Claret Top Landscape

[Magzy]

I have been playing around with landscapes the last few months, first 2 got washed away with heavy rain. This is my third try with another different approach, no muck this time because i keep failing with it. I have a few claret tops and decided to use one for this. The tray i have used is not the best and the plant is very young and straight but its all practise until i get it right then i'll spend some money. I have found with my clarets is they drop leaves quite easly and they become leggy with most of the growth on the ends, is this a common thing with them or just mine. Will let it rest and wait for more growth for now, i have left a few extra branches everywhere for backup.

[Craig]

Hi Magzy, i really like this setting, the way the 2 trees are planted, it's going to be very nice in a few years good work

[Pup]

Magzy, most of our Australian natives grow that way. The trick is to pinch them so they do not get leggy.

M, linarifolia which is the main tree in the hybrid claret tops require constant pruning. I never go back passed live foliage, leave at least two pairs of leaves.
This is my experiance with them in WA over the last 12 years.

Cheers Pup.

[Magzy]

Thanks Craig & Pup. pruned all the foliage down a fair bit today to try and balance it a bit more from the big tap root chop i did. Fingers crossed i will see it covered in new red shoots and not brown dead twigs.
Mark.

[Magzy]

A bit of an update on this one. Just about every leaf went brown and died on it at first but it slowly came back with new shoots. Once it was healthy again i went with Pups advice and used scissors to cut back to about 4 leaves and its been pushing new growth out ever since. Something i seem to be constantly struggling with is keeping moss looking nice and lush, to much shade and water and it seems to go black and to much sun it's brown and dry. Still early stages but i'm happy with how it's going, thanks for looking again.

[Andrew F]

Looks great Magz, what sort of rock did you use?

[cuwire]

Hey Magz

Can you give us a ball by ball on the browning and subsequent recovery ..... did it brown after initial potting .. did you re-pot before it recovered ... water ?? shade ?? sun ??.

Cheers David

[Craig]

it's going to be very nice in a few years

I changed my mind Magzy, it's very nice now mate top marks, thanks for posting

[Magzy]

Thanks guys, been away for a few days. Velvet C i bought the rocks online in a pack of 10 for under $8 and they are just named Chinese rock, i also think they have had acid used on them but not sure. David i bought the tree from a general garden nursery and it stayed in that pot until i potted into this setting, it a had one long tap root curled up in the pot which was removed and i cut just about all the roots off so it could fit in the space made for it. As i said in first post i then went back and cut more foliage off because it really had no root system at all but all the leaves still dried up and dropped. When the setting was first made it was put in full shade for 2 weeks with water misting every day and seasol every week, after 2 weeks it went to its spot which gets morning sun for about 3 to 4 hrs and just kept up the misting every day and the seasol treatment. Once it had good health i started trimming to stop it getting long leggy growth. I have read that some Mels dont mind sitting in a bit of water so this is why i used it because of no drainage holes and i found they are very thirsty also,this one seems to be liking it anyway but i do drain most of the water out of it.
Cheers, Mark.

[Andrew F]

Thanks guys, been away for a few days. Velvet C i bought the rocks online in a pack of 10 for under $8 and they are just named Chinese rock, i also think they have had acid used on them but not sure.
Cheers, Mark.

Hey Mark any chance i could get the website or ebay store via pm plz.

Cheers.

[harry]

Hello Mark in my limited experience moss goes dormant. At certain times of the year depending on species. Too much sun will cook certain species, there are a few that do grow in the sun .
Also too much moisture is also a known killer, of other species. I believe in the accent page here is an article on Mosses.

Harry

PS I like where this is heading, after a short time this does look nice.

[Roger]

Hi Magz
I've been growing a claret top for around 20 years. I've found that I can cut it back hard, ie well past any leaves. I've done this is spring and early summer. It takes about 2-4 weeks before red buds start appearing all up and down the branches. I've also found that you can do this to one branch at a time, so you can experiment without seriously damaging your tree. You do feel like your heart is in your mouth, but for me it has worked with this cultivar.

Cheers
Roger

[cuwire]

Thanks Magzy for the ball by ball .. looks like you have the touch ... great recovery.

Cheers David

[Magzy]

Thanks for comments and advice i will keep this updated when more work is done. Velvet you have pm.
Cheers, Mark