AusBonsai

Hi guys just wondering if anyone has experience with Coastal Rosemary?

I have the chance to collect a couple from a garden but wasn't sure if they make a good bonsai species?

I know spring will be better for collection but the owner will be ripping them up if I don't collect now.

Main question, am I wasting my time? I am yet to check them out in person.

Thanks in advance,
Pearcy.

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Westringea is not reliable for back budding on bare wood so you'll need to have some low shoots to ensure they will grow.
There's a couple that I trim regularly into hedges and rounded shrubs so they can cope with trimming new shoots.
I have not transplanted any yet so can't offer anything on how they cope with cutting roots.

Thanks for the bit of information​ that you had Neil.

I'm going down to check them out tomorrow. Fingers crossed they have good trunks.

Hopefully I can get a good root mass although thinking now I may not have any pots big enough.

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By reputation their roots are dodgy with repotting and digging up, but I have no personal experience. Let us know how they go. Search on the site - there's been no great joy.

Gavin

I dug the trees today. All still in their original soil just potted up on site.

They are larger than I thought for my small courtyard.

I'll probably have to reduce the foliage further for there survival, but running out of time right now.

Here's a couple of quick photos. I couldn't get Crumpet out of the way haha.

Cheers.

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nice

Nice pearcy, little crumpet just wanted a bit of attention too hehe


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They look viable. I can see lots of foliage close to the trunks so, if they survive the transplant, you should be able to prune back and get good regrowth.

Have you seen this

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hao4nPHqe4Y

Some nice trees in it and a bit of a description of care.

dansai wrote:Have you seen this

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hao4nPHqe4Y

Some nice trees in it and a bit of a description of care.

A lot of the trees in the video aren't westringa . Most of them are are Rosemary a couple of them are actually Watto's trees that he has posted on here and the dead wood one is a juniper . Not that it matters there is great inspiration in there . Nice score Pearcy .

I thought as much. Was a bit hard to be certain on my phone. I think it is a uk based post too, so don't know how reliable or relevant the cultural information is either

Thanks for the link Dansai. Was good to get some ideas.

I'm considering bare rooting one to get it into a free draining mix before winter, thoughts? The current soil that it was collected from appears it will stay wet far too long for a Melbourne winter.

When winter does come and if they are left in their current soil, I may try leaving one undercover and another fully exposed.

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The colanders you have them in should help alleviate the moisture issue I think.
Bare rooting will probably not hurt any more than the collecting has done if you don't cut roots any further. My experience with natives indicates that the ones I have tried do nor respond well to root pruning in cooler weather but you have enough of these to do some trials with other options.

I have not had the best of luck repotting them but the leaves reduce even more. It's a neat plant. I'm following with interest for more tips.

Looks like the transplant of these wasn't to any detriment to the tree, these guys seem to be throwing buds like crazy.

I was originally going to leave them to regain vigour then chop back harder at spring but now I'm not too sure if I need to wait. Maybe I should consider cutting at least 1 of them right back now?

All are still in there original garden mix that they were lifted in. I plan to also repot at spring.

Cheers,
Pearcy.

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