowers with the students was quite cold and many of the buds were burned the next morning. But I don't count this as a failure, because I saw a lot of faces light up, and hopefully sparked some kids imagination to join us as a bonsai enthusiast one day! The art teacher has been keeping a couple of small bonsai for 8 years or so, and joined the club this past mont. -- I also showed the tree at a club workshop several days before, so many people were able to enjoy the flowers.

Here's what it looked like the last day.

 

[edprocoat]

Dan W, thats is great ! Its wonderful that you were able to do that with children and maybe get some interested in Bonsai. I got started as a child because of meeting an old asian man as a child of 12 and have never been without one in the 41 years since. Children are so receptive to things such as this when exposed to them, I still fish as I was taken fishing by my granpa as a kid. Its great to expose kids to something other than TV and video games and although you may never know for certain you may have started some child on their way to being a future great name in Bonsai or just a person who is very happy with a good clean and peaceful hobby.

ed