AusBonsai

Hey all,

I dropped by my local garden centre today as they carry a wide-ish range of natives and immediately saw this leptospermum. I have never attempted natives as bonsai so I am starting at the beginning with this one and I'm after some advice

Here's the tree


And here's a close-up of the trunk shape


So my questions are....

Does anybody see potential in this tree? I really love the to right trunks and will look to do something with them (an idea is either to keep the angle, or lay it down way to the right maybe?)

How do lepto's respond to being cut back, and when is a good time?

What does everything think the first step should be from here, I am tempted to trim and get some wire on but I'm not sure if it's worth it yet or whether I should look at a bigger chop to get some back budding.

Looking forward to your opinions

Kez

Definately see some potential in the tree Kez, would love to have that to work on

It looks a lot like the one I have at home, also just nursery stock that I'm training, so I think its a Leptospermum petersonii, but one of the more knowledgable members might confirm that for you

I've not got much advice myself, as I'm still learning from the tree, but I can point you to a thread I've been using for info, which has some good info: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9904

Looks like great stock to me.

There are a whole heap of Lepto varieties out there and unfortunately I can't help with identification of this one.
From my experience I've noticed a mixed bag in regards to backbudding.
Some will but only on new wood, some won't and some will even on very old wood.

I'd be inclined to "test the waters" by cutting back some of the unneeded material and see what the tree responds with.
As Pup says an added safety measure is to never cut beyond green. This means to never chop a branch beyond viable leaves and leave it bare. If you use this technique and back budding is successful you will find you can work a branch back in stages with less risk of it dying all together.

I think the same can be said for root pruning too - start small and get some confidence.
Generally speaking at bud swell is a good time for natives.

As far as what to do now I'd be looking to clean up the unwanted branches first and consider some styles.
No rush.

I can't help with identification sorry but I think this one looks like a great starting point.

I have/had two scoparium crosses (which are apparently pretty touchy with cutting back) that have smaller leaves than your specimen. I cut them both right back to see what happened and didn't touch the roots. both budded back on old wood but one then promptly died while the other took off from all over the trunk. The survivor is now really dense. I guess it is luck of the draw if you cut right back (at least with the crosses).

Interested to see how this one goes with a trim

nice score kez. looks like a petersonii (spelling) to me but im no xpert with natives. i seen a nice one as a bonsai somewhere not long ago, it was much like yours but it was made in the weepping look. see if i can find the picture for ya.

I couldn't help myself......

I came home last night, had a bit of a look at the tree, decided that I was a bit tired, and I had plenty of time on Friday to give the tree a good assessment so I put it back down and went and got on the computer instead.

Inevitably I found myself on here, and after reading through a few topics was thoroughly inspired so I went back out, got the trimmers, got the wire, and went to work. What I found was more foliage away from the tree than I initially thought, as well as a lot of movement tending to the left. For some reason I was trying to avoid the windswept style but it seemed that to go against the tree's movement would be hard to achieve and it would be making more work than maybe was smart/necessary.

Here is what I have ended up with

Current front


Left hand side


Right


A better shot of the trunk


And an above shot of the movement in the branches


I found with this tree it definitely had a story, and what I thought initially was going to be the way forward turned out to be different from the direction I ended up going, especially down low. The thick second trunk was going to be the main feature, but after discovering a lack of foliage, and some interesting dead wood it has ended up being an accent to the smaller trunk on it's left.

I have still a touch of thinning to do, and my slightly heavy hands resulted in some lost foliage/branching in the weaker areas, but all in all I am happy thus far.

Love to know what you think

Kez

How's this guy traveling amungst your sea of junipers Kez, Any chance of an update?

Cheers,
Pearcy.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

This tree became this pearcy

viewtopic.php?f=104&t=20858