I have looked at this monster Ceanothus for years wondering if I should bother giving it a go for bonsai. After all escallonia were rarely used for bonsai and now seem to have taken off.

I know they aren’t very hardy in our climate with this Winter killing lots of them on local gardens. They are also prone to dieback if conditions aren’t right. This one survived the Winter as it was sheltered under a tree. I took the plunge and dug it up with very little help from Stephen 🙂 Sorry Stephen, couldn’t resist. I think Stephen wants my camera now after taking all these pics in his clean clothes. Sorry! Did it again 🙂

Ceanothus has the common name in the UK of Californian Lilac. I’d be interested to know if anyone has given one a go for bonsai.

This is it last Summer

and yesterday, rough looking but it has survived the Winter.

I trenched around the tree having to contend with some roots from the big tree behind it.

It had been moved to this spot about 4 years before and was therefore shallow rooted.

Into the car.

I’ll post more on this in a few days. It has a rather nice deadwood area. Fingers crossed it’ll survive the lift.