Grevillea Rosmarinifolia 'Scarlet Sprite'

[Patmet]

I was looking at this little guy this morning, and the green foliage and red flower emerging + the red pot made me think Christmas. I thought now would be a good time to make a thread for it's progression so far. It's the only Grevillea I have that has survived to date. I think I have tried maybe two others that didn't make it unfortunately.

My Grandad started this I'm pretty sure as a tubestock he got from bunnings. He planted it in a little blue bonsai pot and gifted it to me some time in 2019. He's not a bonsai practitioner, but has always been a big time gardener (he grew up in a family market garden).

So in summary to this point;

- I just kept it as it was given to me until around June 2021 when it's health started to decline - Probably from being too wet in the potting mix in the little pot. There was a fair bit of branch dieback at this point.

- Repotted into a larger, cut-down plastic pot.

- Let it do it's thing for a while now in a better draining mix and better fertilisation.

- After it had recouped it's health and put on a lot of nice growth I wanted to start styling it towards a future tree. This was April 2022.

- Once again I let it grow freely until September 2023. It was very healthy and I couldn't help myself, I really wanted to put it in this little red Roman Husmann bonsai pot I had. Knowing that this would slow down development I still chose to do it.

- I couldn't stand it up at the angle I wanted in this repot and root reduction as it has been growing leaning right backwards for so long it has to be done in stages.

- No problems with recovery from this root work which was a relief. Over the months I kept looking at it and, while it looked nice enough and full with lots of branching starting to ramify, I just didn't like the structure. It looked like a bush with everything emerging from the one point on a stick.

- January 2023 I finally bit the bullet and cut some significant branches to start a new direction for the future tree. I don't regret doing this IMO it is going to be a more interesting tree in the long run.

- It got another repot into the same pot in July 2023 to sink it a bit lower and rectify the backwards lean some more. There were no problems after this root work either.

- In spring I noticed it was declining in health a bit and found it to be riddled with scale. I got rid of those, but I would have liked to be onto it sooner as the top branches suffered and became a bit sparse. They will bounce back though just a setback.

- It's now back healthy again and pushing a flower right now. It's still got a lot of development and work to be done but it's a cool species to work with.

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Nov 2019

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The first repot after declining health.

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After recovery and free growth.

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First go at styling

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Root reduction shrinking back down to bonsai pot.

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In the red pot.

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Recovery and free growth again.

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The drastic cuts for re-building.

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One of the branches removed.

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Before and after the 2nd repot to gradually rectify backwards lean.

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As is today Dec 2023.

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Flowers.

[Patmet]

Since recovering from the scale infestation, this had put out a lot of long growth extensions, so I just did a prune and wire to keep working on the structure.

I like where it's heading. I see it as a very old scraggly tree in a harsh environment, with a bunjin kind of feel.

Still working on correcting the backwards lean and pot positioning in the next repot, and will also play around with the planting angle and "front" position. I've started to work on the apex, as I think I want this to be roughly the height of the tree. It's measuring in at around 24cm.

Finding it to be very difficult to photograph this one with the same effect it has in person.

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[Keep Calm and Ramify]

Well done. I kill these.

[Patmet]

Well done. I kill these.

Grevillea definitely don't seem to be a walk in the park. I've killed other varieties, but for some reason this one just seems to be alright. I don't know if it's just luck or something else but I won't complain.

[GavinG]

Nice work Patmet. I have a theory that the most interesting trees in three dimensions, are the trees that don't photograph well in two. Looking forward to seeing how it goes, and not only because I've killed a lot of them... Our local Grevillea-guru suggests that you don't work the top and the roots hard at the same time - and you don't work any of it all that hard! Which is my mistake. She also thinks that the needle-leaved species like rosmarinifolia and juniperiana are more successful in pots than the round-leaf forms. I've actually managed to keep some Grevillea australis alive (they have the most delicate, bonsai-perfect white flowers) by keeping them up off the ground, well separated, and gently handled. The tricky part is pruning - you can't go too hard, but they don't shoot back behind the new growth, so you have to keep nipping at them - I doubt you can get a serious solid trunk by grow-and-clip with them. Consider that a challenge, gentlemen!

Thanks for posting,

Gavin

[Patmet]

Our local Grevillea-guru suggests that you don't work the top and the roots hard at the same time - and you don't work any of it all that hard! Which is my mistake. She also thinks that the needle-leaved species like rosmarinifolia and juniperiana are more successful in pots than the round-leaf forms.

From my experience I agree with this 100%. I've found the same to be true for adenanthos/woolly bush in regards to not working the top and roots at the same time.

It's been a game changer for me in keeping things alive after repotting down into smaller/or bonsai pots. I have found I have less transplant shock and a shorter recovery time by doing root work on these species while they are actively growing and have strong elongating growth, that I leave to keep growing until the tree has settled in the pot. I'll then cut the foliage when the roots are strong again.

I used to think every time I root pruned anything I had to "balance" that with some sort of foliage reduction, but it's simply not true. With some species like grevillea or adenanthos it is detrimental.

[Patmet]

Sadly I have to report that this Grevillea recently took a turn for the worse and died quite quickly. Who knows exactly why, but my best guesses are working it too hard when it was still in a weakened state after the scale infestation, or staying too wet perhaps after the foliage reduction. Quite possibly a combination of both.

[Ryceman3]

Mmmm ... that's a bugger. Was looking pretty decent too.
I can't help with what caused it, your guess would be better than mine but hopefully it doesn't put you off having a go with this species again. Grevilleas in general seem to have a vibe of not being that conducive to bonsai culture, but I'd like to think that's not true ... maybe just a matter of unlocking the "secret", which can only be done by trying and seeing.
Keep at it!!

[Patmet]

Mmmm ... that's a bugger. Was looking pretty decent too.
I can't help with what caused it, your guess would be better than mine but hopefully it doesn't put you off having a go with this species again. Grevilleas in general seem to have a vibe of not being that conducive to bonsai culture, but I'd like to think that's not true ... maybe just a matter of unlocking the "secret", which can only be done by trying and seeing.
Keep at it!!

Yep, it's definitely disheartening. Mostly just frustrated with myself because I'm 99% sure it could have been avoided if I had done things differently. But that's just bonsai sometimes (and life in general).

Always seems to be when they start looking good too

Thanks for the encouragement. If I try grevillea again I think I will use this species again as it has great characteristics.