Water gum, first styling from nursery purchase

[patrickw]

[list=][/list]

Hey there , I bought this lovely gem from Rays and decided to make some changes. This is my first proper attempt at styling a tree and any critiques , suggestions would be greatly appreciated thanks !

The apex is a little high at the moment but am letting it grow , and waiting for branches to fill out the top section a bit more

[squizzy]

Hi Patrick

These are a great species and in my opinion pretty forgiving

It's a good start but just keep an eye on bar branching and some of the dead vertical growth I can see.

Keep us updated as you go.

Cheers

Squizzy

[shibui]

Well done for taking on a great native for bonsai.
Please consider a couple of things I would change:
A couple of front branches near the base of the large lowest right branch to remove so we can see a bit more of the trunk.
Along that low branch there's a vertical sub-branch. I can see you have a wire on it but not anchored to anything at this stage. I would rewire that one starting from the main trunk and follow the 2 thick wires out so you can bend that one down a bit.
Get rid of the star weed as quick as you can. It is a real pain when it spreads - exploding seeds and runners let it spread everywhere.

After that let it rest until mid summer. When the shoots start to grow keep trimming to force more buds and it should ramify well and look great.

[Max]

Hi Patrick, nice one, you must be loaded i notice your tree leans to the right and the nebari is also on the right, you could start directing the weight of your tree to the left, this will need you to shorten your first branch back to the vertical one which can be wired down to slightly lateral to use the buds/shoots. The front branch i would remove so you can see the trunk. By removing the said material would give you a better look at the tree, then you can show us another pic, but by then you'll know how your tree will head ....but that's just me

[Watto]

Firstly, this tree has good bones and you should get great pleasure working with it over many years to come.
Ditto to what Shibui said about the star weed - it looks great for a while but spreads into everything and is a pest. Also good that you have got yourself a Aus native to upgrade your collection with.
Please keep us posted on progress over the next 20 years or so.

[patrickw]

Thank you all for the suggestions!

[patrickw]

Also, is the star weed the moss that is there or the couple of larger green weed things ?? I googled star weed and it came up with cannabis

[squizzy]

Well you better hide it if it's cannabis.

Squizzy

[Ryceman3]

Also, is the star weed the moss that is there or the couple of larger green weed things ?? I googled star weed and it came up with cannabis

Star weed is the lighter green "grass-like!" clumps growing in the darker green moss... Probably wouldn't smoke it once you remove it from the pot (!)... maybe just bin it instead... whatever you do, remove it though!
Could also remove the other broad leaf weeds in there while you're at it.