AusBonsai

On Sunday Rory dropped by the Shibui Bonsai sales tables at Canberra Bonsai Exhibition and decided to take home a young Hakea I had on display. Our discussion reminded me that I have not seen many Hakeas as bonsai.
I have a very little experience with this genus and welcome others to add to this thread with any practical experience with any of the Hakeas as bonsai.

So far I have only tried one species, Hakea megadenia - a Tassie endemic. I came across this one while visiting the Apple isle some years ago and thought that if it can tolerate living in Tassie it might just be tough enough to survive my attempts at bonsai. Hakea megadenia is a needle leaved species with small whitish flowers along older stems which bodes well for having flowering bonsai even when we trim new growth regularly.
The one I worked with lasted for about 10 years and showed it could tolerate both pruning and root reduction reasonable well. Eventually it was looking good enough to go into a bonsai pot but before I found the right pot it suddenly turned up its toes (no idea why???) Frustratingly, I cannot find any photos of it on file.

Here are photos of another species I think would be stunning as bonsai. We have this WA species growing in the garden here at Shibui Bonsai so it is definitely frost tolerant. It has stunning red flowers along the stems in late winter. Even right back on the oldest wood near the base of the trunk. It even looks like it might respond to pruning. Here's where I pruned an over long branch last year. I have not yet tried bonsai techniques on this species yet but wouldn't it be stunning if it can cope with living in a pot?

I welcome others to add any practical experiences and pictures of Hakeas as bonsai so we can try to get any available knowledge in one spot.

Awesome thread shibui and I hope I can keep that little tree of yours alive.

My only experience is with Hakea laurina
https://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/gnp2/hakea-laurina.html

But I have not been growing them for enough years to comment other than the basics of:

Try not to let the soil get too dry. Mine died back only about 10cm at the ends (but I'd let the soil get very dry), but it was no big concern as I was growing a large specimen that had dried out. But you need to water these almost daily. They are a very thirsty tree.
I would say it is almost on par with Casuarina as to the watering regime. On my next repot I will use a slightly heavier mix that retains water longer, as the current mix drains too well and is too dangerous if you miss a watering.
As long as the trunk is about 2cm at the base they wont succumb to myrtle rust if you spray periodically with triforine. Do not spray the Hakea with any chemicals until new shoots have hardened off otherwise the new young growth often dies.
The trunk thickens reasonably well.
I haven't tried leaf reduction yet as it is in the thickening phase.
The branches naturally weep and creates a lovely look in a short time. If you grow a tree over 50cm in height you probably don't need to wire much and can just clip-and-grow and it will weep to create a natural looking tree.
So far they respond well to pruning and shoot back low on the trunk on occasion without even cutting back hard.

Hi Neil,

That hakea I got from you didn’t end up making it. But the problem was insects and possums and wallabies combined kept attacking it and it had to produce 3 flushes in a month, which eventually killed it.

I gave up on Hakea laurina. It was quite hardy and grew really well, but the internodes were always so far apart and the leaf size was too hard to reduce.

Instead I’ve picked up burrendong beauty, which iv since been told might not be a great choice for my micro climate. Oops.
Oh well, I’ll update in a few years when I know more.

I hope your Burrendong Beauty has not listened to the experts and thrives at your place. We have a couple in the garden here and they seem to enjoy our climate.
For those who don't know Burrendong Beauty I believe it is presumed to be a natural hybrid that appeared in a garden. Very floriferous - it flowers nearly all year round and grows as a reasonably neat dense scrambling shrub, normally to around 1m tall.

Thanks for resurrecting this thread Rory. i've identified the hakea above with red flowers all along the branches and trunk as Hakea orthorrhyncha. I have also managed to strike some cuttings of it this summer so now on the way to finding out how it responds to pot culture and bonsai techniques.

shibui wrote:Thanks for resurrecting this thread Rory. i've identified the hakea above with red flowers all along the branches and trunk as Hakea orthorrhyncha. I have also managed to strike some cuttings of it this summer so now on the way to finding out how it responds to pot culture and bonsai techniques.

It is amazing looking. If it grows well in Bonsai culture, sell some Neil. I’ll be first in line.

Hi all,

Any more news on Hakea recently? Are any of the above attempts still alive?

I've got some seedlings growing from seeds found in the Nelson Bay area. No idea on exact species. The tree looked really nice for bonsai. Smallish needles and internodes. I wonder if I can keep them alive.

Hi Roycee
My Tassie hakeas were looking really good as bonsai but they died suddenly one after another so no more hakea bonsai here.

I have not been able to strike H. orthorryncha as cuttings yet but the tree in the garden is still alive though looking a bit older each year so not sure how long it has left. No seed set so far so I cannot even grow seedlings of that one.

Anyone else have hakeas alive and well?

I have two different WA Hakeas. Became very interested in their potential after stumbling across them in the bush and around the neighbourhood.

I've got Hakea Trifurcata, and Hakea Lissocarpha. Both very early days so will see what happens

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I sold and gave away a lot of them in an effort to reduce my collection, as it was getting out of hand.

I still have a Hakea growing and in good health, but haven’t checked on it closely in a long time.

Has anyone tried to layer hakea?

I bought a Hakea microcarpa at a local hardware store. It had been on their shelf for a Loooong time as the barcode label had been half eaten away by whatever critters (slaters?) but I recognised the leaf and bark as a plant that grew riverside down the Snowys.

I'd had a couple of larger specimens as potensai for a few years but inattention while working led to them drying out too much - fatal for these water lovers. I'll try to keep this one alive. It has a tall branch that is going to come off anyway, so I wondered if hakea can be layered. I'll give it a go and see. I've cleaned out a lot of dead leaves and cut back some frizzeled tips. I plan to cut back to this area and use the branching here to make a small tree. This should suit the small white flowers of this plant.

The label says, "Hardy, fast growing shrub to 2m. Tolerates boggy conditions, masses of white flowers in spring, attracting nectar feeding birds."