AusBonsai

bonsaiworld wrote:OWNED & TRAINED: Carole

HEIGHT: 50CM

WIDTH: 49 CM

AGE: 25 years

IN TRAINING: 20 years

LIVES: Gold Coast

HISTORY: I collected this plant as a seedling in the bush in Toowoomba in 1986 and it would have been only 12 months old. I grew it on in a nursery pot for a further five years and commenced shaping about 1991.

The Hoop Pine is native to eastern Australia and is found mainly in the coastal regions of northern NSW and all along the east coast of Qld. It is an extremely hardy tree when used as a bonsai, coping with the frosts of Toowoomba to the heat waves of the Gold Coast hinterland, enduring both droughts and floods.

Even though it is hardy I would probably not have bothered with it if I had known what a challenging species it is as a bonsai. The new growth appears as 7 or 8 branches in whorls and is very course and strong and must be continually removed leaving the weaker foliage to shape. For this reason I am continually changing the shape as I deal with the growth spurts. In nature the foliage is very long, prickly and pendulous. In a bonsai it is certainly very prickly, even so I have tried to keep the pendulous look and have retained the natural apex which is four branches coming from the same trunk on a new shoot. The apex has to be removed every 12 months and a new one lifted up or regrown due to the strong growth.

It likes full sun in winter and light shade cloth to protect it from the intense heat in summer and likes the soil to dry out slightly between watering. I neglect this one quite badly, fertilising only about once a year with either Dynamic Lifter, Miracle Grow or Sulphate of Potash.

Because it is so difficult to work it hasn’t been my favourite tree but I thought I should show it on ausbonsai as it is an Australian native and it isn’t often seen as a bonsai. (And I think I know why).

I apologise for the angle of the photo but I have just reshaped it, and once again the front has changed slightly. It will be repotted in August at which time the new front will be in the correct position.