AusBonsai

Hi All,

A few months ago i posted all of my trees and there was a request for me to re-post the root sucker Casuarina (collected in summer 2009) after it had a bit of a hair cut. It was quite unruly at the time. Anyway here are a few progression shots.

I think It is starting to show a bit of shape. I will probably transfer it to a decent pot this spring. I will also eventually hollow out the dead trunk a bit more at a future date?

Hope you like it, any styling tips are welcome
Cheers

Ryan

Looking good mate!

Why hurry to put it in decent pot?
You will get better ramification if it is able to grow well.
Maybe repot into same pot or bigger to grow on with some fresh soil
It has basis of good tree

Good point, Its been in this pot since collected, I'm very interested to see what roots it has produced as it barely had any at time of collection. I think It is due for a soil changes that is for sure. I have basically been going with the approach of: Let it grow wild for a few months, trim back and then select branches I want to wire. I think in the next grow/trim Cycle I will try and select a few secondary branches off the main. I have found that they are flexie enough to be able to take this approach without damaging them i I hope

this is looking really good champ! its starting to look very nice. another year or two and I think you will have a contester for the native comp!

What a cracker Ryan

Coming along very nicely. I too would leave it in a grow pot for now, and remove the lowest left branch and grow the centre trunk taller to get branches over the height of the right hand trunk. Keep the height of the right trunk as is and clean out the top to remove some of the heavy stuff.

What a great tree. Keep us all posted mate.

Best Regards

Tony

Great material Ryan. It's coming on well.

I support the advice of getting it into a larger training pot soon. I've found that while the casuarinas don't produce fat roots quickly, they do harden their roots which makes correcting unfortunate bends, caused by too small a pot, difficult to correct. Put it into a styrofoam box if you can get one, then you can spread the roots out. Getting the nebari sorted out soon is important.

I'd suggest a combination of wiring and clip and grow for the branches. Casuarina branches on old trees are often a mixture of curves (wiring for you) and sudden changes of direction from the death or breaking of the apex (clip and grow for you). If you can get to see old trees, you will see what I mean.

Here are a few images of a couple of species with old trees. Some food for thought as you 'design' your trees. Getting the 'sense' or 'feel' of the way the 'line' of the branches naturally moves, helps then to incorporate in the 'styling' of the tree to enhance its character, rather than just shaping it to a standard model. The same principles of selection and simplification apply, but the underlying unit shapes are different and thus the character that results is unique.

Have fun!

Roger

Looking great, must grab myself a couple of casurina's, quite a few around my area.