Blooming bottlebrush

[newzealandteatree]

This tree is in full bloom. The urge to capture this moment of beauty overcame the time constrain and efforts required to photo it. So yesterday, I squeezed in some time to clean and tidy up. Lugging this giant (1m x 1.2 m) into my make-shift studio by myself is quite challenging. Anyway I made it and here's it to share with my mates on this group. This tree was saved from a demolition site in Nov 2001. The lady living next door to the demolition site told me it was planted abour 50 years ago (as of 2001). It was identified by an expert lady at Friends of King's Park as a Parker's special. I have made the effort to capture this moment of beauty, I do hope u enjoy it. Cheers, CJ.

DSC00820.JPG

[Glenda]

Just beautiful!

[Pup]

Nice one CJ looking very nice.

Cheers Pup

[kcpoole]

Lovely CJ, congrats to you

ken

[bodhidharma]

Thanks for the effort C.J. No mean feat carrying that dude around on your own. We appreciate the work needed to get the photos to us. Sorry, no N.Z flag here

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi CJ, just beautiful. Funny though, the other day I was driving on a slow road, I saw one in bloom, the foliage shape is similar to this. I thought a bonsai like that will be wonderful. And here it is today

Thank you for posting.

[Pat093]

Lovely only in

Pat

[newzealandteatree]

G'day Glenda, Mr and Mrs Pup,Ken, Bodhi, Daiviet n Pat. Thanks vm for the nice compliments. With your encouragements I will put in more efforts to get the dozen of my bottlebrushes ready to share with my mates here. This giant is not the biggest.
Just one question. What do u people think of the "knee roots" on the right ? I know it is taboo to those steep in the Japanese concept of bonsai. Give me your frank and honest opinion. It is only thru honest critique that I can raise my standard to the next level.
Thanks in advance and cheers, CJ.

[Pup]

CJ I would be very happy with this tree if you called it Penjing, then the roots would be acceptable.
As a Bonsai they will have to be remedied.
In the normal Japanese manner of Bonsai, the roots should be flat and stable with no gaps between them and the soil level.

It is still a very nice tree ( Penjing ). Just my Pup

[bodhidharma]

If they go (which they should) your base diameter of the tree will reduce dramatically and you will have to reduce the height of the tree to compensate. I personally think the tree will improve with a reduction.

[deepeetee]

CJ,
Superb!!
In my Novice opinion the Knee roots are a focal point and should probably be removed.
But i think the removal of them would be a mistake. The help create more of an "natural Aus Native appearance"

Well done either way!

Dave

[kcpoole]

Re the Knees, Quite often we see trees in Nature with them and as long they do not look unnatural then they are OK to me.
Many a Swamp cypress in the US have Knees and that is considered aa feature on them so why not?
as you say, they wodu not be OK ion Japan, but the tree is not in Japan is it? so why worry

The ones here look fine in a photo so I would leave them. I might change mind if I saw the tree in person tho.

Ken

[newzealandteatree]

Thanks for the frank responses. This post will be a little complex, so bear with me. In response to the points raised here are my takes:

Pup : I find the use of "Bonsai" to denote tree in a pot as Japanese and "Penjing" to denote tree in a pot to be Chinese, a uniquely Aussie approach. The Japanese Character for Bonsai is exactly the same as the Chinese Character though the pronounciation is different. In Chinese it is pronounced as "Pen- Chai". From my experiences and observations, the general public in Singapore, Malaysia and certain Southern parts of East Asia use this term "Pen-Chai" more often as a reference to tree in pot than "Pen-Jing". The general public use the term "Pen-Jing" to denote tray landscape. The Chinese Character for "Chai" is different from "Ching". The literal meaning for "Chai" is to plant and for "Ching" is scenary. However, in some books and scholarly texts on the subject, there are three categories of "Penjing" - "Shumu Penjing " (Tree and Wood Penjing, "Shanshui Penjing" (Mountain and Water Penjing) and "ShuiHan Penjing" (Water and Land Penjing). Hope I don't confuse u.

Bodhi : Yes in terms of proportion the foliage is massive. This is because at this time of the year that is the way the tree grows to project its' flowers which is a very significant part of the beauty of the tree. I now see the "knee-root" as very critical in helping to balance the tree. That is why I was quite happy that I did not execute my inclination to remove "the knee-root" many years ago. At that time the tree was not so massive. We keep on learning from the tree and our perspectives keep on changing.

Dave : Thanks and yes it will upset the balance of the tree.

Ken : I used to be steep in the Japanese way of bonsai until I saw the fantastic bonsai in Taiwan. That drastically changed my perspective as well as my approach to the design of my trees. Yes I have also seen such roots in nature. I believe some Chinese even consider exposed root beautiful.

Cheers, CJ.

[GavinG]

I think we've been through the Bonsai/Penjing/Pensai thing a few times - the point Pup was making was that the exposed roots would possibly be considered a fault in the Japanese tradition, but an acceptable part of the drama in the Chinese tradition as we understand it Down Under. I hope I've got that somewhat close. You're aware that the roots might be seen as problematic, otherwise you wouldn't have brought it up.

For my money, the strong lean on the trunk, and the fact that the foliage mass sits on one side of the trunk, means that the knee roots are necessary - they counterbalance the lean very effectively.

And for more of my money, rather than shortening back the tree, would you consider (once the flowers are past) opening up the foliage, to see more of the trunk/branch shapes, and have a little air through the mass? It would probably focus more attention on the strength of the trunk and the sub-trunks that lead from it. Fewer flowers, but stronger structure.

Looking forward to seeing your others, thanks for posting,

Gavin

[newzealandteatree]

I think we've been through the Bonsai/Penjing/Pensai thing a few times - the point Pup was making was that the exposed roots would possibly be considered a fault in the Japanese tradition, but an acceptable part of the drama in the Chinese tradition as we understand it Down Under. I hope I've got that somewhat close. You're aware that the roots might be seen as problematic, otherwise you wouldn't have brought it up.

For my money, the strong lean on the trunk, and the fact that the foliage mass sits on one side of the trunk, means that the knee roots are necessary - they counterbalance the lean very effectively.

And for more of my money, rather than shortening back the tree, would you consider (once the flowers are past) opening up the foliage, to see more of the trunk/branch shapes, and have a little air through the mass? It would probably focus more attention on the strength of the trunk and the sub-trunks that lead from it. Fewer flowers, but stronger structure.

Looking forward to seeing your others, thanks for posting,

Gavin

1. Gavin, thanks for the response. Yes I am well aware of the points Pup is making. I did posted that it is taboo to those steep in the Japanese approach. Sori I am not a very frequent user of this forum, so excuse me for that. I only brought up what little I know of bonsai and penjing for the benefits of others. Correct me if I am wrong on those points I brought up. Previous discussion of a subject need not necessary exclude it from being discuss again. To do so will only bury the subject and deprive others who are not aware of it from knowing. By going over old grounds, new things are discovered and more people are involved.

2. Without the flowers, the inner structure of the tree is clear. Even with the flowers I can still see into the tree and the small birds can still fly thru it. The picture is not showing the tree clearly. The tree is big and the picture is small. Reducing the flowers will destroy the natural image of the tree. The only flowers I will remove and has removed are those on the inside and where I think the branch is too weak to support too many flowers.

Cheers, CJ