AusBonsai

I'm pretty sure this is a SA olive. One of a number brought over by a visiting friend some years ago before I realised we had an abundance of these much closer to home.
Not having much room at the time I planted them in some spaces in the grow beds - and there they stayed for about 5 years with only occasional pruning to control the longest growth.
Last winter I decided they needed to go to make room for more grow on stock. After digging a couple were deemed just too ugly and consigned to the bonfire (too big for the chipper) but I selected 2 with possible potential.

This afternoon I found a bit of time and decided to see what was under the new shoots. I think this one may have some potential.
I didn't take a before photo so you'll just have to imagine lots of suckers all over the base and trunks.

Finally got the camera out after starting to shorten the middle trunk. Change of angle and tilt gives a better perspective and trunk line. the major trunk is now more dominant. Some rough carving with the arbortech mini to give some taper and profile to the stumps and it starts to look like it may become something worth while. The current shoots are a bit small and still a bit weak to wire so I'll leave that for another time.

Interesting material Neil, Any ideas about styling?
The Europeans appear to be styling their olives like the Japanese style junipers. I wonder what people think of this? Cheers,
Symon

delisea wrote:Interesting material Neil, Any ideas about styling?
The Europeans appear to be styling their olives like the Japanese style junipers. I wonder what people think of this?

Noel_Trophy_2013_1.jpg

Noelanders-Trophy-2018-10.jpg

Cheers,
Symon

Some Wicked dead wood on that bottom olive pic . I like those designs a lot

That has really good bones Shibui and a squat powerful bonsai with interesting deadwood could evolve.
Thanks for the post and an occasional update would be appreciated.

The Europeans appear to be styling their olives like the Japanese style junipers. I wonder what people think of this?

When Rui Ferreira was here last year he talked to us a lot about Olives. He reckons that in Europe the fashion for training Olives like Junipers is passing and there's now a preference for more natural styles. Having never seen a truly ancient Olive like they have in Europe my early attempts with Olives tend to look stylised with discrete foliage pads. The trees I'm working on now are much more open and wild looking. I'll continue to have trees that reflect both styles but it's an interesting topic that's been discussed before.

Anyway, nice work Neil. Tipping the tree really changed it for the better, lots more energy.

Matt.

I've never really appreciated the juniper style olives so I'm glad to hear the fad is passing.
As to what an olive should look like I'm in the same boat as Matt S - never seen a really old olive but I should study the older trees where we collect now. They have been growing feral there for somewhere near 100 years and some are enormous so there could be some clues?
I must admit to styling my other trees into dense pads of foliage and was probably thinking along similar lines with this one.

Any ideas or possibilities will be appreciated.

Unfortunately no view of the canopy but this one came to mind when you mentioned old olives!

Churchill island off Phillip island.

http://robinsoutbackblog.blogspot.com.a ... s.html?m=1

Here are some nice not-looking-like-juniper olives. The first one is particularly nice.
Matt.

Yes.
That first one is a treat!
Lovely tree, some good ideas in here now Shibui!

A feral olive from a horse paddock back of Sydney. carved and new regrown branches.

delisea wrote:Interesting material Neil, Any ideas about styling?
The Europeans appear to be styling their olives like the Japanese style junipers. I wonder what people think of this?

Noel_Trophy_2013_1.jpg

Noelanders-Trophy-2018-10.jpg

Cheers,
Symon

Interesting observation
This makes me think ... a question to all ... what is the indicator here suggesting that these are styled like “Japanese junipers” ? Keen to here peoples thoughts

Hugh - interesting question! As a relative newbie to bonsai and also someone with no interest in junipers, to me they look like “Japanese junipers” because they resemble what I think are the most common bonsai examples of more advanced junipers. They all have such extremely large amounts of fluorescent white dead wood to the extent that they look like tanuki! Perhaps that isn’t a true representation of juniper bonsai or Japanese bonsai but there’s so much of that same style in junipers, well, on the internet anyway.

Yep - Beano just about summed it up for me too

Thanks to Tinto for posting his awesome feral !

what is the indicator here suggesting that these are styled like “Japanese junipers” ?

As mentioned by Beano, the prominent display of deadwood, but I'd also add the distinct foliage pads and the downward sweeping branches, neither of which is typical of old wild olives:
There's no branches-weighed-down-by-snow here! No strong negative spaces, it's a much more open look.

Don't get me wrong, I really like the trees posted by Symon. They just don't represent olives as seen in nature. Personally I think there's merit in both approaches but the trend is definitely towards more natural forms. Mike will be pleased!

Matt.

hugh grant wrote:

delisea wrote:Interesting material Neil, Any ideas about styling?
The Europeans appear to be styling their olives like the Japanese style junipers. I wonder what people think of this?

Noel_Trophy_2013_1.jpg

Noelanders-Trophy-2018-10.jpg

Cheers,
Symon

Interesting observation
This makes me think ... a question to all ... what is the indicator here suggesting that these are styled like “Japanese junipers” ? Keen to here peoples thoughts

It's pretty obvious I would have thought Hugh.

Actually they are not styled like Japanese junipers. They are styled like Japanese juniper bonsai.
The mandatory ''main branch sweeping down''. The rounded dome heads. The dense manicured ''pads''. The lack of visible tertiary branches. Al very easy, predictable and boring. Charming but boring and done to death.
I have many such predictable and boring trees....