Banksia marginata

[Rory]

Sorry, need more information.

If it is my B integrifolia that won the Ryuga prize in Gold Coast convention then I have donated it to the NBPCA.



Grant

Yep, that was the one, I remember now it was a pic from a Gold Coast show. I loved it. Made me want to try integrifolia again. However, reading your article about Banksia confirmed my suspicion of 'lack of sun' being the culprit in a thread about what species will not tolerate low levels of sun, .... and Banksia never made that list, so I'm not going to bother trying again.

[Grant Bowie]

Sorry, need more information.

If it is my B integrifolia that won the Ryuga prize in Gold Coast convention then I have donated it to the NBPCA.



Grant

Yep, that was the one, I remember now it was a pic from a Gold Coast show. I loved it. Made me want to try integrifolia again. However, reading your article about Banksia confirmed my suspicion of 'lack of sun' being the culprit in a thread about what species will not tolerate low levels of sun, .... and Banksia never made that list, so I'm not going to bother trying again.

Banksia do love full sun but could tolerate some shade I suspect; but not full shade, high humidity, poor soil and wet feet etc etc combined.

I have damaged a few B integrifolia but they tend to recover; whereas with B serrata and B marginata you don't get second chances in my experience.

Grant

[GavinG]

There are, or have been, three magnificent Banksias at the NBPCA, I'll try to get some photos. Like most natives, they don't look like black pines, and if that's the way you think bonsai should look, Banksias aren't for you.

I've had a number of Banksias die on me, and every Grevillea - in the early stages they sit on the ground, fairly cramped together, and I suspect it's fairly easy for them to get fungal infections. Other species are not nearly so vulnerable. I'm trying one on a bench with good air circulation, just to see if it will work.

Gavin

[Max]

i give my B Marginata Iron Chelate every month or so....yellowing of the leaves indicate deficiency....it helps the plant controll the intake of P I've been told... I'm considering just putting 3 iron nails into the soil...think it should be a sufficient substitute...thoughts?

[Rory]

hmmmm.... I have no idea about the above post, but reading this old thread I feel the need to update my banksia views / efforts.

I have now been growing for 2 years:

Banksia integrifolia
Banksia serrata
Banksia marginata
and more recently a few Banksia integrifolia 'sentinel', (small leaved variety)...

Since having a lot more sun for my trees, the Banksias are going fabulously.
Even if I were to try and kill them, they'd bounce back with gusto. As long as they get a lot of sun, they are very hardy here. And leaving a full head of hair on them over winter is a really good technique.
I have cut back hard, repotted, cut the roots a lot, etc etc. They are all powering on.
I fertilize with 'Osmocote slow release for natives ', and 'Powerfeed for natives'.

Make sure you read Grants amazingly helpful thread on Banksias. It helped me a lot starting out with them:
viewtopic.php?f=69&t=812

Very happy now, but now my problem is that I have too many.
The only hiccup is if you fertilize with liquid fertilizer and don't wash off the fertilizer from the leaves, it burns the leaves in the sun.

EDIT - In regards to Banksia marginata, Ash at Bonsai World is growing a million of them. They are a beautiful bonsai, so I highly recommend getting yourself over there to pick some up. If I remember rightly, he said when they were cut back hard on the young trunks which were only a few cm thick, some of them didn't shoot back and died, but the majority that did survive don't have problems since. It was just the initial shock.
Perhaps Ash can chime in here and give some advice on them, but I think he told me not to cut back below the first branch on the first trunk chop, otherwise they sometimes don't recover. I forgot this at one point and cut back with no foliage remaining, but it shot back happily and is thriving now.
Marginata and integrifolia are the most beautiful banksias.

[shibui]

B. marginata is a very widespread species so plants from different areas respond differently. I'm told that in some areas they sprout back after bushfires but in other parts of Australia they all die after fires. This may have some bearing on how they respond to hard pruning as well.
At a seminar with botanists I was told there is some preliminary work being done to split B. marginata into several species based on the differences between some of the populations.

Since 2015 I have been trialling some B. marginata grown from seed collected in Tasmania. They are definitely way more hardy than my local provenance.

Since having a lot more sun for my trees, the Banksias are going fabulously.
Even if I were to try and kill them, they'd bounce back with gusto. As long as they get a lot of sun, they are very hardy here. And leaving a full head of hair on them over winter is a really good technique.
I have cut back hard, repotted, cut the roots a lot, etc etc. They are all powering on.

I agree with all that Rory. I have the same experience with most eastern Banksia species here too but I have not noticed burnt leaves after liquid fert.

[Rory]

I have the same experience with most eastern Banksia species here too but I have not noticed burnt leaves after liquid fert.

Yeah if you use powerfeed for natives liquid fert at any rate over about 60ml per 9 litres, once it dries on the foliage, if you don't spray the foliage afterwards with regular water, then it always burns the leaves of all my banksia if it's really sunny. If it's cloudy and cool it's not a problem. But leaving it on foliage with strong sun always burns the leaves.

[Rory]

Hey Grant / Neil....

How are your marginata going?
I’ve just picked up another 3 marginata stock plants to feed my banksia addiction.
I should have acquired more marginata years ago.

[shibui]

I've given up working with the local variety - just don't seem to last for me.
Doing far better with some from Tasmania They have really small leaves and appear to be far more amenable to my clumsy attempts at banksia culture.

[Rory]

I've given up working with the local variety - just don't seem to last for me.
Doing far better with some from Tasmania They have really small leaves and appear to be far more amenable to my clumsy attempts at banksia culture.

That is a shame. Hopefully you can post some pics when you get a chance of the Tasmanian variety Neil.

I recently acquired 2 mini marg before winter. They were in a really terrible draining mix so I made the decision to repot and open the roots rather than wait till spring. So far it has been a fortunate decision because we've had enough rain to make an ark float. Strangely the leaves on the lowest branch of BOTH plants have turned yellow and appear to have died back, but the remaining branches above are healthy as a horse, but other than that I think they're going to make it. I'm still taking a careful approach with marginata, unlike integrifolia which seem bulletproof.

Marginata seem to fair a lot better from more shade than integrifolia. But I presume this makes sense with it being a smaller variety that is used to having shade maybe?