Cotoneaster horizontalis

Species Information
My second project - the Cotoneaster Horizontalis.

Originally from China the Cotoneaster, pronounced "Cot-o-ne-as-ter", is a popular garden shrub found in temperate and sub-tropical zones. The name is taken from the Greek "Kotoneon" (quince) and the Latin "ad istar" (similarity). Although it does not really seem similar to the quince, this plant is a Bonsai favourite.

It is a hardy, evergreen tree that has white flowers, red fruit and no thorns. It has slender, pointy and glossy green leaves.

My Tree
Nursery stock Cotoneaster

Nursery Stock Cotoneaster Horizontalis
In Janurary 2003 I joined my local Bonsai society and entered the lucky draw, winning this nursery stock Cotoneaster Horizontalis.

It had a few good branches which needed to be trained, but overall I could see the potential in the tree.

It would be a perfect specimen for a Moyogi (Informal Upright) styled tree.
Before I could even start to train this tree, it first had to be repotted. The soil was rather compact and I could feel many strong roots underneath.

Being in the middle of a very harsh and dry summer, the repotting had to wait until autumn arrived. Then I was able to remove the tree from the bag, prune its roots and repot it into a suitable container.

Only later in winter would I start to train the tree after it had recovered from the repotting.
First Things First

First Things First
Sorry, no picture, I killed this tree.

I think black frost finished it off in August.
After the tree had recovered from the repotting and grown out a bit, I trimmed it back and moved it into a sunny area.

For now it will remain as is until I wire it later during winter.

If all goes according to plan, this tree will be ready to go into my first show next year.

Last updated 2003.12.15