AusBonsai

I’ve decided to start recording progression of some of my stock material that I’ve been growing over the last few years. First one up is this Calytrix Tetragona.

I’ve had this one since around August 2019 tracking through my photos. This was when I was around a year into my bonsai journey. It is a very tough species I’ve never had a problem with it health wise, even through my many early mistakes and inexperience. I always had the intention of creating a cascade style with this, as it just made sense being a prostrate it just wants to grow that way. One thing I will say is these are very slow to thicken. I’ve been following a regime of letting it get very bushy and overgrown, and then cutting back hard. I don’t let it stay super overgrown for too long as the interior gets completely shaded and dies. Backbudding in the interior hasn’t been a problem when cut back. Apart from wiring movement into the main trunk I haven’t used any wire on the branches so far it’s just been clip and grow.

These remind me vaguely of procumbens juniper with their foliage. It is very small, tight and vibrant green when healthy. The bark as it matures is cool - rough and flaky. The flowers are very attractive, but it has not flowered since I first got it due to the cutbacks.
September 2019 - The earliest photo I have.
Late January 2022 - After a cutback. Hadn’t grown a huge amount from 2019 due to inexperience and poor fertilising.
22nd December 2022 - Before cutback. The year of 2022’s growth. Much more growth in a shorter time from better fertilising practices and bigger pot.
22nd January 2023 - Bouncing back from cutback. Weakend interior is starting to bud back.

Creating some really awesome bonsai Pat! I love Calytrix and think they have such potential. Curious, how hard did you go for the initial root prune? Were you gentle or all in?

I have a couple of leschenaltii and tetragona myself untouched! A little scared to touch the leschenaultii as to they are rare and near impossible to get to sprout from seed. I had to special order mine!

Keep the bonsai rolling!

This will look spectacular when you let it flower again .

Mickeyjaytee wrote: ↑January 22nd, 2023, 8:11 pm Creating some really awesome bonsai Pat! I love Calytrix and think they have such potential. Curious, how hard did you go for the initial root prune? Were you gentle or all in?

I have a couple of leschenaltii and tetragona myself untouched! A little scared to touch the leschenaultii as to they are rare and near impossible to get to sprout from seed. I had to special order mine!

Keep the bonsai rolling!

Thanks mate. You just have to be in it for the long haul with Calytrix to grow a trunk with some girth. But as bonsai enthusiasts I think we are all prepared to wait and enjoy the process.

So initially this went from a little skinny tubestock into the pot in the first photo (which is just a standard garden pot cut down to be shallower. All I did was just fan out the roots to spread laterally and placed it in this much wider pot. As it was being trained as a cascade I needed to get it into a taller pot to be able to stand tall and cascade down so it was essentially slip potted into the pot it's in now with minimal root work. Just a bit of a trim to fit into this skinnier tall pot. The roots haven't been touched now for a couple of years as I'm trying to grow this as much as I can I want to let it stay settled in the pot for a while. I won't pull it out and work the roots untill I need to when it starts to get pot bound. It's now quite as crucial to get the roots super compact at this stage, as being a cascade it will be in a deeper bonsai pot.

Sno wrote: ↑January 22nd, 2023, 8:38 pm This will look spectacular when you let it flower again .

I am looking forward to that day will be sure to update with photos when it does.

Patmet wrote: ↑January 22nd, 2023, 9:20 pm

Mickeyjaytee wrote: ↑January 22nd, 2023, 8:11 pm Creating some really awesome bonsai Pat! I love Calytrix and think they have such potential. Curious, how hard did you go for the initial root prune? Were you gentle or all in?

I have a couple of leschenaltii and tetragona myself untouched! A little scared to touch the leschenaultii as to they are rare and near impossible to get to sprout from seed. I had to special order mine!

Keep the bonsai rolling!

Thanks mate. You just have to be in it for the long haul with Calytrix to grow a trunk with some girth. But as bonsai enthusiasts I think we are all prepared to wait and enjoy the process.

So initially this went from a little skinny tubestock into the pot in the first photo (which is just a standard garden pot cut down to be shallower. All I did was just fan out the roots to spread laterally and placed it in this much wider pot. As it was being trained as a cascade I needed to get it into a taller pot to be able to stand tall and cascade down so it was essentially slip potted into the pot it's in now with minimal root work. Just a bit of a trim to fit into this skinnier tall pot. The roots haven't been touched now for a couple of years as I'm trying to grow this as much as I can I want to let it stay settled in the pot for a while. I won't pull it out and work the roots untill I need to when it starts to get pot bound. It's now quite as crucial to get the roots super compact at this stage, as being a cascade it will be in a deeper bonsai pot.

Thanks Pat, I appreciate the info. I’m finding my tetragona are growing much faster than the leschenaultii and flavscens for future reference in case you get a few of those. Perhaps they just might need a bit more love! Definitely a long haul with these guys

Looking forward to seeing the progress on this tree! Awesome work mate

Looks like good progress with your patience being rewarded. The only word of caution I would say would be to sort out or prune the crossed-over branches that can be seen in the top down view. If you sort that issue out while it's still in this early growth stage it will save you having problems later with pruning large branches and leaving large scars.

Raging Bull wrote: ↑January 24th, 2023, 7:26 pm Looks like good progress with your patience being rewarded. The only word of caution I would say would be to sort out or prune the crossed-over branches that can be seen in the top down view. If you sort that issue out while it's still in this early growth stage it will save you having problems later with pruning large branches and leaving large scars.

Thanks, that's a good pick up. I will get onto that this week when I have my cutters out.

A little update. I made the decision to now scale the tree right back down to a small proportion, and get it into it's first bonsai pot. This is the first major root work I have done to this so I'm not gonna lie I've been a little anxious about how it will go. (I always am with a harsh root work though). I repotted and cut right back at the start of July which is when this lot of photos were taken. It's going well so far with lots of buds swelling and some shoot extensions starting to run. I'll update again during this growing season. The pot is made by Jenna Collins.

I really like this tree. It has a lot of character!

Gee that free growth in 2022 really muscled it up!

BirchMan wrote: ↑August 29th, 2023, 3:34 pm Gee that free growth in 2022 really muscled it up!

Yes, best thing I did for this was let it grow freely between prunes!

For the first time since I've been developing this it has flowered. Unfortunately only one flower at present but gives me a nice little taste of how great it will look one day covered in these tiny flowers.
Hand for scale there.

A prune for this one.
Before After Size