AusBonsai

anthonyW wrote:Wow Matt they look fantastic, some of the best I have ever seen, amazing work there.

cheers Anthony

Yep bloody fantastic - makes me want to go and ask my neighbour whether they are hooked on their garden jade....


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Thanks for the kind words people.

Ken, I spoke briefly with Ryan Neal about this earlier in the year, and he reckons succulents have enormous potential and they are an ideal gateway tree for people new to Bonsai as they are so robust. He was also wondering if there were any native Australian species that could be suitable.

I didn’t consider using Jade until I saw the beautiful examples of Janet Sabey. I now recommend them for beginners as you can forget to water them and they’ll still survive.

Matt.

I’m guilty of a hearty dislike of Jade both as bonsai and just generally as a plant, but kudos for what you’ve done here. You’ve achieved a highly commendable and impressive result with it, and you should be very proud of your efforts and the outcome

Matt when you started this thread it inspired me to grow jade, thank you. Very nice trees.

Greg

Yesterday I got off my bum and dragged the Big Jade into the shed for a cleanup, and soon realised that I had let the growth get away from me a bit. All of my jades have been slow to really kick off their summer growth this season so I wasn't paying them as much attention as I should have. I didn't take a photo before the trim as this is a heavy brute and to preserve my back I don't move it anymore than I have to, but thick shoots were growing from the apex and as a result of cutting them back the top has lost some definition.

I shortened the main branch a bit but looking at the photo I think I might cut off the last portion and start again with one of the small shoots as there isn't much taper and movement in that section. The middle third of the tree is a bit crowded too. This might sort itself out by trimming every fortnight to tighten up the foliage, otherwise I'll remove some of the branches.

Matt.

Sbwright wrote: ↑November 9th, 2018, 8:25 pm I really like them. I was thinking of taking some cuttings from a wild bush in town, potting them up and then using them for a gardening class on Bonsai at my school next year.

That would be a great idea for kids or beginners of any age, nice to have something which is so easy to keep alive, and can give a good shape.

Bump! I am a newbie and starting with jade!

Why the hate on jade exactly? is it bonsai elitism?? is it because it's a succulent and not a tree??? i'd genuinely like to know as i'm new to forum and relatively new to bonsai, anyway i think the pics posted look great! the succulent glossy nature of the jades leaves is very appealing

I’ll speak for myself alone when I say I just fundamentally dislike succulent plants full stop, so unlikely a jade will be in my sphere of growing. That’s not to say I can’t appreciate the tree or all the work involved in growing it of course, I 100% do, just I’m not going to be personally growing jade.

Here (Australia) we don’t have the aspect of it being a traditional part of the culture surrounding bonsai that Japan/ China do, so we tend to be quite unrestricted by what constitutes a bonsai. Native species/ jade/ traditional species/ 10cm tall or 1m tall if it’s in a container and has a sense of scale then yep she’s a bonsai.

There will always be a part of any hobby that is elitist; where a subset of people think they alone know exactly what box a tree must fit in to qualify. Fortunately it’s a relatively small number of people.

Grow what you like, what you enjoy and what you are good at growing (these 3 don’t always line up ) and don’t stress if your interests aren’t to grow traditional species like Japanese Black Pine or Japanese Maple.

Without people wanting to grow different species we’d all turn up to club shows and have 200 pines to look at which would be boring AF

Agree with TimS, I have plants and styles I just don’t like for instance, cascade style any variety. I can appreciate the look of them and the hard work in maintaining the style but I won’t grow one. I too dislike Jade and I also dislike variegated varieties of anything. So it’s not bonsai elitism, just personal taste. My suggestion to anyone starting bonsai. Grow what you can, and more importantly don’t waste time on what other people like or don’t. Grow what gives you pleasure and your happy with personally. The rest doesn’t matter.
Cheers
Kirky

If you look in Kobayashi's book "Bonsai" you will find a number of not-trees, carefully grown, potted and arranged for artistic impact. If it's good enough for him...

Grow what you like, but be aware of the limitations as early as you can - jade won't ever look "aged" like a pine, but can make interesting luxuriant rain-forest-feel trees. A number of Leptos, Kunzeas, Beackeas and Mels grow as spindly straight shrubs in the wild - they will suit smaller bonsai better, and need determined shaping to get past their inherent boring-ness. Some Acacias are short-lived, some Eucs have massive leaves, and so on. If you get hooked on arid-zone rough-country Acacias/Casuarinas/Eucs and the like, remember that if you have three wet La Nina years in a row, They Will Lose The Will To Live, because they are not on their own country. Similar for Huon pine on the mainland, many of the remarkable shrubby Melaleucas from WA (they hate it in Canberra, mostly!) and so on.

A good place to start is often to grow what thrives in gardens around your area, that has a track record as bonsai.

The better you get to know your species, the easier it becomes to Exploit Them (wicked cackle!)

Listen to the experts, and the "experts", then decide for yourself. Enjoy your journey.

Gavin