I have bittersweet memories of this plant.  About twenty years ago I harvested seed from the ground outside Amy Yee tennis center and started a few seedlings. They did well and I moved a group of them to a large bonsai pot where I grew them for about ten years.  They grew as one plant that was very attractive, if not up to exacting bonsai standards.  The plant even bloomed a few times and the flowers were surprisingly showy and sweetly fragrant.  And it colored a purple maroon in the autumn before dropping its leaves.

But one year, the plant didn’t leaf out in spring.  It was dead.  I have no idea why.  Sudden ash death syndrome. SADS.

Two years ago, I was at Amy Yee again and the same trees had shed seeds all over the sidewalk.  How could I resist?  Now I have about ten ash seedlings growing in small pots on the shelves outside the greenhouse. 

These plants lend themselves to larger forms of bonsai since the leaves are rather large and coarse.  I will keep them growing well and move some to training pots in the spring.