While reworking all of the shrubs in the bed in front of the house, I decided to convert a Barberry Shrub to a Bonsai.
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| House front, 2018. Barberry is the shrub between two Spirea, just below and between the rocking chairs. |
The shrub was planted more than 15 years ago. The light in this area was minimal, so over the years the shrub continued to grow very slowly. As it did so, its branched reacher further and further out from the core of the trunk in an attempt to grab some of the light that saturated the area just in front of the shrub along the walkway.
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| Barberry, far right of picture after trimming. |
This summer I began to remove most of the overgrown shrubs. The plan was to replace them with grasses (sun) and bamboo (shady). Doing so would be better for dealing with large snow loads coming off the house each winter, especially after getting three feet of snow in one day last year.
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| Cyprus before removal. |
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| Cyprus after removal. |
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| Barberry after initial trimming. It had reached out beyond the walkway timber. |
At that point, I realized that I could easily turn it into a Bonsai. Its trunk was fantastically interesting.
After a couple of hours in which I trimmed the shrub back even further, I then dug it up, trimmed out the large unnecessary roots, and proceeded to wire the Barberry into the pot. Keep in mind, I watched several "Bonsai-How-to" videos online before I undertook this experiment.
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| Bonsai Front |
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| Bonsai Back |
When finished, the Barberry looked sort-of like a "real" Bonsai.
I'm hoping it survives the transplant. If it does I have a great looking plant for the garden. If it doesn't, I retired a shrub that needed to go.
