Repotting false acacia

Part II

Continuing where I left this Leucaena Leucocephala, what we call  "false acacia" here in Mauritius or sometimes white acacia.
The plant has had lots of new growth since the last hard pruning session.
It was time to repot the plant and have a look at the root system and start to prepare it for a future bonsai pot.

Big surprise on a the roots. There is this thick horizontal root that's completely out of place on the plant and needed to be removed.

Preparing some trees for an expo in a few weeks

In September there will be this year's Orchid Society of Mauritius's show.

Some of our bonsai members will be exposing their trees during there on the last day of that show.
I'm planning to display several trees and started prepare them two months beforehand.

Mame Cuphea
This little guy was entered in the last Ryuga 2013 online competition, together with a ficus and a miniature rose.
The link is here : Cuphea hyssopifolia false heather

At the end of last year it got badly hit by a heat wave. It loss its main leader and also several primary ramification structures.
Now I need to rebuild the whole ramification structures as well as rework the deadwoods.

Mame Ligustrum

This is a follow up on the ligustrum-003-progression
There has been some more growth in between and some wiring to reposition the various branches.
Right now its entering a new growth cycle and creating several buds. Some are already starting to develop.

If I leave it as it is, the stronger apical areas will get most of the growth and the inner structures will stay mostly underdevelopped.
So to encourage the tree to get new growth all over the place ( strong and weak areas ) I went ahead and fully defoliated the lil guy.
I'm also aiming to get a new set of smaller leaves for the September expo.
In a few weeks I'm expecting to get lots of smaller leaves all over the place.

I also went along a treated the deadwood with some lime sulphur.
In a few weeks later I'll treat it with some wood hardener.

Malpighia coccigera

Also did a quick cleanup on this singapore holly and added some rougth guy wires to reposition some branches.

ligustrum #003 progression

This is one of my first materials dating back to 2010.
The initial material is a ligustrum ( aka privet or troène ) weed that was supposed to be uprooted and burned.
I kept it to learn some bonsai techniques but I did not have great hope of turning this material into a bonsai.
I pretty much messed up lots of things while I was learning but adjusted as I gained experience and knowledge.
After 5 years progression and lots of mistakes on my part, its starting to take shape.

Basic actions taken :
1. Growing the trunk and developing the nebari : done
2. Creating the primary, secondary and tertiary branches : done
3. Creating the ramification : Currently in progress.

Growing the trunk.








Creating a jin.






Creating the primary, secondary and tertiary branches structures.






Adjusting trunk line.





Starting the ramification structures process.

Cuphea han-kengai attempt

Progression of a mame cuphea material.
Ideally I wanted to make a han-kengai ( semi-cascade ) with it.

 The material was originally from a bigger cuphea plant, but got detached during a repotting.
 I was planning to throw it away but then got that han-kengai shape lurking around it so I gave it a try.

Still in training but the shape I had in mind is starting to take form finally.

Parent tree:

Starter material