Melaleuca linariifolia 'Claret Tops' - "the Ranga"

[Steve B]

Firstly I need to clarify that I'm not suggesting for a moment this tree is worthy of being a named bonsai in the Japanese sense, more I wanted to differentiate it for search purposes from some of the more refined examples of this species that Steven (viewtopic.php?f=104&t=14275&hilit=claret+top) and Pup have on site and make far better reference points on how to do it than anything I'm likely to contribute!

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It all started as many of these relationships do. Breaking the original bonsai sin of "thy shalt not covet thy neighbours shrubbery". It was a stunted Mel that only stood about 1.5m high, and was tucked in an ugly corner of a yard that was up for re-design. I offered to dig it out and save them the expense/effort, only to discover on return from a weekend away that it had been hacked back to the stump as part of a cleanup "and to make it easier to dig up". I don't think I actually cried, but I did get close! During the actual dig I definitely broke into tears a few times. Access to it from one side only as it was growing out from under a solid fence, plus it seemed to have been planted in a rubble pile. Dozens of half bricks and 3 hours later it eventually came out. Not a lot of decent root remaining I put it in a deep tub with potting mix and a reasonable amount of existing (clay like) soil it came out with. In retrospect I should have bare rooted it at the time and put it in the "Kens mix" it now enjoys. I gave it 9 months in the potting mix and it elongated a lot of shoots on top and seemed healthy, but on repot there were only a few stringy roots to be seen. It's been in this pot and Ken's mix for about a month now and seems to be doing OK.

The appeal for me is in the classic paper bark and some nice "muscling" in the lower section. The photo has made the reverse taper look a lot more noticeable and the point where it disappears into the soil less strong than I appreciated (darn those photo's!). There's some nebari in training beneath the soil line that will hopefully correct the proportions over time as I raise it higher. Trying to encourage new roots higher up the stump to correct the 9 months in the potting mix where all root growth seemed to happen at the very bottom as roots escaped the clay it originally came in I suspect?

The medium term plan is to cover up the hack marks and lack of any real branching with a dense set of foliage pads, quite similar to the plan Steven has for his Mel in the link above.

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Longer term however I think its derrière might hold a lot more promise! It has two ugly hack marks at the top and the large root stump at the bottom. Thinking about using those scars as points to run a hollow from tip to toe (aka "a jolly good Pupping"). The sort of hollowed out look you see post bushfire when a stump has acted as a chimney with one side completely burned out.

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Bit more detail on the stump scars at the top of the tree where I'm starting to visualise the hollow starting.

Hopefully working on the dense leaf pads for a few years will get it healthy and happy and I can very gradually start the hollowing out from the back. With the hollowing out done and the tree spun around I'll look to then reduce the foliage pads back. Trying to achieve that bush fire regeneration look a few years after the event.

Well that's the plan anyway. The more I look at the photo of the front, the more I'm tempted to hack the large branch to the left to try and get the silhouette looking more tapered. Big scar if I go this way though! Maybe the longer term plan of spinning and hollowing it is the better one.....

[MattA]

Hey Steve, total stump envy

I like your inspiration & plans for the tree, with regards the large low branch how about keeping it and hollowing like the rest, you can play with the taper a bit at the same time.

[John Henry]

Hi Steve, great material love to see this tree in a few years.
John m. and great choice of beer

[Watto]

I think its great and you have done a great job so far. Have you considered keeping just the first branch (cutting the rest off) and that way you would have a real sumo Aus native that in a few years might look super.

[Steve B]

Thanks for the feedback and kind words.

I like your inspiration & plans for the tree, with regards the large low branch how about keeping it and hollowing like the rest, you can play with the taper a bit at the same time.

I think hollowing the branch out could be the go Matt. I've certainly got a few years on my hands to find some inspiration/ideas to make it look credible. Bit of time looking at bushfire damaged trees coming up In the meantime with the canopy filling out and dropping lower it will hopefully distract some of the attention from it.

John m. and great choice of beer

Thanks John, bit embarassing that I had to use a full one for the shot

Have you considered keeping just the first branch (cutting the rest off) and that way you would have a real sumo Aus native that in a few years might look super.

I hadn't considered the "new leader" approach on this one Watto, so you had me out looking at the tree again . Would be an almighty stump then. I think there's probably too much girth in there to do it without a shed load of carving to try and blend the cut in. It got me thinking that losing the main trunk as part of the hollowing out/bushfire effect could be a good alternative. A bit more thinking required, but plenty of time to do it.....

[Steve B]

A little more growth coming through....

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Rather then wire I've tied some of the larger branches down with grafting tape. What I'm hoping to do is keep the bulk of the foliage on and drag the branches below the horizontal and into a position where they don't crowd each other out. I'm hoping that by retaining maximum leaf mass I can get those primary branches to thicken up faster as they need quite a bit of girth given the size of the stump to look credible. I'm also hoping that letting it go crazy with foliage I can get a good amount of root mass forming given it's slow start after digging.

Quite a few of the branches that have been tied down beneath horizontal are back budding at what has become their apex back up closer to the stump. I'm hoping that the new shoots will have a lot of vigour and eventually start to outgrow the tied down branch underneath. As this starts to happen I can cut the tied down branch off at the junction and tie down the new shoot below horizontal starting the process again. Thinking this will give me quite a bit of movement and taper in building out ramification whilst keeping a lot of foliage mass to power things along?

I could have wired, but I'm really only looking to keep the first few cm's of each current primary prior to encouraging a change in direction. Rather than pruning back to get a new shoot I'm wondering if I can get the new shoot whilst keeping all the foliage and get a lot more girth in the primaries in the process. Wishful thinking? Be very happy to hear what others have done to encourage girth on primaries with good movement.

[DavidWilloughby]

Hi Steve,

What a fantastic bit of material to be playing with, there is a tonne of potential in it. I have only recently started to appreciate our natives more and the possibilities of their reach in the application of Bonsai.

To be completely honest, I genuinely think mate that you are a few years off considering styling. The reason I say that is because the stump is so impressive and masculine, to get any realistic taper into it will involve a couple of years of untouched growth, cut back and repeat the process to get that taper into it.

Cheers

David

[Steven]

Looking great Steve! It's coming along really well. Isn't it interesting that the Melaleuca (and natives in general) continue to grow during winter!
After you carve out the chops on the back, it may actually make an interesting front??

Regards,
Steven

[Steve B]

To be completely honest, I genuinely think mate that you are a few years off considering styling. The reason I say that is because the stump is so impressive and masculine, to get any realistic taper into it will involve a couple of years of untouched growth, cut back and repeat the process to get that taper into it.

Thanks David, I think it will take a lot of growth for sure! I'm not going to attempt any trunk taper from here, just getting the branching plenty thick with lots of movement and sharp changes in direction. I'm going to try and avoid the temptation to cut it back (saying that now of course with no snips in hand!). Will see if I can encourage some movement and taper by bending branches downwards and encouraging shoots without actually cutting Will certainly have plenty of time on my hands to experiment

After you carve out the chops on the back, it may actually make an interesting front??

Yep, I reckon that's the long term direction with it too Steven. Trunk shows a bit more movement on that side and downplays the reverse taper the fork in the trunk creates from the current front. Will need a bit of work on the nebari from that side though. Thinking I might get a dense foliage tree from the current front for 4 or 5 years (similar to Peter Adams' plan for your Mel) before spinning it around for that carved/burnt out look. I can dream anyway

[Steve B]

OK, quarterly update for the sake of progression. It has had a good growth period through spring - hopefully all the growth up top is matched with a nice root mass underneath given it was a bit thin for my liking on the repot last year.

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Been enjoying the flowering this year as I haven't trimmed it back at all in order to try and bulk up the girth of the primary branches. I think it's taken Pups comments to heart and is determined to show up its flashier brethren the "Melaleuca Calistimon". Pretty impressive it is in its own right with the combo of the claret new growth and off white flowers. It is very tempting to get in there with the cutters and trim for some branch placement. I'm holding off for as long as I can, but appreciate I'm probably playing a dangerous game on getting some dieback as it's getting very dense. Looking to wire/tie it to get some air through the foliage mass and will keep an eye on it and thin out as I see any leaves dropping in the innards.

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The reverse taper at the base of the trunk has always bugged me in the photos above. I've taken this shot to provide some depth towards the back of the tree where the base tapers out nicely again. Might rotate it this way when I repot next year. Issue will be how dense I can get the lower foliage pads as on this angle one of the large chopped branches will be angled toward the viewer, so I need to get the foliage dense to disguise it or do something creative with the dremel.

[Ash]

Hey I missed this one, It is growing strong, agree the slight twist in viewing front will be and improvement. You don't see enough good solid M. linariifolia so I am looking forward to see how this progresses.

I laughed at 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours shrubbery' I love it. It reminds me of a bonsai friend, who observing me drool over the curves of some dwarfed conifers at Cradle Mountain said to me 'It doesn't matter where you get your appetite so long as you eat at home'.

Ash

[bodhidharma]

You will have so much fun wiring it out and watching it take shape. Take your time and enjoy creating its future. A great, future for this Aussie native

[Steve B]

Wolly Mel March 2014.jpg

I'm targeting the final canopy at about this size I think?
Will keep working on the refinement and developing some discrete foliage pads. I used Pup's approach for maxing out flowering with Calistimons on this Mel last year and liked the results so will be going with it again. A last trim in March and then sitting back until it flowers in Oct prior to whacking it with some major structural work.

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Once nuded up you can start to see how much time will be required to get the secondary branching up to a decent diameter. Needs a bit of work on the branch placement too (particularly on the left side!), but I've got a few candidates to work with.

[Steve B]

Well it's better autumn colour than my limited stocks of deciduous trees put on this year anyway.....

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Recovering nicely from the late summer hack-back with a lot of shoots starting to show flower buds. I've put on quite a bit of wire/tie-downs to get some of the primaries at least horizontal (and some beneath it). Thinking if I let things run through to post flowering in Oct/Nov it should hold in the new positions. I have had mixed luck with getting this one to hold shape. It springs back pretty quickly even when I've had wire on through two wire/rewire phases. It thickens quickly enough for me to worry about scarring, but not enough for it to hold shape - think it might be the paperbark thickening faster than the internal wood?

[Steve B]

Bit of an update on progress with this Mel. Let it run uninterrupted through March to mid November when it flowered again. Not as good a coverage as last year, although it started off as though it was going to have a massive show. Had a lot of buds form, but tended to have a lot of the buds themselves turn brown before they had fully developed and fall off. Not sure if it was a pest or a care issue? Meant the flowering wasn't as thick as it was last year, although the leaf growth seemed unaffected.

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Did a savage hack back to the first or second set of leaves on pretty much every branch in order to continue the ramification work. The below shot is after a couple of weeks and already getting to the stage when I have to go back and cut the new shoots back to the first or second leaves again. Its been spending about half of it's time sitting in a water tray (particularly when the forecast is 25 or over) that holds water halfway up the sides of the pot. I only let it sit for a day or two and give it a day out of the tray to drain. Seems to be responding well, although this thing is such a strong grower I'm not sure that much I do really has anything to do with it!

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Lining up a repot for January and thinking of a slight rotation below to try and make the basal flare more obvious. Ash has given it the thumbs up as a better angle and the more I look at it the more I agree.

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