The production process of wintersweet bonsai
An article full of tips, introducing the production process of wintersweet bonsai and the green plant maintenance experience of potting newly bought plum blossoms. Next, the editor will provide you with detailed answers.
Wintersweet, named for its fragrance similar to plum blossoms and its yellow wax-like color and texture, is also called蜡梅 (wintersweet) because it blooms in the cold winter month of La, defying frost and snow. It also has aliases such as yellow plum, yellow plum blossom, fragrant plum, waxwood, su'er, snowflower, and dry branch plum.
Wintersweet is a traditional Chinese bonsai plant with graceful posture, elegant roots, and branches that cast a sparse shadow with yellow flowers blooming, bright and brilliant, emitting a sweet fragrance that is captivating and especially cozy in the cold winter.
The Yuan Dynasty litterateur Yelu Chucai once described wintersweet with the lines "Branches slender as natural jade, buds breaking golden with exceptional fragrance."
Shape and Varieties
Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) belongs to the family Calycanthaceae and is a deciduous shrub with a clustering trunk, gray-brown in color, and with lenticels. The leaves are opposite, ovate-elliptical or ovate-lanceolate, with acuminate apex, rounded or broadly cuneate base, entire margins, and deep green color.
The flowers grow from the leaf axils of one-year-old branches, paired or opposite to leaf buds, with a diameter of 2 to 4 centimeters or larger. The outer petals of the perianth are longer, yellow with a waxy texture, slightly transparent; the inner petals are shorter, with a purple base or entirely purple, emitting a strong sweet fragrance. They bloom before the leaves in winter or early spring. The fruit receptacle is nearly woody, with瘦果 (fleshy fruit) in the shape of a坛 (urn) or inverted ovate.
Wintersweet Flowers
Wintersweet Fruit
Wintersweet is a traditional famous Chinese flower, and a large number of excellent varieties have been cultivated over long periods. The flower colors range from pure yellow, golden yellow, light yellow, dark yellow, yellowish white, light white, silver white, to red. Some well-known varieties include Su Xin Wintersweet, Sandalwood Wintersweet, Tiger Paw Wintersweet, Qing Kou Wintersweet, Dog Tooth Wintersweet, etc., as well as famous and superior varieties such as Empress Wintersweet, Tiger Paw Red Silk Wintersweet, Golden Plate Jade Kernel Wintersweet, Silver Bell Wintersweet, White Lotus Wintersweet, and Jian Hong Wintersweet.
Wintersweet Defying Snow
Techniques for Modeling
The propagation of wintersweet can be done by methods such as seeding, dividing, cutting, layering, and grafting. Among these, grafting is the most commonly used, usually with 'Dog Tooth Wintersweet' or wintersweet seedlings as the rootstock, and using methods such as cut grafting, approach grafting, bud grafting, side grafting, and cleft grafting.
The Production Process of Wintersweet Bonsai
The old trunk of wintersweet is robust and simple, with peculiar roots. The tree body can be crafted into various styles of bonsai such as straight trunk, slanted trunk, horizontal trunk, curved trunk, dead trunk, split trunk, hanging branch, attached stone, water and dry, and forest styles based on its specific shape. For young trees, shaping techniques such as pruning, changing planting angles, and winding can be used.
The base of wintersweet easily produces suckers. Continuously cutting these suckers will cause the roots to form irregular lumps. Therefore, the base of an old wintersweet桩 (tree trunk) that has grown for many years will have knobby roots, commonly known as "wintersweet lumps" or "warted plum" or "turtle eggs."
Its shape is unique and elegant, resembling strange stones and peaks. When making bonsai, it can be treated as a mountain stone, with the branches of wintersweet growing from the "mountain stone," creating a unique and interesting companion.
In addition, part of the branches can have the old bark peeled off to expose the xylem layer, and then coated with lime sulfur mixture to create a deadwood effect, enhancing the primitive and sturdy charm. You can also apply black vitriol (ferrous sulfate) to the deadwood to make it dark in color, as if it has been charred and then reborn from the ashes, its tenacious vitality praised by all.