I was doing the rounds of the garden yesterday and took a quick photo of my Ligustrum vicaryi or golden privet as it is commonly known.

It is not a champion bonsai by any means however the foliage does add a splash of interest to the garden.

It needs a re-pot to better position the trunk to the relief in the pot so I will do that next year.

I posted a story about this bottlebrush a few days ago and mentioned a new pot, well here is the new pot. I am quite pleased with the new look.

This year I started taking lessons in “pottery” however my teacher thinks of it as ceramic art I still manage to turn each project into a bonsai pot. I have had a great time and passed my first year as well as managing a few pots along the way.

This is a section of the pots just out of the kiln, all made with different methods and varying applications used on them, but still all bonsai pots. I will probably never be a “real” bonsai pot maker but I have had a heap of fun doing this.

This is a Eucalyptus cinerea which is the local gum tree in this area so it seemed appropriate that I should have one in my collection. I bought this tree from a nursery at Yass and that was quite a few years ago. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos from “the old days” so you will just have to put up with the photos I took this week. This species was called Argyle apple by early settlers in this area although it has no relation to a real apple tree.

I have moved this from the training pot to a real bonsai pot, although the bonsai pot is still a bit big, its a transitional move. The pot is by Australian potter Janet Selby and I think the colours suit the tree in an Australian setting.

This is the work before.

There is still plenty of work to be done on this tree but I am hopeful that over time it will develop into a fine small bonsai.

I think this is Callistemon subulatus however I can’t be 100% sure because it was dug from a garden and the owners had no idea what species it was.

It was dug in 2012 so I have now been the proud owner for six years. It has a great feature for bonsai in that the leaves are quite needle like and small in comparison to other bottlebrush. It also flowers well and the flowers are small (again in comparison to other bottlebrush) and so more in keeping with the size of the bonsai.

This year it had a larger number of flowers, around 30 so I am pleased. However the majority at the back so here is a photo of what was previously the front but that was changed to the current view a couple of years ago.

I have made a new pot for this bonsai and when it stops raining I will put it in its new home and post a photo later.