This tree is a slow but satisfying grower, although getting a good root base has proven challenging. It was one of the earliest trees I posted about on this blog, reporting its development from 2012 to 2019 (https://beginbonsai.net/2019/02/16/torote-bursera-filicifolia/).
Changes since then have been subtle but it has lost some of the reverse taper in the trunk and base that it had in 2019. The branches are very stiff after their first year, so I plan to grow it mostly using clip and grow instead of wiring.
This species is much slower growing for me than another tree species in the genus, Bursera simaruba (‘gumbo-limbo’) whose development I have also been recording on this website.
The tree yesterday.
The tree after its initial 7 years of development from a small starter plant.
The tree about a month after the first posting in 2019.
Time for repotting! Ugly roots.
Repotted into a bigger pot with new soil.
I left two volunteer hollywood junipers (Juniperensis chinenesis ‘tolurosa’) with the torote when I replanted it. I’m still working on this variety of juniper but I don’t know if they will ever make decent bonsai. I can’t recommend this type of juniper for bonsai at this point. Mine still have mostly juvenile foliage after five years of growing, initially in bonsai soil and now in my backyard.
The torote and its juniper buddies are growing well.
Separating this tree from the two junipers in a repot.
The roots were marginally better than at the last repotting.
I pruned back hard to the best roots.
Wired the tree into a too-small pot. A wider pot at this stage in the tree’s life would have encouraged better root growth.
Leaf growth.
Growing in the garden. A hollywood juniper can be seen in the background.
I did an emergency summer repot before this picture was taken because the tree was losing leaves in summer. It turns out it usually loses its leaves mid-summer but at least I got it into a wider pot.
Roots remain very sparse.
Repotted into fresh soil.
Tree leafing out.
Canopy doing well in spring. I considered changes to the trunk angle for the upcoming repot.
Roots have extended, but remain ugly and are not radial.
Root-pruned and repotted, stabilizing the tree with both rocks and root-wiring.
Tree lost its summer leaves and still has poor root development.
New soil.
New leaves sprouting.
Abundant leaves.
Good branch growth during the preceding year.
Pruned back the branch extensions. This produced the basic form the tree has today. I’ll be interested to see how the roots look next time I repot.
beginBonsai 
An interesting story about such an unusual tree… I wonder why those roots were hard to grow?
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I don’t know but hopefully I will figure it out!
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I don’t know but hopefully I will figure it out! So far I am trying repeated repots with root pruning. Thanks.
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