[Craig] - Melaleuca Preissiana

[Roger]

Hi Craig
Your third virt is beautiful, and like the first is traditional in the treatment of the crown.

Lisa's problem, of the difficulty of finding out what these trees look like in nature and then translating that into bonsai inspiration, is real. In a small way it is like the challenges of the ancients, some of whom arranged great treks to remote locations to find spiritual inspiration, freedom from life at court or battle, and along the way found amazing trees. For us today, the challenge is in finding old trees to be inspired by, though the internet makes this much easier too. You are most fortunate to have some of the riches in mature trees on your doorstep. 'Let their force be with you', so to speak (or type...)

Roger

[Craig]

Thanks Neal, much appreciated mate.

Roger and Lisa, I can fully appreciate what your saying, and thank you both for bringing the subject up. We have literally thousands of these trees in our local area and of course many other Melaleuca's, they are everywhere.
The fully mature pressiana is a tree that really would be very difficult to do as a Shohin , with it's downwards growing/hanging branches and lots of jinned branch ends and unkempt look. A larger tree would give the grower a chance to express the true qualities that an old/mature pressiana would possess. I have indeed collected some larger pressiana's this winter, so i will, with any luck be able to start working on creating a tree that truely represents this species.
Roger and Lisa, I will endevour to take some pictures of some great old pressiana trees that i know of and post them her shortly, whenever i see these grand old trees i am very inspired.
With a bit of luck i can turn this tree into something resembling the species, Thankyou.

300px-Melaleuca_gnangarra_26.jpg

329.jpg

Pano_grandmother__e_small.jpg

[Roger]

Thanks Craig and all the best with the comp.

Looking forward to those photos too.
Roger

[Roger]

Craig
Photos have come through now. Must have gotten held up somewhere in the ether

Amazing trees indeed.

[Craig]

those are internet shots, i'll get some real one's


this is the other side of the above pic from ellenbrook.

DSCN0162 big Mel prei _E2.jpg

[Dario]

Hi Roger, and thanks for taking my comment in the light it was intended.
Really like your last virt too Craig (adaption of the original).
I haven't worked with this species, but I was wondering if that is doable for the time frame of the comp?...any thoughts??
Oh yeah...lovely pics!
Good luck, Dario.

[Craig]

Thanks Dario--14mths, very hard call, but we;ll see how things go

[LLK]

Thanks, Craig, what absolutely SUPER trees!!
I look very much forward to your work on the small one here, and later on the larger ones you collected.
Good luck,

Lisa

[Craig]

No prob, Thank YOU Lisa,

[Craig]

Ist day of working on this tree , a little wire , a little trim and it's looking ok.

g gem-day 1-022.jpg

g gem-day 1-032.jpg

day 1.jpg

[Spoony]

That is looking good Craig, I like your vision.

Just a question, and if it's not the right place to ask just let me know.
Because of the angle you have chosen, how do you train the roots to become horizontal to your new trunk angle?
If that makes any sense...

Good luck anyway!

[Craig]

Hi Paul, so what you guys/gals can't see is the beautiful flared out base of the trunk that twists bends back in the direction needed. It actually doesn't need new roots to be trained at all,

The base was the first consideration in this design, before the canopy/foliage.
Cheers mate

[Spoony]

Ah nice, I guess that makes it a heck of a lot easier!
Can't wait to see it at the end of the comp and beyond.

Cheers
Paul

[Craig]

Cheers Paul, before i did my initial work on this one i didn't quite know if it would be achievable, but now i'm fairly sure i can get pretty close to the design in time

[Craig]

all, quick update-- with only 14 mths to work on this tree, time can't be wasted, so i have stripped the bark from the top section of trunk so the wood can dry out ready for a little carving/refining and also cut off the dead sucker to the rear. There are new buds forming everywhere now so hopefully in a month or 2 i can repot into some better soil .