This is a River Red Gum (E. camaldulensis) that I have owned for a few years now. Since I purchased it from BaLoc Bonsai, I have done little in the way of styling except for a bit of clip & grow. I have raised the soil level around the trunk to attempt to rectify a bit of reverse taper.
Our recent warm, windy weather, coupled with my 5 day absence in Perth has seen the tree dry out to the point where all the foliage is cooked...
In my experience with Eucs, a drying event like this can be an indicator that the roots have become crowded and inefficient, and that a repot is in order. None of the foliage will survive, so all of it is removed. Likewise, the raised soil is gently removed to reveal that my little experiment has been largely successful: there are new roots forming above the original ones.
I removed all the large roots from the underside of the root ball, and finally trimmed the fine roots.Last night, I got the thing all strapped up, ready for some heavy manipulation, but now that I look at the photo above, I'm kinda liking the lines. The major problem is that it is quite flat in the profile.
At this point, I have not adjusted the trunk at all. Any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks.
Fly.
I've done a couple of virts that increased the two existing bends, and the results were unconvincing at best (sorry I didn't keep the virts to show - maybe I'll redo one to show what I mean). So much for the couple of hours' work and the waste of wire and silicone tape. It will just be repotted a couple of centimetres deeper(I have been encouraged by the appearance of new roots), and I will likely trim back the 'rhino horn'.
I think it has huge potential.
