Huizhou bonsai is mostly made of plum, commonly known as Huimei. It flourished in the Ming Dynasty and has been handed down to this day. Its shape is twisted and curved in a Youlong shape, which is very distinctive. Therefore, the plum blossom dragon pile bonsai is also called Youlongmei. Plum blossom dragon pile bonsai is divided into four parts: dragon head, dragon body, dragon claw and dragon tail.
(1) leading culture: leading culture is obtained by repeated layering propagation of plum trees. Before and after Qingming Festival, the sprouting branches of young plum trees or old pile foundations were propagated by layering. The next spring, it was cut off from the mother body and transplanted elsewhere. After the stimulation of branch folding and pruning, the mother tree can germinate strong sprouting branches at the base again that year. On the pile head, choose the strongest one as the dragon body (as the trunk of the future plum), and the rest of the sprouting branches are still pressed. Because of repeated layering and pruning, the base of the mother tree forms an enlarged and odd-shaped pile head, which is the faucet.
(2) dragon body modeling: the selected dragon body (i.e. trunk, about 1.5 ~ 2m high) is made into left and right S-shaped bends (Youlong bends), and each bend is tied and fixed with brown silk. The width between two adjacent bends is generally 15 ~ 24 cm, with the lower part slightly wider and the upper part slightly narrower. The number of bends depends on the length and needs of prunes. If the prunes are not long enough, you can choose a full bud at the top of the dragon body made in the first year, and cut it short. At the same time, strengthen the management of fertilizer and water to promote the growth of strong branches, and continue to make an S-shaped bend in the second year to reach the required height. The bending plane of this long branch can be staggered by a small angle with the bending plane of the lower dragon body, that is, it is "bent". In order to keep the dragon body in a certain shape, a pillar can be erected in the middle of the curved plane, and the upper, middle and lower parts of the dragon body can be tied to the pillar with brown silk for fixation.
(3) Dragon Claw Branch Modeling: In the first year, two bends and one cut are generally applied (the lower part can be made into three bends). Youlong bend is still used, but this bend can be made to cross the horizontal plane or the vertical plane. When bending, it is also connected and fixed with brown silk. After the second bend (or the third bend) is made, the excessively long front end is shortened, so as to promote the buds under the cut to sprout into branches. In the second year, these branches will be cut short by 4 ~ 7 cm, and branchlets will germinate on them. In the third year, if they are cut short, relatively dense short branches will be formed, that is, African claws. In the future, thinning and short cutting can be carried out according to the situation to maintain the relative stability of the dragon claw branch group. The arrangement of the dragon claw branches is symmetrical on both sides, and the lower part is long and the upper part is short, and the whole form is roughly isosceles trapezoid.
(4) Branch storage in the dragon's tail: When modeling the dragon's body, when Youlong bends to the last bend, the top of the trunk is cut off and it becomes a half bend. Several buds germinate into small main branches under the cut. In the second year, these branches are all cut off by 4 ~ 7 cm. The intensity pruning stimulates the sprouting of branchlets on it. In the third year, it is cut short again, and a wider branch group consisting of many short branches is formed at the top, which is the dragon tail. The shape of the dragon tail requires a wide range, and the whole branch group should be in the shape of a high-piled steamed bread.
After the production of Youlongmei, it will enter the stage of pile-raising and shape-keeping. The longer the pile is kept, the higher its ornamental value is.