Is this a ....?

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Is this a ....?

Post by Starfox »

Westringia?

I ordered this and it was supposed to be a Grevillea and this turned up instead.
lol, it is always a mystery ordering from Spanish sites.

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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by Grant Bowie »

Looks like a species of Rosemary.
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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by Starfox »

It does quite a bit but the first thing I did was crush it and there is no smell at all so I don't think it is.
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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by alec »

Looks like a Westringia, 'native rosemary' Haven't seen that as bonsai before.... could be interesting
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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by Starfox »

Yeah it seems to match quite well with some searches I have done,there are a few similar examples from Europe I have found but not a lot of older, larger and more developed trees.

I was over the moon to see a Grevillea listed, finding Aussie natives as available bonsai over here is next to impossible so I jumped on it. Shame it is not a Grevillea but they redeemed themselves with another Aussie so I wont complain.
No idea what to do with though. :lol:

It has been hedge pruned so needs a thin out and needs a repot but I will have to do some digging to see how they handle it all, I'm guessing late Autumn over here may not be the best time to do much work on it.
Also curious to see what the flower colour will be.

On further inspection it seems that Spain's very own mallsai producer for some reason does Westringias so I reckon it is a safe bet that this is where it came from.
https://www.mistralbonsai.com/todo-sobr ... ringia-sp/
Last edited by Starfox on November 1st, 2017, 12:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by KineticBonsai »

Westringa Fruticosa
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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by Joel »

I do believe this is a Westringia fruticosa due to the whorls of leaves but if anybody wants to try a Grevillea with similar foliage, Grevillea alpina could be worth checking out. It is probably hard to source in Spain though.
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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by dansai »

There are a few grevilleas that have similar leaves, although this does looo like westringia. If it is a grevillea, do not let it dry out or remove too much foliage in one go. It’s been the death of all my grevilleas to date.
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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by shibui »

I'm for westringia too. It is not G. alpina and I cannot think of any Grevilleas that have leaf arrangement like that.

Westringia clips well so you should be able to quickly develop foliage pads if that's what you want. The have no fertiliser preferences so any fert will be OK. I have not had any experience with root pruning these but I would start with warm season repotting if possible. They will flower, even when clipped. Occasionally buds on bare wood but I would try to leave green leaves on each shoot when pruning.
I think the only drawback is they tend to be fairly short lived.
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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by Starfox »

Cheers all for the replies, I think I'll go with Westringia. It looks like one and if there is a company knocking them out over here then it makes even more sense.

Think I will maybe give it a light prune at some point and wait for spring/summer to do a repot. Not really sure where to take this but I do see some older wood buried in there so hopefully after a clean out it may be become clearer.
Something different to play with at least.
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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by Starfox »

OK so this time I actually got sent a Grevillea, they gave me 50 percent off considering it's condition however it was supposed to be juniperina but that doesn't look right to me.
Any ideas on this one?
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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by Max »

Grevillea Long John??
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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by shibui »

Foliage looks like one of the Grevillea longistyla selections or hybrids. It appears that 'Long John' is one of those. Grevillea 'Elegance' is another and there are probably a few more.
longistyla is from QLD but is quite cold hardy. It does well here down to -7C. The large leaves, long internodes and open habit may make it a bit difficult as bonsai I think. Flowers are quite large for grevillea.
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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by Starfox »

Yeah it kind of reminds me of the 'moonlight' variety we have as a landscape tree. I wouldn't really think it is overly suited for bonsai. Hopefully I can nurse it back to health and see what flowers it gives out.

My grevillea hunt continues.
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Re: Is this a ....?

Post by Raging Bull »

It seems to me they have a different system of plant classification in Spain, known in Australia as "Lucky Dip" :lol:
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