Today I have many photos to share of my Butterfly Bush, which I grow in miniature bonsai tree form. This is one of many of my bonsai trees from my collection that I am sharing today. Check it out.
Historical Information
ID: 0015
Nickname: Shasta
Type: Butterfly Bush
Age: 4 years
Grown: cutting
Last repotting: 2016?
Wired: Never
The light on this day was a bit tricky, so I decided to photograph this tree in the shade of the hedge instead of in full light.
One of the weird tricks I recently discovered about using a camera on a smartphone is that you can use your free hand to shade the camera lens from the sun, and this helps block some of the light retractions that can sometimes fog up view. Hold your hand over the camera like a visor, and the darker colors will be more visible.
The bark on the butterfly bush forms these long zebra stripes. This makes it unique from most other trees. The leaves are long and pale, and usually form in pairs on symmetric sides of a stem.
Here I photographed the tree in normal light. I thought it was hard to see the bark with the sunlight so strong.
Butterfly Bush can take a lot of pruning. In these photos I had recently pruned off all of the fading flower stems. New shoots are starting to form.
With all of these open spaces between the leaves for sunlight to reach, this tree will be all too happy to form backbuds everywhere. Small trees like to have open spaces between branches.
Open spaces also allow wind to pass through the tree better. It's less stress on the tree if the wind can pass through freely. Mildew, moss, and rot can form between any branches that are too tightly squeezed together.
Here are some photos of what it looked like this summer when it was in full bloom.
From May through the end of July, I avoid pruning this tree. I allow it to grow shoots as tall as it wants, in order to develop strong flower buds.
Bees and butterflies both love this tree. It provides a source of pollen and nectar for a few weeks.
Lastly, here is a more recent photo, showing an additional pruning I applied. Now that many new buds have formed on the lowest branches, I have pruned off all of the tall extending stems. The result is smaller leaves, and more ramified small branches.
Be sure to follow my work this week. I'm in the process of sharing the whole host of bonsai trees in my collection. There is over thirty trees I am growing. That means you can enjoy more than a month of fresh content from 
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Photos in this post are all #originalworks by
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