Burning Bush (Euonymous alatus)
Clump/Multitrunk

Karen T Shaw, 2024

APRIL 1, 2025. What a difference a year makes! I repotted this one completely, mostly because Karen gave me a pot for Christmas. She had asked about bonsai pots, and I told her I’d love to have one she made. It’s a square shape, thick-walls, with a sort of braid around the top and the bottom. Really unique, with a little rondel on each face. It needs something with heft, nothing delicate, so the burning bush seemed right. I knew the rootball would have to be smaller, so I took after it with the heavy-duty root hook. It took a lot of work, because all those fine roots I saw last year had completely packed the pot it was in. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! When I got all that mass cleaned up and cut loose, I had about half a cement mixing tub full of roots. I got the trunk rotated so the branch flare is now symmetrical and squeezed the mass into the pot. Right now every bud is pushing leaves, and I think I’ll have to go back and do more shaping in the interior. I just shortened some branches and left three twigs coming out of joint. That won’t do, because there’s just not enough room! There’s a photo below, made right after the repot was finished. The color is more true in that one; natural light helps.

May 26, 2024

MAY 26, 2024. slip-potted this one into a really deep rectangular plastic azalea pot. And I trimmed a couple of the longer shoots, The shape is still undisciplined, but it is what is is. I was concerned about the large particle size, especially when I found the edge of the root ball filled with fine roots, and no large roots at all. I guess that phase of its growth is done. I just knocked out some of the 1/4 inch particles and surrounded the root ball with small size pumice. Looks weird, but it ought to improve the growth and water retention. I remember these plants in the back yard of the River Oaks house were sort of shallow rooted. Maybe I’ll put this one in a wide shallow pot next year.

May 22, 2024

MAY 22, 2024. Time for an update. To begin with, the plant grew like crazy coming out of dormancy. Total change from last year. It was fabulous. But I’ve had trouble watering this one all season. Water wouldn’t absorb easily, and the poor thing wilted really quickly. I’ve taken to putting this thing – complete, pot and all – in a shallow pan on an alternating basis with another tree (the althea). I got fed up with that, so today I slip potted it into a slightly larger container. I didn’t do much with the roots at this time of year, but I did disturb them a little.

Two things I noticed: All the new root growth was fine, and the soil mixture was far too large. Soil components were about 1/4 inch, and there was a lot of unpopulated material in the center of the root mass. I slipped the tree into the larger container and used a lost of relatively fine pumice.

All of this (last year’s growth and the current condition of the root mass) makes me think I need to consider a shallower pot and finer soil mix next year. We’ll see what happens. Meanwhile, this is a photo before repotting, and if I haven’t killed it in this late season process, I’ll post an updated photo later — when it’s in full fall color.

FEBRUARY 23, 2024. Odd. This one didn’t grow well last year at all. A lot of the buds just never opened; they just stayed there on the branches looking sort of neglected. I might have been because of the root trimming, or the soil mix, or something else entirely, but the things just never grew. I’m going to leave it alone and see what happens this year. I can take action to change the soil mix later if nothing improves this year.

MARCH 19, 2023. I repotted this one last week, keeping the angle as it was but trying to put it a little lower in the pot. I still have a lot of the tangledy fine roots showing on top of the upper side of the old root mass, so this year I need to make it a point to Dremel those down a bit. The one curve of the big root on that side looks a little like one of Nessie’s humps in Loch Ness, so I’d like to expose its connections to the trunk. That image needs to go away.

Meanwhile, the growth last year was fabulous, so I’m happy for that. I have a little more pruning to do before it completely leafs out. I looks a little unkempt right now, and not one bud has sprouted yet. Of course it’s freezing this weekend (late for that), so I’ll wait a week to even think about cutting anything.

October 30, 2022.  I must have deleted the page about this tree at one time, because it’s no longer in my Pages library. Pity. I did think about putting it back in the ground at some point, so maybe that’s what happened. I must have changed my mind. Anyway, it’s been around since about 2017, I dug it up next to the big ones next to the back fence on River Oaks, and I just repotted it in the spring of this year. I like the new angle — tilted from its previous orientation, so that there’s some directions to its flow. Beautiful color right now.

Photos