Purple Smoke Leaves

[PherPhace]

I bought these Royal purple smoke trees last year as bare root trees with hardly any fine roots. I let them build some strength last year and wired them this spring. There is not a lot about them as bonsai on the internets so I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with these trees and leaf reduction. Will they reduce at all?

 

[Shibui]

Any leaves will reduce in pot cultivation. They reduce even further when you have lots of branches and growing tips.
There is a limit to how much leaves will reduce though. Smoke bush leaves are normally about 4-6" long. Reducing them by half still gives relatively large leaves for bonsai.
My experience is that these don't ramify particularly well so it is difficult to make a nice dense tree with many shoots.

 

[sorce]

Did yours have larger buds on the ends?

Someone else asked this recently.

I believe the key is to, first, account for the situation in fall and make sure to leave shoots long enough to prompt these larger buds.
In spring, let those large buds grow to sap all that energy, then cut back to your 2 smaller buds/branches a while after.
Perhaps post flowering.

A decent mid summer display seems possible.

Though a flower display may be the one we strive for. I don't think you get flowers from these littler buds.

Still in observation stages of grow out, so reducing via simple ramification is likely, but that extra push may be found still.

Sorce

 

[PherPhace]

Thanks for the info. I did pinch the new growth and everywhere I did, 2 new branches sprouted from the top leaf nodes. I wasn't sure where or if it would bud so I left at least 3 nodes on each branch. I'm curious to see if every leaf will bud and grow a new branch next season, or just a select few. Next year I think I will pinch back to the 1st leaf node for better ramification. I think the extra height this season will be fine. I think it will look good as a bigger tree.

 

[BrianBay9]

Better suited for bigger size bonsai. On the plus side they do great in pot culture, respond well to root pruning (as you've discovered) and bud back like crazy on old wood after hard pruning.