AusBonsai

Time for a chop back for this tree today, I went kind of hard.
I'm pretty happy with how the structure is panning out, and with about 12 months left in this shindig it's time to get the foliage a bit more refined I think. I'll be looking to repot this as well but for now I want to see some good budding that I can work with on the structure I have left.
I have left a couple of branches coming from the base to get a bit more thickness. The base is roughly 25mm across right now so not big but if I can get to somewhere between 30-40mm by this time next year I'll be satisfied.
Looking forward to a big rebound from this tree. As long as I get it the next thing I'll need to look at is getting a reduction in leaf size ...
... always something to contemplate ...

It's getting pretty late in the season but this entry really needed some attention. It was rock hard in the pot, which meant it was full of roots and I didn't feel like nursing it through winter and into spring before I got to dealing with the roots. So ... today was the day.
Lots of growth over summer has helped to thicken things up a bit. I cut back a bit because I needed to see what was going on in order to find a front I liked, but I've left the sacrifice branches relatively alone to further increase girth.
It got a Murrumbung pot which has some interest in it that is not visible in these photos, probably need more direct light to really show it off so maybe in a future pic that will become evident.
We'll see how it goes after today's efforts, I have to say I'm not overly worried ... even though I removed quite a mass of roots I feel like there are still lots of good ones left. That's the benefit of early root work on young stock I guess!

Nice work Ryan. The sacrifice branches probably will slow the outburst of shoots at the top.
I find it a challenge in all species.

Nice R3! What are your plans for the right hand branch about half way up? I assume it is also going into a water tray for a bit after the repot?

terryb wrote: ↑March 6th, 2021, 3:55 pm Nice R3! What are your plans for the right hand branch about half way up? I assume it is also going into a water tray for a bit after the repot?

Thanks terryb, yes... it’s on a water tray as is my way now after repotting the vast majority of my natives. The branch you speak of is a bit of an insurance policy. I had visions of cutting back to it and changing the angle a few months back. I’m not sold on that though, and if I decide not to go that path it will either be jinned or completely removed. Right now I like the taller version of this tree so that is more likely than not to occur.

I gave this tree a bit of a bigger cut back than I might otherwise have done given the comp was extended. Hopefully this will help to build ramification as it grows out ... I'm not convinced I'll get much more thickening, particularly after I decided to remove the sacrifice branches a couple of weeks ago in preparation for the final shot at the end of October, but I'm not sure how much they would have contributed at any rate over the next 6 months.
Anyway - here it is for the October update ...

Hi R3 ,Interesting to hear your thoughts on these trees. I have two on the go as well ,similar size always seems to be a lot going on with them , however once you thin down and have a look inside there does not seem to be that much to work with. Maybe for larger size Bonsai ? Cheers John.

boom64 wrote: ↑October 24th, 2021, 6:14 pm Hi R3 ,Interesting to hear your thoughts on these trees. I have two on the go as well ,similar size always seems to be a lot going on with them , however once you thin down and have a look inside there does not seem to be that much to work with. Maybe for larger size Bonsai ? Cheers John.

Hi John,
If I'm honest I think the thing I find most appealing about these guys is the smell they give off when you work on them ... it's fantastic!
In practical terms, I find them a little challenging to build meaningful ramification. I only have two also (this one and one a bit younger), so my sample pool is pretty tiny, but both seem to prefer to bud from the base of branches that are cut back rather than the tips where I want it - so that's challenging. The growth I do get is OK, but as you say once it is rationalised back to what is usable there isn't a lot left ... it's hard to see fine ramification resulting (at least in the short term) so that fits in with your suggestion of a larger sized finished tree. To get a decent large one might require ground growing or some other technique to encourage girth on the trunk ... otherwise you'll be waiting quite a while for a pot-grown specimen to achieve any real scale I think.
They're a bit more challenging than some other native species in my experience. I am treating them a lot like I treat L.Laevigatum, L.Continentale and L.Grandifolium but I would say the results I get are not as productive as those lepto varieties. Not sure if that answers any of your questions or matches your experiences, but hopefully you get something from that! Like I said though, I only have 2 and they are young. Others who have more experience and older examples might have some other techniques/ideas about how to get the best from them.

I agree with John. I gave up on petersonii a long, long time ago.

A wonderful similar variety to grow is Leptospermum brachyandrum. It will shoot from wherever you cut it back, and thickens easily in pots. And has a very nice silver tinge to the foliage. But the standout of this tree is the absolutely spectacular trunk colours. It beats any Euc I've attempted, because the foliage reduces better than a Euc, and the colours on the trunk have that gorgeous pastel Euc-like colouring.

To date I have grown many Leptos, but I have found the greatest horticultural and aesthetic benefits from the following Leptos:

lanigerum (foliage)
scoparium (flowers)
brachyandrum (trunk)
laevigatum (trunk)

On a side note: provided you get decent sun levels, then the above 4 are extremely resistant to myrte rust. As with all Leptos though, just make sure you are checking them weekly for webbing caterpillars.

I've been growing a few and they will thicken up in a pot over time. Very rapid growth in the ground. Also very thirsty and will be one of the first plants to droop. I keep mine in water but that seems to encourage very lanky growth. Will be doing more regular pruning to try and get them to get more bushy.

Rory wrote: ↑October 25th, 2021, 8:34 am ...I gave up on petersonii a long, long time ago.

A wonderful similar variety to grow is Leptospermum brachyandrum. It will shoot from wherever you cut it back, and thickens easily in pots. And has a very nice silver tinge to the foliage. But the standout of this tree is the absolutely spectacular trunk colours. It beats any Euc I've attempted, because the foliage reduces better than a Euc, and the colours on the trunk have that gorgeous pastel Euc-like colouring.

I'm not completely sure that they are worth "giving up on" just yet in my case ... I consider them more of a "problem child" that might need a bit of a different approach to get the most out of them. L. Brachyundrum sounds impressive ... if it has the same lemon scent when you work it as L. Petersonii I'm all in! Don't think I've seen them before in my travels, I'll need to keep an eye out.

dansai wrote: ↑October 25th, 2021, 12:40 pm I've been growing a few and they will thicken up in a pot over time. Very rapid growth in the ground. Also very thirsty and will be one of the first plants to droop. I keep mine in water but that seems to encourage very lanky growth. Will be doing more regular pruning to try and get them to get more bushy.

Thanks for sharing your experience Dansai ... I suspected they might do well in the ground, happy to hear that seems to be the case for you. The part about the water tray encouraging lanky growth is interesting. Mine sit in a tray also (as a response to the watering/drooping you mention) ... but I had never equated lanky growth habit with the tray. You might be on to something although I'm not sure I'm game to remove the tray and see if I get more compact growth ... I might just get a dried up (dead) tree!

This is the interesting thing about natives ... the way to get the most out of a lot of them is essentially unknown. It's not like pine or maple species that have a multitude of places to source information for creating bonsai from them, it's a bit more like "pioneering" a method to some extent. You need to keep thinking!

So as not to clog up your thread, I have posted some info and pictures of my trees here

The final entry in the competition for this little Lepto. I found it to be slower growing and more problematic than the two Mels I also entered, but I think it is starting to take shape ... probably needs another 12 months or more before it really begins to flesh out. This was the first time I have grown L. Pertersonii so it was good to experiment a little. I think I had more success in terms of succesful back budding/ramification in the pruning I did in the second half of summer compared with results from earlier on. I got more reliable buds further along cut branches that were useful, but a sample volume of one is hardly scientific so it could be any number of factors. I'll be keeping that in mind however as I move forward with this tree.
As mentioned in other posts, thanks again to Rory for organising the competition and providing a bit of motivation to try something new.

A god start Ryan. They can grow very quickly, and definitely thicken rapidly in the ground. I have a few and the new growth tends to grow long and spindly and constant cutting back seems to slow thickening. Still learning how best to drive them myself.