AusBonsai

boom64 wrote: ↑April 30th, 2020, 8:21 pm Great post Mark ,what a fantastic tree .That movement is inspirational {great wiring } ,I hope you do have a go. Could you wire a smaller tree down to ground level instead of pushing one down ? Next question ,side tree or one in the centre ? Interested to see how this one pans out . John.

Thanks John, yeah - an amazing tree. Nature is staggeringly beautiful.
I'll have a go but as yet, I am not sure which tree. I have time to think. I went back to the start of the thread and looked at the progress and the story that I had in my mind when I created it. For me a narrative (in my own mind) helps me design and evolve a group, continue the story so to speak. While I I could wire a smaller tree on the outside ... I think it's one of the parents or the oldest (Ie - thickest) sibling that needs to 'fall'. I really need to think it through more and choose carefully... visually it will need to make sense and I think the trunk will need to guide the viewer into the heart of the group... somehow...
Also - I like the idea because it'll create a more chaotic sense (I think)... currently some of the trees - on some angles of viewing - look too similar in their curve - even though I tried to avoid that! A fallen tree will break that similarity and create a natural scene too.

A bit worried about this group.... I decided to take it out of a water bath in winter.... it seemed not to be a great fan of that but I kept it out nonetheless. Not sure what the black spot is and some little critter has destroyed the growth but for the life of me I cannot find it.... the new growth seems ok but I can't help but feel this group has taken a step back or at least paused progression. I hope for a vibrant spring growing period and a repot in summer.

Here's my October update for these Red River gums.

Nothing much going on from me here - feeding and letting them grow. They have recovered well from being eaten! Phew!

I am excited by this group. A little worried that some of the curves look a little too similar. I am going to run with the idea of laying one of these trees down; like it has fallen and then grow that one tree like a raft - while the others grow as they are ... it's a tad risky but I reckon it could look excellent. I have also emptied a large Murrumbung Studio tray that I have in preparation for a re-pot planned in summer. It's an excellent pot and the colour both reflective of Australian landscapes and well suited to gums too. I am a tad worried about the re-pot but I have another river gum stump - un related to this group - I might re-pot that in a month or so as a tester ... see how it reacts and then move forward with these.

Decided to cut these back - preparing to repot in a month or so.

Well .... I had idea of a fallen tree and I thought I had tilted the trees on the right quite low ... but the photos seem to deceive my eyes. The pot is oversize for the tree but it’ll give me a few years of growth and trays can stay quite wet - so hopefully I can keep the wet feet that these trees like. Anyway - this looks satisfying to my eye ... continuing the theme of dry river - and now the river gums are leaning over the river bed with a stately tree developing in the mound.







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Looking good Mark, you should be well satisfied with the progress. Just need a billabong for those tress to overhang in the wet season just the place to rest up with cool drink.

Thanks PWC... after repotting these and my Swamp Paperbarks this morning ... I think I might find a cool drinks shortly. I love my groups and forests but once there in a pot and wet... they are not light!!


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Lockdown again ...
So ...: may as well trim some bonsai! The river gums are powering along....






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Nice effort so far Mark. It appears you suffer the same problems as I do with Eucs. Everything eats their foliage and attacks them. Its for this reason that I've reduced most of my collection of Eucs.

And for ease of foliage reduction, I now stay with the species' of Eucs that have far smaller foliage and keep the larger leaf varieties as feature plants.

It is a shame its only a 3 year comp for this group. I admire your efforts as it is very hard to get somewhere with these seedlings in a 3 year comp. Personally I think Eucs are best kept as bigger bonsai, unless you grow the very small leaf varieties.

Hi Rory,
Thanks for the feedback. I’m loving this competition - and enjoy tending all of the entries actually. These River Gums are a challenge. They are resilient but have really interesting reactions to my torturous methods. This last haircut seems to have triggered some form of black spot - I’ve noticed that reaction before too. Yet, the new growth bounces back unaffected. Weird.




As you note, leaf size will always be an issue but I have a potential cheat ... if I was preparing it for ‘show’ - I think I would cut it back say 4-6 weeks prior and thus have smaller immature leaves on display.

The other thing I’ll note is our expectations as Bonsai enthusiasts is rightly different from a layperson - that’s to be expected and a good thing,that our expertise helps progress better trees. That said, I’m always interested in the reaction of family and friends - and they like this and my other forests - indeed they gravitate to this and the Boulevard cypress setting. That probably says more about my collection than the quality of any setting .

So ... even though I get frustrated sometimes - others seems attracted to the outcome and that’s a good feeling that keeps me going.


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Here's my April update .... same, same .... they have been growing at pace and today they received another trim. six weeks after the last hair cut. Again a combination of hand snapping and cutting. And very minimal wore now. I have added one piece to the main tree to bend an upper branch.

My current plan at of today is to let them grow through the rest if Autumn and Winter. I'll give them a hard haircut around 4 weeks prior to the completion closing at the end of October. At the end of October, I'll tidy up, remove some of the bigger leaves and dress the soil.... well that's the plan anyway. I feel that this is pretty much aligned to the idea of trees on a river when I started this post ... albeit I have changed the design somewhat. Great fun.

That main tree is looking good, well done. As you’ve stated, a timed defoliation before the final date will get you the smaller leaves you want. And it’s not a cheat, it’s good planning!

I’ve learned a lot from this single thread, thanks MJL. I have a few gums (red and ironbark) that I was a bit clueless with but now have some inspiration from this and some other great posts.
I’d love to see your paperbarks too! I started a few years back with more traditional species but have become well and truly entranced by natives.

Hey Soundslike … thanks for the feedback. Appreciated!

The paperbarks are flying which is great … I’m a tad nervous about this group of Gums - in the context of the Comp…. I trimmed severely a week or two back to encourage re-growth and have smaller leaves at the competition comes to a close…. But … it’s not re-sprouting yet!!! Fingers crossed … it’s still very healthy, I just hope I didn’t leave the hair cut too late. We’ll see. Live and learn as they say.

I have two other groups that started this comp - a Moonah group and a windswept kunzea group - to which I self-disqualified for several reasons - but those groups are coming along a treat too. I’ll post photos in due course.

It been a great Comp to be part of.


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Not to worry. I did the same to one of my entry and nothing is sprouting. All very bare at the moment.