Melaleuca linariifolia 'Claret Tops' - "the Ranga"

[Inspired]

Impressive indeed. Top notch class in the making. Certainly a standout "signature" bonsai

Mighty effort mate well done!

[Steve B]

thanks Inspired, appreciate the kind words. To be honest, this tree has always seemed to have a pretty strong opinion on where it wants to go and I've really just tried not to get in the way too much. If only a few of the other trees in my collection were as happy to make my life so easy.....

[Elmar]

A healthy specimen of this species is a beauty to behold!
Well done.


Cheers
Elmar

[Steve B]

Looking a bit scruffy coming out of winter. Again letting it grow unimpeded until it flowers - no sign of any buds just yet.



Due for a repot this year, thinking about a new pot too. I have stripped off some of the bark on the back of the trunk with a view to getting some carving done prior to the repot. Doubt I will be brave enough to hollow it out completely first time around.




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[Steve B]

No sign of any buds this year, so I got into it with a decent prune rather than waiting any longer. Still looks like a big stump I guess, but I'm pretty happy with where the branches have developed. Not sure it's going to win me the naturalistic stamp of approval, at least it has the framework now to get a decent canopy to cover up the worst of the big cut sections. I chopped back quite a few of the main branches to minor secondaries in order to get a bit more angled movement. Lots of cutting back new shoots now for the rest of summer. It does tend to go rampant this time of year so hopefully it will have a more refined canopy to show by the end of summer. Need to sneak in a repot during one of the bud burst cycles too as it has been 3 years since the last one.

[kcpoole]

What lovely bones it has Steve
Congrats on getting this far and the carving should set it off nicely

Ken

[GavinG]

Damn fine monster there Steve, and getting some angles into the branches always pays off. The "back" view looks enticing - once you bite the bullet and carve it out deeply, maybe blacken it with a blowtorch as Pup does, that might even end up being the front, and all the "stumpy" look might just resolve nicely. Please keep posting it.

Gavin

[Kelvin8r]

This is starting to look fantastic mate.

Hows it looking now?

[Steve B]

Still haven't got around to the repot or starting on the carving yet - work and summer holidays conspiring to limit opportunities this year. Best I've managed is to keep shaping the canopy via some clip and grow. It has recovered well from the trim, but I do need to get around to a repot sooner rather than later!

Front


Back

[Max]

How's it looking now?

[Steve B]

Sorry on the tardy response - caught up in a house move. This is how it looked a few weeks ago...



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[Sammy D]

Looking Awesome steve. Truely inspiring native.

[Max]

I think someone has a green thumb

[Steve B]

Bit of an update as it put on a solid effort with flowering this year - can't believe it's been over a year since I last updated . Looking a bit shaggy in order to let the flowering take place. Will hack it back once the flowering has finished and keep encouraging more ramification.

Front View.jpg

Rear View.jpg

Finally repotted it into a slightly larger pot and rotated slightly so that the reverse taper in photo's looks a little less obvious. Still in the market for a more unique pot if I can stumble across it - large pots don't come easy! Kicking myself I passed on a couple of decent contenders in the past.
Successfully survived it's first winter in Canberra - certainly slowed things down for a few months compared to its Sydney history, but has roared back to life in the last few months. Foliage went a decidedly grey colour as the cold kicked in.
Also started to do a bit of work on the back section that I'd like to carve out. Not brave enough to tackle it by myself so waiting for a carving workshop to come up so that I can get an expert onion or two!

[Watto]

Thanks for the up-date. There is significant differences from the start but I think its time to get those carving tools out to make the next significant difference!