Kunzea

[Trent McKenzie]

This is my Kunzea,
It was dug from a friends front garden and was originally a clump of about 5 trees as one. This is the sole survivor of the clump and after letting it grow on for a few seasons I started training it last year. I limed the natural shari and cut back hard on all branches to force back budding, some may need to go back further yet. I am thinking of a windswept style as the desired outcome.

I'm not sure if this is kunzea ambigua, but from the research I've done it seems to point to that.


Front

side

Back

side

[Damian Bee]

Hi Trent.
I reckon you need to choose a branch to work on at each point before you end up with too much growth in those areas. If you are happy with height then start working on those branches to get some movement, at present they look to be shooting up and out. Kunzea suits a lot of styles, to me it looks like you could make a decent formal upright out of this one, especially with those flowers
Are you intending to wire or clip and grow?
I wish my Kunzea had a trunk on it like that

[Damian Bee]

Maybe not formal upright just had another look. Perhaps cut down to that first main branch though and make some dead wood from the trunk above though

[Trent McKenzie]

Thanks Damian,
Yes I do need to reduce the amount of shoots, just letting it grow healthy for now. The plan is take cuttings off all the branches and remove them back to a handful of shoots on each. I think it will take a mix of wiring and cut and grow to train this one, Kunzea are very brittle so wiring must be done on young shoots before it is too late.

[Bretts]

I see a very Very nice literati in there. Will take some thought to arrange or replace brittle branches but that trunk is perfect for literati

[Trent McKenzie]

Time for an update on this one.

Decided to change the planting angle (FTW) and was able to get it into a much smaller pot because the largest roots were dead and rotting away.