I spotted a Pink Forsythia (Abeliophyllum distichum Roseum) bush at a local nursery and you could not help but smell the beautiful flowers when you walked by them. They smell like honey to me. I decided to get one and found one with a single trunk with some movement low down in the trunk. I let the bush grow unchecked until it looked like a poodle tail tree with all the foliage at the end of the very tall branches. The flowers were great during this time. The tree was being over wintered in a gravel bunker underneath the growing benches. I finally decided it was now time to chop the tree back. I chopped the tree pretty low and hoped for the best. The tree back budded really great and new branches were growing all over the place. I allowed these branches to grow where ever they wanted to. The bark on the trunk/branches peel off the tree in small sheets similar to a Potentilla bush. It flowers on new shoots maybe 2-3 inches long with a white to pinkish colors. As I said earlier the flowers really smell wonderful. The Denver Botanic Gardens employees at Chatfield really like the smell. International Bonsai Master Larry Jackel took home a small bouquet of flowers for his lovely bride Kathy. I styled this tree over the couse of 5 days working on it here and there in the living room of my house. Boy did this tree smell nice and heaven has to smell like this tree, it just has to. So right now the tree is fully wired and I am not sure if how many of the branches are alive. Time will tell and I might have to re-position some of the branches. I think in a few more years this tree is going to be really good. Leaves seem to be the size of a quarter. This bush is not in the Forsythia family by the way. I was unable to find any known examples of this bush used as a Bonsai. I highly recommend them for Bonsai and as a landscape plant.
Abeliophyllum distichum by Missouri Botanical Gardens
Abeliophyllum distichum by Oregon State University
Updated 05-20-2021:
There was a dramatic improvement in ramification of the tree this year. New branches are growing everywhere. It is so hard to believe how well the tree is doing this year versus last year. The tree was really tall when I bought and no branches down low to speak of. Chopping the tree forced new branches to develop and now the tree has nice branches with great ramification all over the tree. The tree did not flower this year. Hopefully everything will go ok for the rest of the year. This year the tree is growing on the south side of the house under 30% shade cloth for the first time. It was growing on a bench with 30% shade cloth last year but it received more direct sunlight then it does now. It might have been receiving to much sunlight. Cannot wait to see if it blooms next spring with all of the new ramification on it.
Here is a gallery of the fully leafed out. I did cut the new growth back on 05-19-2021 and will continue to do so through rest of the growing season.
Gallery 05-19-2021:
Gallery 03-17-2020 I am sorry for the quality of the photos, I think its time for a new camera.
