African Caudex  Purchased or “Date or Origin:”   1999 “Trained since:”  2003
(So described on our needed entry tags.)

 

This outstanding caudicform is a S. African relative to the milkweed family. It was in my cactus collection and considering its size and shape I thought to put it into a bonsai pot and entered it in the 2009 bonsai show. As you can see, it has changed from the purchased plant pictured below.

It was some five years old at the time and is now 20 years old and has survived neglect and freezing better than most of my cactus and succulents.

Today I shall re pot her and have trimmed back a Rastafarian mop of vines. So vigorous that some actually climbed up an electrical cord to the greenhouse ceiling outlet. Was she trying to commit hari-kari?  I put a quick end to that. I may even give her a flat top haircut.

Cost was 12.00. Pot some 6.00. Value in 1999 was at least 20.00. Transplanted once and root pruned she went into a taller pot and today gets a new home once again.

Fockea edulis is a vining, caudex forming Asclep. It turned out to be  a very strong grower that just keeps on trucking. Upon receiving it, I  trimmed all of the upper feeder roots on this one, but left just a few behind to develop into some interesting features in the future. And as you can see, it is quite special, what with that nice and fat caudex. I  heeled it sidewise in a shallow 6” bulb pan (above) until I could find a suitable bonsai pot. 

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It can be used for bonsai, as these plants are perfect bonsai specimens as the caudex can be raised many different ways, on its side, straight up, whatever; it is very tolerant of placement. I basically left it much as I received it.. It also makes a spectacular visitor acclaiming houseplant. (Original picture a year or two after purchase.)

As it gets older and those tuberous roots below get larger, they can be splayed apart and spread over some feature like a rock.  I keep cutting the canopy of vines back, but as the plant ages they get longer and this should be taken into account by training them on something. (Like my electrical cable. 🙂

UPDATE: Its off to the greenhouse for the re-potting and tomorrow I see a dentist regarding the pruning out or grafting onto three sad molars. I’ll remember to do a salt water gargle first. Was 600 dollars a ‘crack’ many years ago. I am a ‘walk in’ patient and after seeing this picture on the ‘Beautiful Tree community. http://sequimplants.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/anguished-tree.jpg

After seeing that I bailed.

Tomorrow I expect an epiphyllum cutting shipment. Re-potted the two caudicforms I have and ran out of nice  gravel to mulch them. I uprgaded to agate’jasper chips from my rock tumbling left overs. Boy, are they getting gussied up!

(C) Herbert Senft 2015