Cotoneaster + almond.

[Eckhoffw]

Hello. Wasn’t sure which forum to stick this in but.... here we go.

So I’m turning 41 this Friday, and was given a Lowe’s gift card from my family. Yeah!

I’m pretty happy with what I found.

First off, Cranberry cotoneaster ‘ cotoneaster apiculatus’



This tree seems to have pretty good bones.
Nice and full with a good amount of branching. I’ve taken out some problem branches, but all in all, have tried not to do much until I research more.
At this point I just want to clean it up but leave the basic structure.
I’ve been reading up on both of these, but I would really love any kind of advice on putting these guys through their paces.

Second is a pink flowering almond - ‘prunus glandulosa’
The flowers got me on this one. I know zip about it other than that I will b needing another one if I want almonds? I guess I really don’t know about that either.


I’m really not sure what to do with this.
Perhaps after flowers, I will think about the structure of the tree.

Lots of questions to come. Lots of past threads to read.

 

[Carol 83]

The flowers got me on this one.

I can see why, very pretty. Happy almost Birthday!

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Happy birthday.

The cotoneaster is nice. You are right, it does have ''Good Bones", you should have no trouble with styling it into a nice tree. Basically follow any of the many threads on BNut about them. I prune mine once or twice a year in early-middle summer, July, and again in September. But there are a number of ways to handle them, they are very forgiving.

The flowering Almond, Prunus glandulosa, is not a culinary almond, the fruit of Prunus glandulosa will be small, and bitter. The double flowered (many petaled) form of the species is a higher polyploidy cultivar (triploid or hexaploid), and tends to be sterile. Should you run into the form with only 5 or 10 petals, it is the one that will produce fruit, but like I said, it is not considered "culinary". The culinary almond is Prunus dulcis, and in the older literature called Prunus amygdalus. Totally different species.

You don't see the flowering almond, P glandulosa, used very often for bonsai. It tends to be shrubby, producing thin trunks from the base of the plant rather than easily forming a single trunk. In some ways they are similar to Ume, or flowering cherry in the way they are treated as bonsai, except they tend to be shrubby. Some complain that they are disease prone, but that may be climate related.

I will be curious to see how this progresses.

 

[Eckhoffw]

Happy birthday.

The cotoneaster is nice. You are right, it does have ''Good Bones", you should have no trouble with styling it into a nice tree. Basically follow any of the many threads on BNut about them. I prune mine once or twice a year in early-middle summer, July, and again in September. But there are a number of ways to handle them, they are very forgiving.

The flowering Almond, Prunus glandulosa, is not a culinary almond, the fruit of Prunus glandulosa will be small, and bitter. The double flowered (many petaled) form of the species is a higher polyploidy cultivar (triploid or hexaploid), and tends to be sterile. Should you run into the form with only 5 or 10 petals, it is the one that will produce fruit, but like I said, it is not considered "culinary". The culinary almond is Prunus dulcis, and in the older literature called Prunus amygdalus. Totally different species.

You don't see the flowering almond, P glandulosa, used very often for bonsai. It tends to be shrubby, producing thin trunks from the base of the plant rather than easily forming a single trunk. In some ways they are similar to Ume, or flowering cherry in the way they are treated as bonsai, except they tend to be shrubby. Some complain that they are disease prone, but that may be climate related.

I will be curious to see how this progresses.

Thank you for this Leo. As always, very helpful and very generous in your advice for the clueless.

 

[just.wing.it]

Happy birthday.

The cotoneaster is nice. You are right, it does have ''Good Bones", you should have no trouble with styling it into a nice tree. Basically follow any of the many threads on BNut about them. I prune mine once or twice a year in early-middle summer, July, and again in September. But there are a number of ways to handle them, they are very forgiving.

The flowering Almond, Prunus glandulosa, is not a culinary almond, the fruit of Prunus glandulosa will be small, and bitter. The double flowered (many petaled) form of the species is a higher polyploidy cultivar (triploid or hexaploid), and tends to be sterile. Should you run into the form with only 5 or 10 petals, it is the one that will produce fruit, but like I said, it is not considered "culinary". The culinary almond is Prunus dulcis, and in the older literature called Prunus amygdalus. Totally different species.

You don't see the flowering almond, P glandulosa, used very often for bonsai. It tends to be shrubby, producing thin trunks from the base of the plant rather than easily forming a single trunk. In some ways they are similar to Ume, or flowering cherry in the way they are treated as bonsai, except they tend to be shrubby. Some complain that they are disease prone, but that may be climate related.

I will be curious to see how this progresses.

Leo!
You sir are a walking talking typing tree encyclopedia.
Thank you for being a staple here!

 

[Carol 83]

Leo!
You sir are a walking talking typing tree encyclopedia.
Thank you for being a staple here!

How have you gone past 10K and don't have a new and marvelous name? @sorce @Bonsai Nut somebody is slipping!

 

[just.wing.it]

How have you gone past 10K and don't have a new and marvelous name? @sorce @Bonsai Nut somebody is slipping!

C'mon, give them a break....its only been a couple hours...
Lol!

 

[Eckhoffw]

Update.
Went ahead and gave the cotoneaster a pot
and a prune.
It’s my understanding that you can go pretty hard on these. I think I went medium hard I think.

 

[Balbs]

Any update on the prunus?

 

[Eckhoffw]

Any update on the prunus?

Well, I put it in the ground, then 6 months later we put in a hot tub next to it. It’s looking a little beat up as of now from the traffic. I would have moved it, but it was in the dead of winter. I’ll take some pics and see what I should do with it.
Thanks!

 

[Rivian]

Reading the title I had a faint hope of Cotoneaster x almond hybrid like Malosorbus

 

[JonW]

Very nice! I like Cranberry Cotoneaster a lot. I bought one last year at the nursery - similar size to yours, and did a hard prune (roots and shoots) this spring. It bounced back really nicely (I need to take a more recent pic). Brent Walston doesn't mention this variety on his Cotoneaster page - I'd be interested in his opinion, but I think it is good for a number of reasons:

• Relatively fast growing but still compact internodes and small enough leaves
• The pink flowers are more interesting than the white ones in my opinion
• Nice-sized red berries - combined with craggy bark makes a great faux apple tree
• Deciduous, so you can prune more easily in the fall (or early spring).
• Cheap at nurseries
• Branches aren't as straight as Horizontalis or Thymifolia, which is a good thing, but they aren't as weeping as something like cooperi unfortunately, so clip-and-grow seems the best way to get movement.

People seem to have really opposing experiences: either they kill it at the first repot (some people say they don't like to be bare rooted, though I bare rooted mine), or that they are the easiest plant out there.

I won't prune mine until fall (after leaf drop) since I want it to fill the pot with roots this summer and put on some girth on new shoots since I hard-pruned.