NATURAL Bonsai Progression Competition

Rory · Post by **Rory** » January 1st, 2019, 6:34 pm

Hi MJL,

Thats all fine mate.
Good luck and have fun.

JimmyBanks · Post by **JimmyBanks** » January 1st, 2019, 7:35 pm

MJL - How big is the pot you’re going to be planting them all into??

Got a flowering gum today. It comes under 1cm

Looking forward to seeing how it goes. So far that’s 1 manna gum and 1 flowering gum... I was thinking a swamp paperbark possibly, if I can find one under 1cm for sale

Ryceman3 · Post by **Ryceman3** » January 1st, 2019, 8:41 pm

MJL, for mine I think it would be best to stick with a Moonah bower and leave the tea tree to a separate folly! At bonsai scale I think you run the danger of more than one species confusing your vision... I’m not sure that using that many trees is akin to implementing the KISS principle, but hopefully you get my drift. Of course I also add the generic disclaimer...

, from which you get to do whatever the hell you like.

MJL · Post by **MJL** » January 1st, 2019, 9:09 pm

JimmyBanks wrote:MJL - How big is the pot you’re going to be planting them all into??

Hey JimmyB - good question. At this time - I am not sure!

I imagine a 60-70cm clay training pot, quite deep to begin with. Or perhaps even a larger styrofoam container.

To get variation the the size of 30 similar seedlings over time - I will need to let some grow out but I will still want then in position from the start. I will also clump a few seedlings and make them look thicker and over time they should grow like a multi-trunk within the forest - again, very common in the scene that I am trying to replicate.

At this moment - I am still trying to get what is in my head on paper!

I will draw it first (and I am cr@p at drawing!); then I'll shape/wire all the seedlings - some aggressive some not so. I will then place and anchor the largest (including the biggest Moonah's trees.Then .... I'll place the seedling trees to 'define' the forest path and then place the rest; the seedlings that I give more aggressive bends to will generally sit away from the path. I will also subtly mound the dirt - to simulate a dune type environment and the more aggressively training seedlings will sit on the sides of the mounds...

@R3 - thank you and yes, I think you are right in terms of KISS and I value you input and advice. Thanks. IF.... I do put the three Tea Trees into the landscapes - they will form their own offset triangular clump... allowing me to extract or not in future. Or the single large Tea Tree will be my third entry ... I reckon I am going to go with (1) the Moonah forest; (2) the challenging River Red Gums that have settled well after re-potting and perhaps the singular Tea Tree or my group of Swamp Paperbarks which have settled well after repotting.

... It is exciting me and scaring me all at the same time. I think my imagination is way ahead of my skills but if I can set a good foundation...time will allow me to refine.

Or -- I'll kill everything and laugh at my own ignorance .... and lament the cost.

MJL · Post by **MJL** » January 1st, 2019, 9:12 pm

I should add... with my relative inexperience... my participation in this competition may well be valuable to forum members in that it will show people what not to do!!

Starfox · Post by **Starfox** » January 1st, 2019, 9:41 pm

MJL wrote:
Starfox wrote:Hey all,

Thought I'd share just a few more natives that I originally ordered weeks ago with the contest in mind but they had to come from France and got held up in all the protests ....[/attachment]
Happy New Year Starfox..

I must ask one question though - to your post above ‘They had to come from France?’

Huh? Cool but what’s the background to them coming from France?

Hey MJL, Happy new year to you too.

Well as I am in Spain finding Aussie natives isn't as easy as it should be. I have exhausted all the local walk in places and online Spanish nurseries for Aussie stuff so was checking out some French ones and turns out that is the way to go. Found a number of sites that are loaded with Banksias, Acacias, Eucs, Mels etc that I have not come across locally so thought I'd put an order in to see if it was worth it and maybe make a bigger order come spring time. Sending trees and stuff around the EU is fairly straight forward normally and at least these ones are a manageable size unlike the 2 meter bean poles most offer. So all in all I'm quite happy and will for sure make another order plus it saves my Mum from sending seeds over from Oz to me all the time.

MJL · Post by **MJL** » January 3rd, 2019, 7:24 am

Hey Starfox ... enjoy Spain and your search for Aussie native plants. As my step-father is French - thumbs up to the French for being your supplier.

A mild morning here in Melbourne - I don’t start back at work until later in January so I am taking the opportunity to relax ....
That includes wiring a whole bunch of Moonah trees in preparation for one of my comp entries ... there’s something quite therapeutic about the process. 6am, a coffee, some wire and a few tests to see how they bend. A few snapped but in the end - a bunch of randomly wired seedlings ... most have dropped 2-3 inches in height, many compacted 4-6 inches or more ... flexible little dudes.

IMG_6135.jpg

IMG_6136.jpg

Now for a design ....

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

MJL · Post by **MJL** » January 3rd, 2019, 4:39 pm

Well .... this may be slightly nuts! I am not yet entering this in the competition because .... I might have killed a bunch of perfectly good seedlings to blindly follow a whim and a future Bonsai vision.

And yes ... imagine if I had thickened ‘em up first too!

Believe it or not ... the pictures below reflect a forest that has been designed but ... I hope it looks somewhat random too. About 7 hrs of work (inc. this morning’s wiring) and an afternoon root pruning, root spreading, clumping, planting out and trimming here’s my starting point .... if any survive!!

One of the largest here:

IMG_6141.jpg

A clump of 3 here:

IMG_6144.jpg

And here’s a starting point:

32 plants in a 50cm pot.

IMG_6145.jpg

IMG_6146.jpg

Look closely, there’s a curving path with a narrowing, downhill aspect ... trust me!

IMG_6148.jpg

And some other angles

IMG_6159.jpg

IMG_6153.jpg

Who knows - the basis of a good Moonah forest 20 years - say 2040 or just an expensive folly to start 2019!!

Hopefully enough survive for me to enter it in the competition at the end of the month.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Jan · Post by **Jan** » January 3rd, 2019, 5:10 pm

Adjudication, please. (Who'd have thought that a set of clear rules could generate so many questions! And here's another...)

I dug two eucalyptus seedlings from the lane outside our place (they would have been grader fodder eventually). As one of the rules is 1cm trunk, and I'm not sure if the soil line of the plant is "the base of the trunk" could I ask you to have a look at there two plants (a single and a twin trunk) to give me a yes or no on using them as possible contest entries.

Brittle Gum (I think) 1 was growing in the end of a drain to shed water from the road. The trunk is measured at the soil line but I expected (and found when dug) that there would be a wider tuber below the surface. It is very close to the 1cm limit at the soil line - does it qualify for entry or would the tuber be classed as the base of the trunk?

20190103 Brittle Gum1.JPG

Brittle Gum 2 has two trunks, each well under the 1cm mark but again with the tuber well underground as can be seen by the soil level marks on the trunk (this one was on the edge of the gravel road so no image in case of traffic). Both will be added to my shade house (should they survive collection) regardless of their eligibility.

20190103 Brittle gum 2 trunks.JPG

20190103 Brittle Guum 2 tuber.JPG

Thanks,

Jan.

Rory · Post by **Rory** » January 3rd, 2019, 8:40 pm

Hi Jan,

I’m sorry but both entries would exceed the 1cm rule.

The first tree exceeds the limit alone, even without the lignotuber.
The second tree would also exceed the limit as the part to connect them would exceed 1cm

I’m very sorry so feel free to try other material.

If the lignotuber size is not realized until after the 31st January and after first root work then that would be acceptable.
It works on honesty.
Sometimes the lignotuber can just be a bulb on an otherwise flush trunk. It’s not an exact science.
But if you can tell the lignotuber is bigger than 1cm at the soil line then it shouldn’t be allowed.
If you check that it goes back to less than 1cm under the lignotuber then it’s fine.
If you don’t even realize it has a lignotuber until after you work the tree then that is acceptable.
It would technically be the same as if you raise any tree and find a good spreading root system that you want to raise and display later on.

Having said that, some of the Mels in swamps look gorgeous when the swamp line they live in is lowered and you can see those tangled roots spreading downwards and out.

Just remember, the point of the competition is to create the most natural looking.
Trunk thickness is not going to be a big advantage.
Take a look at a lot of the trees from Peterh and Boom64 to see what I mean.

MJL · Post by **MJL** » January 6th, 2019, 6:22 am

MJL wrote:No problem Rory - will do.

Here’s the Boronia you were interested in .... I’ve given the root ball a fair whack. It’ll either dead or a possibility by the end of January. [THUMBS UP SIGN]

IMG_5922.jpg
IMG_5924.jpg
IMG_5926.jpg
IMG_5928.jpg

Bonsai teaches me patience.

R.I.P Boronia

IMG_6179.jpg

it appears I went too hard and it will not make the starting line. A few glimpses of green remain but I think the Boronia is cactus.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Jan · Post by **Jan** » January 6th, 2019, 10:54 am

No problem, Rory. I'll enter a couple of other natives that I should be doing something with.

Jan

Beano · Post by **Beano** » January 6th, 2019, 4:41 pm

Well I’ve pretty much work on everything I bought for the comp. so far I’ve only submitted the callistemon but I plan to enter my twin eucalyptus cinerea, and the mys-tree possible lepto as my other two as long as they don’t look to be dying before the 31st. As backups, I have a port Jackson pine (callitris rhomboidea), a eucalyptus cladocalyx and a whole seed tray full of eucalyptus polyanthemos! I wish we could have more than 3 entries.

Thanks to Rory for organising it all and the generous prizes!

gnichols · Post by **gnichols** » January 6th, 2019, 5:51 pm

Picked up a few juniperus today. Also a grewia lavender star. According to my Google fu it is an Africa or Australia native. Does anybody actually know which it is, African or Australian?

Sent from my SM-G570F using Tapatalk

Beano · Post by **Beano** » January 6th, 2019, 6:15 pm

My googling says its African with no mention of Australia. This is a hugely popular plant in QLD and I’ve never heard it called an Australian native around the bonsai circuit before.

It’s not in my catalogue of native plants either.

AusBonsai