Lavender Starflower

Grewia Occidentalis #1 and #2

Acquired 2020 – Lavender Star Flower (Grewia Occidentalis)

I bought two of these in 2020 from https://www.bonsaify.com/ for $25 each. They’ve been a bit challenging as they need a lot of sunlight and water, in comparison to some of my other trees.

I bought two of these in 2020 from https://www.bonsaify.com/ for $25 each. They’ve been a bit challenging as they need a lot of sunlight and water, in comparison to some of my other trees.September 2022 – Moved these outside. Pruned back the cascade-style plant to try to stimulate more backbudding.

2021 – I’ve repotted these into much larger pots to let them thicken more.

These are still young and probably need some years of just thickening the trunks before I try to do too much shaping and repot them into bonsai pots.

Pictured here prepped for the EBBS 2025 Show:

July 2026 after some pruning (after after a spring repot into a much better pot):

One interesting thing I’ve noticed with the Berkeley / San Francisco winters is that these tend to get pretty unhealthy-looking by the end of the winter. I repotted this one around February, which turned out to be a bad time, as it then lost nearly all of it’s leaves and regrew them. My other non-repotted starflower also lost nearly all of its leaves at this time, so it wasn’t just the repot, but it likely didn’t help.