and Mrs. Dickenson's bonsai nursery in Blackburn, Victoria. I paid $6.00 for it then.
I remember seeing picture of a Queensland bottle tree trained as bonsai in a book, by an
English author -- I cannot recall the book now. A few days later, I went and asked Mr.
Dickenson about this tree, he just happened to have some.
I just cannot understand why it has survived. I did some terrible things to it back in the
early days.
The picture below was taken on 20/November/2008:
It sort of has two "tops" in the above picture. It has been in this pot for about three years.
The pot is Chinese, oval-shape:
Pot length: 50 cm.
Pot width: 30 cm.
Pot height: 5 cm (including the "legs".)
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Over the years, I have never succeeded in wiring it. And I have also found that lower and
older branches suffer die back very easily. I have tried to make it bushy, but I have failed
repeatedly, until recently.
In 1997, I bought another two. I put them in big plastic pots, so they had developed fairly fast.
In 2005, I cut one back, with no branches left, it was around 4 cm thick. It died.
So I knew what not do do.
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In late 2007, I noticed some small buds just a little bit above the bend, I cut one of the top off.
Then about a week later, some more small buds developed underneath the previous ones. I cut
it clean off just below the bend. So, about two-third of the height was cut off. As the buds were
progressing into branches, I cut off the top branches. I just kept the four most lower ones.
And on around December/2007, I transplanted it into deeper box to recuperate. These pictures
were taken on 06/December/2008.
It looks much healthier in this picture below:
The following two show the details of the cut-point. I still have not hollowed it out:
Also as can be seen in the above two pictures, of the four branches left, only two have developed
well, the other two are just about to die off.
The following two show details of the roots:
Presently it is about 66 cm tall -- measured from the soil surface in the box.
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I am planning to do some more cut back, to develop more branches. I am also on
the look out for a suitable pot, I would prefer a signed Japanese pot.
