[Watto] Melaleuca nodosa

[Watto]

Melaleuca nodosa - prickly leaved paperbark.
Height 980 mm
Cost $15 from a nursery
The tag states it can only tolerate light frosts so winter may sort it out in Goulburn?

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[Watto]

A quick trim to get it down to size. It has had a few largish frosts on it already (colder than minus 7 deg C) and it still looks OK, so there is hope.
I have a general theory that if the bonsai can't live outside, then I don't want them.

[GavinG]

Looks like a nice solid base in there. Should be good down the line.

Gavin

[Watto]

Time for an up-date. The good news is that it did survive the winter and except for a few brown leaves it is OK.
Today I gave it a good clean up around the trunk, but there was a lot of rubbish on the trunk and it is now not as thick (wide) as I had hoped.
It has flower buds so again that is a good sign, although I will probably cut off most of those buds as I need to get some shape in this sooner rather than later.

[Watto]

A quick up-date on some work on this one. Starting to take some shape, but needs to put some growth on.

[Watto]

After some looking around I found the container for this tree. I like the shape, the size and the colour, soooo all is good. A little bit of "rock work" and it will be time to pot this little fellow.

[Watto]

This is the "inside" look post carving and drilling a couple of drainage holes (first photo) however I decided that the drainage holes weren't big enough, so the second photo is the real look before planting.

[Watto]

This was potted in October and that appears to be a good month for potting of Aus natives in this area. Of course it is different for different areas of Australia but with our cooler climate (OK, colder) later rather than earlier is better I think.
So here is my little darling in its new home and it is continuing to grow on. More growth would be better, but I am satisfied with its progress so far.

[kcpoole]

Nice combo there Watto

Ken

[Watto]

Time for the next installment. It is starting to bulk up a little inthe foliage, but more is needed. A bit more tweaking over the coming months, and more work on the ramification needed.

[Watto]

Here is the June photo. Still coming along, slow but steady.

[Watto]

Although this little darling survived the 2013 winter, the 2014 version was a bit too cold for it I suspect. About 10 days where the temp was between -7 and -9 deg C looks to have been a bridge too far.
I am not giving up on it but it does look a little bit too bronze in colour at the moment for it to continue in the comp.