AusBonsai

Wow Sno, I would love to do a progress series like this but as an amateur (well, beginner as I am not yet an amateur) it would not be of any interest I fear. I really enjoy watching what happens in here especially with this type of page. It shows just how adventurous bonsai workers are in what they can see and trust will happen with their plants. I look forward to watching.

Do the progression photos for your own interest, Paul. You'll be surprised how much the trees change and improve over time, and the photos you take are the best way to see that.

paul smedley wrote: ↑January 9th, 2022, 5:42 pm Wow Sno, I would love to do a progress series like this but as an amateur (well, beginner as I am not yet an amateur) it would not be of any interest I fear. I really enjoy watching what happens in here especially with this type of page. It shows just how adventurous bonsai workers are in what they can see and trust will happen with their plants. I look forward to watching.

Hi Paul .Thanks . This thread ‘ is kind of like a blog . ( basically I am not computer adept enough to do a proper blog ) for me , I want to share stuff especially with the Ausbonsai community ( who basically started me on this journey ,obsession .) Sometimes it won’t work out but that is half the fun ( even though it doesn’t feel like it at the time ) about pushing some boundaries or just showing what I am doing cheers Craig

GavinG wrote: ↑January 9th, 2022, 3:57 pm Are you putting it into bonsai mix, potting mix or pure grit? I'd be thinking about the grit.

I hope it goes crazy on you,

Gavin

It’s in my bonsai mix which is basically just ‘grit ‘ anyway . ( just ask Graham ) .I am hoping I have timed it right , it’s a great base .

It’s shooting lots of buds which I am hoping will push it over the line because it wasn’t healthy before this .

Some cute mushrooms on my new stump .

Love a good mushroom picture. Nice!

This Escallonia is flowering at the moment . It’s normally a shohin but the growth has doubled for the flower display . I am going to change its direction after this and reduce it from a 3 trunk sort of bush to a single leader semi cascade .

The semi cascade idea looks appealing.

What a pretty flowering tree. I don't think we have them up here on the heat... Looks like semi-cascade will be perfect!

melbrackstone wrote: ↑January 18th, 2022, 12:00 pm What a pretty flowering tree. I don't think we have them up here on the heat...

Thanks Mel . I have had this tree for a while ( maybe 6 to 8 years ) . This is the first time I’ve let it flower and in my head I had imagined the flowers pink or red because I have those colours growing in the garden . So white was a an interesting surprise. It’s loving this years wet and warmish year as are most of my trees . It makes a change from most years which are quite variable ( frost or close to it one day then 30 degrees the next . I am starting to get a cramp in my arm from all the pruning .

This one came about as an accidental cutting . Leptospermum grandifolium . I grow a lot of my trees on gravel beds over summer because it’s normally ( not this year ) a dry climate up here over summer . One year I noticed this tree had started to grow where I had placed another L grandifolium over the summer . This species grows like a weed and you have to prune it like crazy so I think this one started from a pruning that had fallen on to the gravel bed and I was to slack to clean up . The other option was it started from an escaped root that had grown out of the mother pot .
At the time I stuck a bit of wire on it to create the original bends just for fun not really caring if it didn’t survive . It survived the winter in the gravel bed which for a lot of winter freezes like a rock because it’s only shallow , which I thought was quite interesting at the time . I chopped it back a couple of times the next summer ( did I mention these things grow like a weed ) still not overly interested in it . Another winter came and in the spring I was cleaning up the beds and I put this in a pot , it promptly dropped all its leaves and I thought it was dead I wasn’t to fussed but then it started to reshoot . I keep chopping it and it just grows like a weed .
I have another one which is older which I dug out of the garden which I had planted years ago . They are endemic up here in the and grow in the creeks and swampy areas . The one in the garden that I dug had always struggled because it was in a dry area . It is mature enough that it had the really flakey bark . Interestingly it doesn’t backbud much or grow like a weed .
So back to the gravel bed one , I have decided to grow it out because I can’t keep with the constant pruning . A couple of pics

I have some tape on the wire on what is going to be the new leader partly so I remember to take the wire off and also to remember which is the leader next time I look at it .

Have to agree with how prolific this species is Sno. You need to keep them in check or they’ll quickly “over develop”, and that means continually pruning back relentlessly and often but they become pretty nice in a short time frame if you manage them well.
Love the movement you got in the base. Another keeper!

Hi Craig ,good looking little tree but i always love a bit of movement. Hope you had a good season up in the mountains .I guess it would be starting to cool of by now . Cheers John.

Hi R3 . There a great tree if you don’t have too many , hoping to direct that growth into a much larger tree in a short time . If I could keep an eye on it I would put it in the ground but I think it would either get away from me or sit there doing nothing if I didn’t water it . I saw one in Thredbo ( which is a lot wetter than me ) and it was 8 m high or so .

boom64 wrote: ↑March 17th, 2022, 9:13 pm Hope you had a good season up in the mountains .I guess it would be starting to cool of by now .

Hi John . We had a very wet , cloudy summer some trees liked it but other are doing it a bit tough . Everything that I had time to defoliate suffered . Luckily I didn’t have much time . No frost yet I am hoping for a few weeks of sunshine before it gets too cold .
Cheers Craig