Serissa - discuss!

[MichaelS]

I'm getting back into them. I don't remember, do they shoot from old wood after a heavy prune?
Why do so many people kill them?
Best mix?
Water?
How cold will they go?
I just got myself 5 varieties today. What is the tiny leaved one named?

 

[M. Frary]

The one I had was called thousand stars or something like that. It had tiny leaves.
Why it died is conjecture.
Repot?
Too much water?
Not humid enough?
It just didn't like the looks of me?
Other than that I know nothing but if I were to try tropical again it would be one of these.

 

[Anthony]

Chinese type -
zone 7, hedging shrub. Bonsai pot probably zone 8/9.

Rests down here from Christmas until mid or end of February.
Might be by light.

Please note Trinidad is a land of clouds. 33.9 deg. C for May/April
by day back to 30 deg.C for rest of year [ half an hour to 10 minutes by day ]
Night - 23.9 deg. C to 21.1 deg. C [ can be 17.8 deg. C by night for 12 hours Christmas to March ]

Full sun
Pot has to have a porous bottom, sides can be glazed
Pot should not be deep [ around 8 cm or less ] but can be wide.
Soil drains well
Repot yearly

Magnet for leaf pruning ants
Solution ------ bait or grow on metal stands [ BRC material in concrete floors]

Fertilise once a week into moist soil 12 N to 6 N

Before heavy pruning fertilise for a month.

Allow to flower once in June [ in China called, June Snow ]
Too much flowering, and no growth.

Not much else, easy shrub to grow [ thus far max height 8 feet /244 cm though
we suspect it grows much taller ]'

Take lots of cuttings for experiments.
Hope this helps,
Good Day
Anthony

In training-

 

[Ironbeaver]

I won't buy another any time soon. I bought one, took cuttings, everything was going fine, then they all started dieing. All gone now. If I was gifted one I'd give it a try otherwise f**k em.

 

[Anthony]

Oh forgot to mention,

Chinese Serissa -
that this shrub, I have seen imported into the UK with up to 13 cm trunks.
Very impressive with such fine branching and tiny leaves.
Well worth the effort to try and master the growing.

Responds well to grow and clip and has great surface roots.

It should be Serissa Bonsai sinensis, same as the Sageretia t.
Both give exceptional results and are rated for zone 7 in the ground.
Next up would also be the Fukien tea [ 3 known versions ] and Ligustrum from China.

We will see if we can grow this shrub to 4.3 m.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Wilson]

I love serissa, always seemed super easy to grow. When I find a nice piece of material, I will buy one for sure.

 

[Carol 83]

@Mellow Mullet would be the go-to guy for Serissa.

 

[Vin]

I'm getting back into them. I don't remember, do they shoot from old wood after a heavy prune?
Why do so many people kill them?
Best mix?
Water?
How cold will they go?
I just got myself 5 varieties today. What is the tiny leaved one named?

Serissa Kyoto is the one with tiny leaves.
I've not killed one yet and find them to be quite hardy.
They do back bud from old wood and you can strike cuttings very easily.
Mine seem to thrive in a mix that's heavy in organics.
I water mine daily.
I would shelter them from frost and treat them like a subtropical.

 

[Anthony]

The Japanese type serissas, are zone 7, and Carl Rosner on IBC
has shown proof of growing them outdoors in New Jersey.

Friendly chap, do a google and have a chat with him.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Vin]

Kyoto leaf size:



and flower size:

 

[Bonsai Nut]

The key to serissa are the roots. They are REALLY weak. You need to make sure you use open free-draining soil. They like a lot of water... but they will die if they stand in water.

 

[MichaelS]

Kyoto leaf size:

View attachment 165041

and flower size:

View attachment 165042

Thanks Vin that's definitely the one. Do you know if the other vars also respond to heavy pruning?

 

[MichaelS]

Chinese type -
zone 7, hedging shrub. Bonsai pot probably zone 8/9.

Rests down here from Christmas until mid or end of February.
Might be by light.

Please note Trinidad is a land of clouds. 33.9 deg. C for May/April
by day back to 30 deg.C for rest of year [ half an hour to 10 minutes by day ]
Night - 23.9 deg. C to 21.1 deg. C [ can be 17.8 deg. C by night for 12 hours Christmas to March ]

Full sun
Pot has to have a porous bottom, sides can be glazed
Pot should not be deep [ around 8 cm or less ] but can be wide.
Soil drains well
Repot yearly

Magnet for leaf pruning ants
Solution ------ bait or grow on metal stands [ BRC material in concrete floors]

Fertilise once a week into moist soil 12 N to 6 N

Before heavy pruning fertilise for a month.

Allow to flower once in June [ in China called, June Snow ]
Too much flowering, and no growth.

Not much else, easy shrub to grow [ thus far max height 8 feet /244 cm though
we suspect it grows much taller ]'

Take lots of cuttings for experiments.
Hope this helps,
Good Day
Anthony

In training-

View attachment 165004

Thanks Anthony! I don't know about the chinese one. Species? (Oh I just read the sinensis part)
I only have varieties of foetida (or japonica).
Over flowering reduces veg growth? How do you change that during the grow stage?

 

[MichaelS]

The key to serissa are the roots. They are REALLY weak. You need to make sure you use open free-draining soil. They like a lot of water... but they will die if they stand in water.

Free draining + a lot of water?
I made up a mix of fine akadama (a kind of), quartz sand, coconut coir (with lees than 1mm sifted out) and some fine bark. Anything over 3mm or so out and anything under about 1 out. It seems to drain instantly but holds the water like a sponge. Sound good?

 

[Mellow Mullet]

I have been growing them for many years and have several varieties, all that I have backbud easily on old wood, similar to an azalea, but not as prolific. I have them in a mix of lava, pumice, turface, and firbark, and like @Vin said, a little heavier on the organic, they seem to like it, like an azalea. @Bonsai Nut was spot on about the moisture, they like it moist, but not dry or waterlogged. They have fine roots, again, like an azalea, and will rot if you keep them too wet.

They seem to like a little deeper pot, I have kept them in a shallow pot, but did not have time to keep up with the watering.

Being subtropical, they can take some cold, I don't bring mine in unless it gets below 35 F. The cuttings growing under the bench and the ones growing in the yard stay out year round and have seen the upper 20's (F) and seem to do OK, sometimes the tops brown, but they always come back.

In the middle of summer, shelter them from the midday sun. Mine do not like it. I use regular miracle grow once a month, full strength. The only pest I have found that bothers them are rust mites.

Once you find the sweet spot, they will grow like weeds. Back off the pruning by late summer so you will bet some flowers, they really put on a show when it starts to cool down. The flowers form on the ends of the new growth. You don't have to worry about sacrificing flowers to promote growth, it is a myth just like the one they tell you about azaleas. You will be pruning every other week in the summer, with flowers.

Hope it helps,

John

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Thanks Anthony! I don't know about the chinese one. Species? (Oh I just read the sinensis part)
I only have varieties of foetida (or japonica).
Over flowering reduces veg growth? How do you change that during the grow stage?

The Chinese variety trunks up better than most, as does a variety that I have called pink fairy. It also, the pink fairy, gets twisty, as in the trunk looks like it has been wound up. I have not seen that over flowering reduces vegetative growth, it is know as tree of a thousand stars for a reason, and it has to make that growth to flower like that, the flowers are on the ends of the new growth.

 

[Mellow Mullet]

Chinese type -
zone 7, hedging shrub. Bonsai pot probably zone 8/9.

Rests down here from Christmas until mid or end of February.
Might be by light.

Please note Trinidad is a land of clouds. 33.9 deg. C for May/April
by day back to 30 deg.C for rest of year [ half an hour to 10 minutes by day ]
Night - 23.9 deg. C to 21.1 deg. C [ can be 17.8 deg. C by night for 12 hours Christmas to March ]

Full sun
Pot has to have a porous bottom, sides can be glazed
Pot should not be deep [ around 8 cm or less ] but can be wide.
Soil drains well
Repot yearly

Magnet for leaf pruning ants
Solution ------ bait or grow on metal stands [ BRC material in concrete floors]

Fertilise once a week into moist soil 12 N to 6 N

Before heavy pruning fertilise for a month.

Allow to flower once in June [ in China called, June Snow ]
Too much flowering, and no growth.

Not much else, easy shrub to grow [ thus far max height 8 feet /244 cm though
we suspect it grows much taller ]'

Take lots of cuttings for experiments.
Hope this helps,
Good Day
Anthony

In training-

View attachment 165004

Don't know where you got all of this?

"Chinese type -
zone 7, hedging shrub. Bonsai pot probably zone 8/9."

All the varieties that I have, and the Chinese that my dad has does well in a bonsai pot, or any pot , in zone 8/9.

"Full sun "

They do not like full mid-day sun, morning and afternoon is better.

"Pot has to have a porous bottom, sides can be glazed
Pot should not be deep [ around 8 cm or less ] but can be wide."

Just make sure the pot drains well, I have a lot of them growing in cut down nursery pots or five gallon buckets.

"Soil drains well"

Well, yeah, they don't like being water-logged.

"Repot yearly"

They can actually go a year or two without repotting. I usually wait until it starts suckering at the outside edges of the pot or the drainage slows down.

"Fertilise once a week into moist soil 12 N to 6 N "
Before heavy pruning fertilise for a month."

I only fertilize once a month, I have experimented with more frequent fertilizing, but saw no real gain. I have not noticed a need for fertilizing for a month before pruning, heavy or otherwise. They are grow machines in the summer, and pruning is almost constant it you want to keep it tidy, with monthly fertilizing with 20-20-20 miracle grow or whatever is similar that is on sale.

"Allow to flower once in June [ in China called, June Snow ]
Too much flowering, and no growth."

Just let it bloom, you will get one good show in the spring and another in fall, along with sporadic flowering though out the year. I will grow and bloom at the same time.

 

[coachspinks]

I had one (snow rose, serissa foetida) in the late 80's and took several cuttings. I gave some away and they ended up planted in the ground here in Atlanta. They are now growing like crazy and bloom a lot. I recently dug one up and put it in a large garden pot. Within a week it was putting out tons of new growth. In late spring I will trim the roots and put it in a training pot. Unless it drops below 25 I plan on keeping it outside.

 

[Anthony]

Michael,

once they start to flower, that is all they do.
Since it flowers in in China in June, we mimic the cycle.

Our soil mix only uses inorganics that cannot break down.

I would be cautious with akadama, probably substitute red lava.

John,

we have been growing them in full sun since 1980. However remember I outlined
that Trinidad is cloudy. So you have to factor that in and our top temperature
is less than 93 deg.F for a short time.
Plus this is the Chinese type.

That said our sunlight is intense enough to destroy paint tested in Florida and
Arizona.

We have access to Chinese cousins in China.

Ha ha,, now you know why we do not show our efforts ---------- too many clashes.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[MichaelS]

Thanks John and Anthony.
One more...How do you stop/slow suckering. Is it a response to pruning or just always there. I have seen some in pots that sucker constantly and others don't look like they have any evidence of it.

Here is a nice Japanese trained one with nebari...Could it be ''Kyoto''?