Bonsai - Sago Palm

In an earlier post, I commented that you've got to have a lot of patience to grow bonsai because stuff is only going to grow at the pace its going to grow. You can't do much about it. And in most cases, its going to grow slow.

But sometimes, something will grow in a spurt. This plant is called a sago palm. Its not really a palm and I'm not sure how good a bonsai its going to be. I bought it at Home Depot already potted. These plants can get pretty big but I suppose if I keep it in its current pot it will stay small.

Fronds grow out of the center brown area. When I got it, it had a set of 4 frounds and soon after it grew another set of 4. Last summer it didn't get any new fronds. I have a relatively young one of these in the back yard. It didn't get any fronds either last year. The big plant grew two huge set of fronds (each frond is at least 3 feet long) in about two weeks. I was hoping the little guy would take the hint.

On May 26th it was maybe showing signs it was going to sprout. The next day it had sprouts about 2 inches long (the first photo - click on it to see a larger image).
4 days later the fronds were about 6 inches long and by the 31st about 10 inches. By May 4th they were over a foot long. This is about as long as they are going to get. It only put out a set of 3 fronds but I happy to see it do something.

The fronds are a nice bright green color as they unfurl. Eventually they turn a deeper green. The plant is evergreen and doesn't shed fronds with the seasons. Eventually the older fronds weaken and fall off. As it gets taller, it only has fronds on the top.

The next pictures will hopefully be my crepe myrtle. It got about 4 flowers last summer but overall it is growing much better this summer. It looks like it is about to set some buds on the ends of most of the branches.