AusBonsai

I bought this as one of five $3 tubestock in early 2015 from Bulleen Art & Garden. They were potted up straight away and this was the only one that didn’t get wired, which I’m happy about now as it can get a guernsey in the comp. I put two on cds and three without to compare root flare/structure. I’m sort of hoping this is one that is on a cd as it might help with a quicker transition to bonsai pot. I’ll find out when the weather warms up in spring. It’s currently 58cms from pot rim to tip.

I’ve always loved Banksias but it was only through Ausbonsai, Grant Bowie's great Banksia article and learning how to go about it that I’ve started some on their journey to bonsai, so this will be a new challenge for me and I’ll be on a big learning curve to transition banksia stock to bonsai pot and start developing branches.

Orpy

There's not a lot to report on this B. Integ. Similar to my Serrata, I've left it all in tact through winter waiting for some Spring growth. Grant commented on this in post #94 of his Banksia thread, so good to know as I wasn't sure.

My other young Integrifolias are moving, but this one is still hibernating. It might be because it's been kept a bit drier recently or resting after heavy feeding last year. A couple of the leaves look burnt so I may have been too light-on with watering.

The plan is to chop it back to the 2nd RH branch (1st photo) to create some taper and then feed, feed, feed to try to fatten the new leader and get some buds to pop in good places. I introduced this one (& others) to chook poo pellets & power feed from tube stock and it responded well and has been going ok so far. It'll receive more of the same this spring and plenty of water too!

Brett






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This B. Integ's slow start to spring might've been largely due to the roots filling out the pot. As it was still fairly cold in Melb when I checked this at the start of Nov, I slip-potted up to try and kick-start growth. It worked and it's put on strong growth in the last three weeks, so I've cut back today, leaving a good stub, to be shortened later. I want to get some good growth now before I plan to start reducing the roots mid-summer.

Since the last post this one has had a repot and root reduction. I found the cd it was planted on and it helped keep the rootball flat.



After trimming back ugly overhanging roots, the rootball was about 2cm thick.



It's been over-potted to encourage growth and help me out through remaining summer heat. We got a puppy a month ago so I'm a bit time poor for summer watering schedules (ie. >1x per day).

The trunk chop stub has been shortened. Excess branches will eventually go and I've got an idea to address the reverse taper on the new trunk at the first node after I let multiple shoots run to fatten up before the node. The fattening up before the node didn't really work - ohh well.





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Well I'm in a little strife with this one. It's taken a backward step with my 7yr old's football being the likely culprit to have snapped the leader. I only noticed before this last weekend but it looks like it's been that way at least a fortnight. The risk now is further dieback. It'll be a longer term project to get another leader going and thickened up - let's see how it goes. Ive never done a graft before but I've kept plenty of shoots so I might see if I can bend one in for an approach graft. Fingers crossed!


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The broken leader still looked green.
You could have tried super glue.
It's worked a treat for me.

Quarterly update for this one. The leader was unfortunately too far gone Boics. I've trimmed up the leader and tried my hand at my first grafts - three inarch grafts from existing shoots. So I'm back into a development phase rather than preparing for the final comp photos.
The plan will now be to slip pot into a larger pot to maximise growth through spring & summer and leader development. Ill keep the thread going post-comp so we can see how the grafts go.


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It'll be interesting to see how these grafts go. Good luck with it Orpy - hope they come through for you.

Enjoyed the journey so far. Good luck with this. Banksia are so good!!

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