How to Grow a Beautiful Sageretia Bonsai? Master These Care Points

Sageretia is a great helper for making bonsai, because its shape is very unusual, its color is emerald green, and it has a proud air about it. Whether Sageretia is made into a bonsai on its own or paired with other plants, it looks quite beautiful. Below let us take a look together at how to make a Sageretia bonsai look beautiful? What are the key care points?

1. How to make a Sageretia bonsai look beautiful?

1. Tree shape creation

To make small and miniature Sageretia bonsai, 2-year to 3-year-old small seedlings are mostly chosen for artistic processing and made into bonsai of various styles. In the south, for making large and medium-sized bonsai, old stumps are mostly dug up in the wild; gnarled with many nodes, crooked and twisted, and strange in form, after 1 year to 2 years of “raising the embryo” they become bonsai.

For the shaping of old Sageretia stumps, the main approach is to apply techniques according to the material and guide according to the tendency, with three parts processing and seven parts naturalness. They are often made into many styles of bonsai such as slanting-trunk style, deadwood style, double-trunk style, cascade style, lying-trunk style, and exposed-root style. The best viewing period for Sageretia bonsai is when the new leaves first emerge in spring, when tender green fills the branches and everything thrives. To reproduce this scene, all the leaves can be removed at the end of July or the beginning of August, and fertilizer and water management can be strengthened; in about 20 days new leaves will grow. The branches and leaves of Sageretia bonsai are mostly pruned into a natural style, and can also be processed into cloud-like shapes. As for which style is best to make, it should be determined according to the tree shape of the bonsai and the theme it expresses.

2. Planting and pot selection

Planting and repotting Sageretia are best done in February to March before budding, and during planting the branches, leaves, and roots should be pruned once. For some Sageretia bonsai, as long as the angle between the main trunk and the pot surface is changed when planting, and after slight processing, they will become another style of bonsai. For example, a Sageretia bonsai whose main trunk is not too long can be divided into two branches in a “Y” shape; if one branch is properly shortened and the main trunk is planted slantingly in a tall cylindrical pot, with the angle between the main trunk and the pot surface less than 45 degrees, and the downward-slanting branch is slightly wired and bent to droop, it becomes a cascade-style bonsai.

Sageretia has relatively strong adaptability and can grow in slightly acidic, neutral, and slightly alkaline soil. Potted Sageretia is mainly based on humus soil, and after adding an appropriate amount of sandy soil and mixing well, it can be used. The leaves of Sageretia are emerald green, so green pots should not be used. Light-colored, medium-depth rectangular or oval purple clay pots or glazed pottery pots are commonly used, and round pots can also be used for upright-trunk style and deadwood style.

2. What are the key care points for Sageretia bonsai?

1. Water must be sufficient

The water used is best natural water such as river water, pond water, or rainwater. If tap water is used, it needs to be stored for one or two days so that the chlorine in it escapes before use, which is more appropriate. Laundry water containing soap, as well as water with oil stains and salt, must never be used.

2. The potting soil must be good

Sageretia stumps originally grew in wild areas, with developed root systems, tolerant of drought and waterlogging. Once they are dug up by people and planted in shallow pots only a short distance across, their growing conditions are restricted, and if care is improper they easily die, so they must be looked after with special care. Choose flower soil with good drainage, and during the care period it is best to put in a thicker layer of potting soil. Replace the soil with new soil every two years, apply some base fertilizer, and protect the fertility of the soil so that the stump landscape can grow normally.

3. Fertilizing must be done carefully

If too much fertilizer is applied, the branches and leaves grow excessively; if fertilizer is lacking, the branches become thin and weak, the leaf color turns yellow, and they are prone to pests and diseases. Therefore, fertilizing should follow principles: newly planted, newly potted, just repotted, or root-damaged plants must not be fertilized within one month. In spring and summer, when potted trees are in their peak growing season, more fertilizer must be applied. After autumn begins, when the growth of potted Sageretia slows, less should be applied. In winter, when potted trees enter dormancy, fertilizing can be stopped. Fertilizing is not suitable on rainy days or around noon in midsummer. It is best to apply liquid fertilizer on cloudy days or in the evening; when the potting soil is slightly dry, loosen the soil to help the fertilizer water seep into the soil. To speed up the decomposition of the fertilizer, water must be poured the next morning.

4. Pruning must be timely

The general pruning time is best in late spring and early autumn; in these two seasons Sageretia stumps have the strongest sprouting ability and the most vigorous growth. Water shoots, overlapping branches, crossing branches, radiating branches, dead branches, and pest- and disease-damaged branches should be cut off at any time. But note that in hot weather it is easy to scorch new buds, causing leaves to curl. Therefore, after pruning, it is best to place the plant in a cool place and only expose it to strong light after it has sprouted normally.