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For years when people asked me about bonsai, I was hesitant to use that word — the ‘B’ word — Bonsai. It meant something more than most of my trees represented, so I would say, “Yes, but I like to call them Potensai…They have the potential to one day become bonsai.” My trees AND I have gotten much better, but there are still occasions, and there are still plants that make me feel this way. One such is a wisteria planting I have kept around for a staggering 16 years.
In fact, this is multiple wisteria plants. Back in 2004 I collected a few tiny wisteria vines and for years kept them in individual pots. I over worked them, repotted too often, pruned too often, and never really gave them a chance to develop into anything. A few years ago when I decided to start improving my collection I decided, rather than discard these, I would put them together in one pot and let them go for a while. In fact, I bound them together in hopes that they would merge into one plant. That hasn’t happened yet but regardless, it is time to repot.
The cluster of plants presents a nice base and nebari, but in the process of repotting it became clear that while the roots may be tangled into a single mass, the trunks were still very much their own.
As I suggested at the beginning, I don’t really consider this bonsai. I intend to let it go crazy to the degree it can in this pot, but I haven’t given up on this low-stakes experiment. I decided to re-bind the trunks with raffia to see what happens.
Maybe the trunks will merge into one, and maybe they won’t. Maybe one day I will train it as a bonsai. Or maybe I won’t.
Bonsai Iterate 
Reblogged this on Wolf's Birding and Bonsai Blog.
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