Although we worked on hundreds of trees, my clearest memory of a tree that my father and I worked on, was a very old Coral tree, Erythrina lysistemon. It resembled the tree below, but larger and more upright.

I have no idea what happened to this tree and I can just hope that is in someone’s collection and that it is as magnificent as the last time I saw it. This is now about forty years later which will make that tree roughly sixty to seventy years old.

A few years ago I was gifted a rooted cutting of a Coral tree by a friend, Willie van Winkel, in New Zealand. This was about six years ago and the cutting moved with us from Dannevirke to Tauranga. It was planted in a green plastic plant pot and did not like the colder climate in Dannevirke. When we moved to Tauranga it clearly enjoyed the warmer and more humid climate more, unlike some of my Maples and even a few Pines. It flourished and I allowed it to root through the bottom of the pot into the soil below.

The leaves are huge and there are way to many leaves. The main root growing into the soil is now cut and this will cause a problem as the large number and large size of the leaves will cause a lot of water loss through transpiration.

To solve the problem a major branch is removed and some of the larger leaves are also removed. All of the finer roots that grew in the pot are still intact and this will hopefully be enough to feed what is left above ground. The tree is now in a pot and what was removed has been treated with rooting hormone powder and will hopefully grow roots. There is an abundance of roots, the balance between roots and growth above the soil is hopefully good and now it will be treated like royalty and serve as a reminder of me and my dad working with Bonsai. A great memory and tribute to what I have learnt from him about Bonsai, his beloved Orchids and plants in general.

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