I am wanting to grow an arbutus tree as a bonsai, I recently planted a sapling into a plastic container (30cm by 15cm). It is a small sapling with a relatively dense/established root system. It is sitting outside on an east-facing balcony. I would like to know what I can do to best help it establish in its new evironment. And if it does make it through this transplant period and thrives, can one train an arbutus into a bonsai?
I don't know much about bonsai but I am a member of this site here, where a lot of experienced bonsai owners post: http://www.bonsaisite.com/forums/ You might have more luck there...... Good luck with the Bonsai:)
I don't know much about it either but I have had a small one in a pot for about 4 yrs & so far, so good. A regular but smallish, maybe a squat 8" pot equivalent size, holding about half the soil a regular 8 would. Something I was told by someone so long ago about growing Arbutus in a pot, I can't remember who.........was that the plant wants to face the same direction at all times. They are notoriously hard to grow in a pot at all, I have been told also. 4 yrs, so far, so good. Keep water drops off the leaves as they will spot in the sun. In the wild the lovely Arbutus is a very good home for TICKS ! The only time i ever had a tick on this bod is when I was carrying Arbutus firewood from the hillside to the truck years ago. When it is rainy in Spring and Fall is when the ticks are active. Some who have Arbutus trees in their yards find them to be very messy tho I like the way their leaves look in a setting like Rathtrevor Provincial Park where the leaves light up the ground where they lie under the trees in the grassy area by the beach. Others find their leaves to be good compost. Probably more than u wanted to know and not enough at the same time hey? ! Now I'll check on that bonsai site too! D
I have seen a few arbutus around that have been heavily pruned for low shapes. One in particular struck me as odd when I first noticed it. It is around two metres tall and pruned into an umbrella shape.
Also I didn't realise, lots of info here, on this very site! Silly Jen....... http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=235
