Not quite a "Bonsai" experiment - but close to it. Let's call it a Bush-Bonsai.
Let's start at the beginning:
About ten years ago I bought this white flowering small bush (
Maiblumenstrauch) for a big pot as I didn't yet have access to the garden I have now.
And some other plants (
Rhododendron) too. Those grew too fast and one needed the big pot the bush was in - so the bush got moved to a smaller pot as it didn't seem to need as much growing space as the other plant.
Somehow some
Chives plants got into the same pot. And it grew right in the center of the bush, with long roots hard to pull out without damaging the bush. So I left it in, harvesting what I needed and smiling at he Chives flowers when the white ones from the bush were long gone.
A few years later we moved to the other part of the house and now had access to the bigger garden - but the bush stayed in the bush. It didn't seem to mind being moved to various places. Not even very cold and very snowy winters could harm it.
With the changing climate and warmer summer soon it was thought that it would be nice to have palm trees in the garden. There are once that are capable of withstanding moderate frost periods. For two years this one palm tree grew in the garden - then it rotted over winter. It had been too damp inside that small winter-garden like cover the last winter.
It was decided (not by me though) that not only one new palm tree had to replace this one now. But also three more smaller ones were bought, that would still be in pots to take inside during winter until they were mature enough to withstand the cold without a winter-garden structure all over them - only a wrapping when extreme cold should set in. That's the plan anyway. But alas, no new pots!!
So now the little bush - aged quite a bit by now but still bringing the white flowers every Spring - had to move once more out of it's "large" pot so it could be used for a small palm tree. Fore three weeks then it sat in a small red box, drying but not dying. Even the chives I had harvested just before it had been removed from the pot was sprouting once more with fresh stalks.
Such an endurance screamed for action. I found a big empty paint bucket and replanted the bush into this. By now it had been replanted three times, and each time to a smaller pot. This time though I had to cut of some roots to make it fit into the bucket. And I pealed out the Chives too - as much of it as I could distinguish from the roots.
Last but not least I took photos to "document" all this action!! ^^;;
 |
| Bush with Chives this Summer |
 |
Baby Palm tree in the bush pot
|
 |
| The bush on top of the red box it had been drying in for three weeks. Good that it did : |
 |
| Loose soil and dead root parts filled all of the red box with lots of roots left on the bush. |
 |
| Placed on top of the soil heap to show the leftover roots. |
 |
| Chives with roots as long as the actual plant - no wonder I could not just pull them out, as entangled as they all were with the roots of the bush. |
 |
| Bush now planet in the bucket formerly used for paint. Some sol leftover as bucket IS smaller than red box, which is being needed for other things and can't be a pot replacement. |
 |
| So far the final position of the re-planted bush. |
I really hope this bush will survive - I might have to take it to a non-frost place over Winter though. This bucket is truly too small for the roots to not get damaged.
The bush actually deserves more than a bucket - but with the tiny garden full of palm trees and some area still supposed to stay as grass to lay down on it once in a while, I guess, it will have to grow in a bucket or pot for some time longer yet. :(
