Delonix Regia Bonsai Progression (2020 – Now)

This is my Delonix Regia, also known as the flame tree, that I was given as a gift as a seedling. I am trying to grow as bonsai and I will be going through its progression below.

It is still has a lot of development, but It’s doing well so far.

If you want to watch it in video format, you can watch the YouTube playlist below. The videos show the progression every month throughout the year, sort of like a time lapse.

Just be aware some of my earlier videos are not the best quality, but just like my trees, the quality slowly improves over time, so stick with them and they both get a little better towards the end.

The delonix regia is a tropical tree that are probably most well known for their bright red flowers, which is where the “flame” name comes from.

You can read more about their suitability in Is Delonix Regia A Good Tree For Bonsai?

2020

I was sent this tree as a gift from form my friend Jarhead Bonsai, from America.  

It got a bit delayed in the post, it was probably in the box around 10 days, which is not the best thing to happen

Jered had grown these trees from seeds and they had germinated in spring 2020 (You should check out his youtube channel, he has some great videos, including plenty of Delonix)

When the tree finally arrived it looked very ill. It was small and yellow and I was worried it may be dead. This was made worse when a few days later and all the leaves fell off.

Luckily it had been packaged well and hadn’t dried out, so I put it under the grow light and left it. Luckily it eventually started shooting again and looked like it might be okay.

After a few weeks I wasn’t happy with the soil. It was staying too damp. It was made up of too many organics for my climate, so I was going to struggle to manage the watering. As it was a new species and also quite a sickly tree, I didn’t want to risk keeping it in the same soil over winter.

I repotted it in October, which is kind of crazy, but I didn’t touch the roots, I just swapped the soil to my usual mix which is freer draining. I also changed the pot to something a little bigger.

The roots where terrible, but I didn’t do anything to them. They can be dealt with when the tree is healthy.  

After this repot I just left it to grow, which it did.

However, it keeps having a problem where a new leaf grows very healthy, then after a while turns yellow and dies off.

2021

In 2021 it looks happy enough, but you can see was down to one leaf, since the others all died off.

For this whole year, I just let the left it grow and recover.

I kept loosing leaves throughout the year. There is no real reason why. There are no pests or disease. Maybe the soil was a problem somehow, but I’m not sure.

However, it did keep growing, despite always loosing leaves and the trunk has actually thickened a lot. I’m actually shocked how much it has thickened, I had not actually realised how much growth there had been.

2022

In 2022 there has still been no work done to the tree. It continues to grow and drop leaves so there is no real work that can be done.

and that is where we are with this tree.

My plan going forward just let it grow and try and get it to stop dropping leaves. Once it settles then I will see where it takes me. It is still a young seedling at only 2 years old from seed, so I’m not expecting to really much to do yet.

I just have to leave it to establish and when the time is right I will work on it.