Starting an olive bonsai from scratch – Bonsai Tonight

by

Last fall a friend dug up an olive tree growing as a weed in his backyard. He figured someone might be interested in it. I figured it would make a fun bonsai project.

Black olive

Black olive

The tree was tall and rangy but there was some taper at the base of the trunk.

Shoots emerging from the trunk

Shoots emerging from the base of the trunk

Not needing the top of the tree, I cut it off and reduced the shoots growing from the trunk.

After removing the rest of the tree

After removing most of the foliage

I bare-rooted the tree and removed almost all of the roots when I repotted in winter. Since then the tree has been growing well. You can see in the photos below how much it has grown in the past month.

Olive

New foliage – 4/28/12

Olive

5/25/12

Not all of the new growth is desired. Shoots keep emerging from the base of the trunk – a characteristic common to olives.

Spring growth

More shoots emerging from the base of the trunk

From these beginnings it’s easy to chart the tree’s journey towards becoming a bonsai. To offer an idea of how I hope to develop the branches, I included a photo of an olive bonsai displayed at this year’s Bay Island Bonsai exhibit.

Olive

Small olive bonsai

The tree has a great rootbase, but the branches are only a few years old. While my tree will not have the dramatic taper of this olive, the general silhouette will be similar.

Subscribe to Indian Bonsai Art

New Posts Delivered Every Tuesday and Friday

Reader Interactions

Related articles