[Natural] Melaleuca Ericifolia - Ryceman3

[Ryceman3]

Plenty of new growth in some good areas on this one, with little effort to be honest. Like I said, plenty of positives when it comes to this species...

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Still a bit of time between now and winter, I’m expecting it to keep kicking on for a bit...

[KIRKY]

Great back budding and lots of buds to choose from, I think your right plenty of positives
Cheers
Kirky

[Ryceman3]

While I had the camera out this morning I took a few shots of these comp trees ... not much in the way of progression apart from some winter growth, but with spring pretty much here there'll be some work to be done soon.

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[Keep Calm and Ramify]

This ones really starting to look the goods. Huge difference from start till now.

[Rory]

Wow. Very gnarly.

The great thing about this 'Natural' competition, will be the interpretation of the stylist.
The same species can grow differently, depending on its surroundings and proximity to other trees etc, etc. So I will enjoy seeing what we all come up with. This is no exception. Great work Ryceman.

You love your moss don't you.

[Ryceman3]

You love your moss don't you.

Ha! Just saw this. Yeah, I don’t hate the moss but it can go too far ... I have a few trees in particular where I need to address it creeping up the trunk. I note that I get good root growth up close to the surface on trees that have the soil covered in a nice layer of moss so I think as long as it is under control it is also beneficial. On the down side though I have also under-watered at times because the green moss has masked the fact things are much drier underneath. Double edged sword...

[squizzy]

This is a cracker. You are miles ahead. Nice work.

Squiz

[Ryceman3]

Repotted this tree today.
I put it back in the same pot after tossing up if I might move to a bonsai pot. I really want a lot of foliar growth now so think extra room for the roots will help me with development up top. I have a nice root base now after cutting back with intent in earlier repots, so I like my chances of this bouncing back and moving again fairly quickly.
I have wired out a few secondaries and tweaked the potting angle a tad just to see how that sits, it's a little more upright which I think could work... we'll see how things go with the foliar growth over summer before I finalise how it will sit in it's final "competition" pot.
I quite enjoy playing around with this tree.

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[Ryceman3]

Gave this tree a bit of attention a day or so ago... trimming back to refine the foliage and also thinking about a change of angle, we’ll see what happens, could just end up going back to the original. Whatever gets decided, I’m gonna need a pot!

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[tgward]

why (natural) in the header?

[greg27]

why (natural) in the header?

It's an entry in the Natural competition: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=26357

[tgward]

cool

[MJL]

It’s a ripper tree - that final shot is fantastic ...the bookies have paid out Rory. Great stuff R3.


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[Ryceman3]

It’s a ripper tree - that final shot is fantastic ...the bookies have paid out Rory. Great stuff R3.


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Ha! I’m appreciative of the kind words MJL but there’s plenty of time for the jockey to fall from the horse. I’ve seen plenty of trees in this comp that have plenty of run left, and we’re still approaching the final bend before the last sprint down the straight... lots of time for lots of stuff to happen... giddyup!

[Ryceman3]

Repot day today for this tree. It got a round pot which takes a bit of the pressure off deciding on a definitive front for the time being.
Still leaning towards this kind of angle though.
It looks pretty unruly as I removed some wire that was biting, and so some branching has moved a bit. I have also left excess growth on. I'll look to start refining things in a few weeks when it recovers from the repot, rewire a few parts and work on the foliage primarily.

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