On 13/12/2013 04:08, Frank Booth wrote:

The bonsai thing with the Viburnum sounds a good idea, but if I'm not
mistaken with Bonsai cultivation don't you have to keep trimming the roots
to keep the plant small? That would mean having to keep digging up the pot
and knocking the plant out, pruning roots, then replanting which is a
hassle. I don't think it would do the Viburnum much good either as they
don't like being disturbed.

Yes, with true bonsai you have to trim the roots to keep the tree
dwarfed (could also help stop the roots pushing the tree out of what are
usually very shallow pots). But restricting the roots has a somewhat, if
lesser, effect. Just think of those potbound plants which are often
seen in sales at garden centres. Once released from the confines of a
small pot and given free root run they grow like mad! If the viburnum
were kept in a small, buried pot, with the drainage holes uncrocked, it
could get its roots out through the holes and get some extra sustenance
from the soil around the pot, but it would be limited in the extent it
could do that.

Maybe once every 5 years or so the whole pot could be raised (after a
good watering with a liquid fertiliser) and the roots which had escaped
could be trimmed, and the pot replaced. I have no idea if this is
feasible or not, but it might just work, as most of the roots would be
left untouched.

--

Jeff