Interesting find and possible Bonsai

[Kyle GoldCoast]

So I was up Sunshine Coast for Christmas and we did a clean up of a garden to construct a patio area. Found this plant/log in an old metal dish full of water. It has been partly submerged in the water and grown roots and sprouted branches and large shoots. I thought it looked amazing and decided to take it home and see what I could do with it.
If anyone can ID the tree, please let me know.

Here are photos of how it was after bringing it home before I did anything. It spent the night before in a bucket of water, as it was sitting in a plastic bag on the 2.5hour travel back home (Gold Coast).

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Its roots were long and thick coming from multiple points on the cut branch. Some fine roots were coming off the middle roots, so I didn't touch those ones only cut a couple of the larger roots that circled around. Longest root was about 60cm.

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This is the underside of the branch, holding from the submerged end.

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I went and bought a long pot which had a good accompanying style for the branch. Tried to find a shallow one but this was all I could get.

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In goes the branch/tree. It took some fiddling to get all the roots into a good position to allow new growth without being a root knot.

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I was also able to grab some moss from different bits of rockfall and clay areas of the garden from where this branch came. There were a couple different types of moss with different density. I mixed the moss patches around with the idea of trying to get an 'untouched' look with random patches of moss and sprouts from the branch.

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Final result after a good water, very happy with the look and excited to see how it progresses.

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[Beano]

Cool

[melbrackstone]

looks like some sort of Coprosma, but don't quote me... or lillypilly?

crikey...

[Thymetraveller]

That's going to make a fantastic raft.... And I do love a raft!!!

[Kyle GoldCoast]

That's going to make a fantastic raft.... And I do love a raft!!!

I'm sorry but...when you say raft, I think of a makeshift boat made from oil drums and timber. So what do you mean by raft?

[Beano]

Raft is a bonsai style made the way you’ve done it. It’s the trunk laid on its side with branches emerging from the top side as the new trunks.

[DocPep]

Very nice.
Just needs the cut end roughed up a bit to look more natural.

[Kyle GoldCoast]

Very nice.
Just needs the cut end roughed up a bit to look more natural.

I was already thinking that but haven't found a good summery/run through on how to do it without killing the whole thing. Any advice?

[DocPep]

To rough it up, I’d strip the bark to within 10-15mm of the upper branch/trunk.
Then make an angled cut from about halfway down the cut end back to about the edge of the pot on the underside.
Using Jin pliers or small carving chisels or a dremel make it look natural. Be careful it doesn’t look like a spear point.
Once it’s dried out paint with some lime sulphur.
That’s how I’d tackle it but others may have a different technique.
Search jin and you’ll find heaps of info on here

[melbrackstone]

but don't do anything until the plant has produced lots of new roots and is solidly settled into the pot...

[Beano]

Yes now is not the time to deal with the end, but in future reports you’ll want to carve it up a bit and make it look like dead wood


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[squizzy]

Hi Kyle

I think it's probably syzygium australis or Lilly pilly. It's a good start but I would keep an eye on it as there are not a lot of roots on it. Don't push it too hard at this stage.

Squizzy

[SueBee]

Great find Kyle. I did this with a root of Lillypilly - looks a bit different to your leaf shape but may be diff species of course.I am still waiting for more shoots as all my root pieces were mostly underground with just a few tiny shoots above- it is still in it's black bag - but comes out next week.This is a good site for lillypilly id.Looks a bit like the Brush Cherry on this website.
http://www.allcreativedesigns.com.au/pa ... ees10.html

[Kyle GoldCoast]

but don't do anything until the plant has produced lots of new roots and is solidly settled into the pot...

Good advice, thanks. Ill leave it for a few weeks indoors where i have a couple other ones. They get direct morning sunlight til about 9am then its ambient light for the remainder of the day, its too hot and bright here at the moment to have in full sunlight outdoors and my other bonsai there are growing really well in this location.

What about transition from indoors/mostly shaded (where this branch was located) to the outdoors? Does anyone have any guidelines they use for new plants, new growth and recent repotting before going outdoors in the elements?

[SueBee]

I put mine in filtered light either under a tree with filtered light or in the shadehouse until they are growing well then slowly introduce them to full sun/wind /rain etc.