Banksia marginata

[Sno]

Most Banksia don’t grow up here but marginata is a local tree . This one was started from seed a while ago . I repotted today . It has new shoes so it’s worth showing .

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[Ryceman3]

That bark texture is killer!

Roughly how old do you reckon?

[MJL]

Otherworldly... reminds me of ET's neck.

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Just sayin'

[LLK]

Original! Very enjoyable.
BTW, is that a Tranter pot? Nice. Goes well with the tree.

Lisa

[Matt S]

Really nice Sno. Marginata is the only local banksia around here too and I recently bought some tube stock. Your tree is pretty much how I'd like it to look.

Matt.

[Rory]

Nice one Sno. That's definitely going to get more beautiful as it ages.
The only thing these guys hate is having constant wet feet. The only way I have kept them in good health is with very fast drainage and maintaining a lot of foliage all over the tree. They grow very well with branches below the horizontal as long as it gets sun exposure too.
But they are far more prone to root rot than any other Banksia I have trialled.

Marginata though would be one of my favrourite Banksia to grow, mainly because of the already small and easily reducible leaf size.
It naturally develops an aesthetically pleasing rugged look, without requiring much work. They are the most anti-tapered Banksia I have grown. No matter what you do, they often bulge all over the place and have inverse taper everywhere, but it also resonates a lovely natural look when the entire tree develops it all over. I have a few examples of this in progression photos yet to come. Interestingly, all the marginata specimens I have experimented with have a very thick layer of cambium, more so than other banksia I have trialled and makes it very easy to cut back into and heal fast, provided you don't cut all the way into the wood.

I have been experimenting with many Banksia at the moment (over 10 different species), and there are so many fantastic Banksias for bonsai.

Well done Sno, I have found its not an easy tree to keep healthy when its young. Ironically they seem much more resilient towards bonsai life when they are older material provided you don't give them very low trunk chops, which I found can be hit-and-miss. On a plus side, they are one of the fastest trees to shoot back from a big trunk chop if done in the strong growing periods. You can remove so much root from them and they are very hardy with root removal. But I found that as long as you leave a LOT of foliage on all banksias that you can remove a lot of root. The old adage of saying equal root and equal foliage reduction doesn't apply to banksia in my opinion. I find they have a much higher chance of survival if you leave more foliage on regardless of the large root reduction.

[shibui]

B. marginata is a very wide spread species so there are also many slightly different forms. I've found that my local inland marginatas are not particularly hardy and slowly die off with my culture. Coastal forms seem to be much more resilient for me and some from Tasmanian seed seem to have naturally smaller leaves and more compact growth habit so ramifies better for bonsai.

Like most other banksias they seem to fill a pot with very fine fibrous roots really quickly. By spring it becomes difficult for water to penetrate into the root mass and many perish from dehydration despite regular watering. If I notice them having trouble before they die I've managed to keep them going by sitting the pot in a shallow dish of water. Have not had any problem with root rot from wet feet in those cases. By far the best option is to regularly root prune to allow space for water and new roots to penetrate. Most young ones I try to root prune annually but older trees seem to grow less roots so they can go several years.

The bark on your tree looks similar to our local inland ones I've grown so I assume you've sourced this tree from your area Sno?

[Sno]

That bark texture is killer!

Roughly how old do you reckon?

Ah now your testing me ,it’s probably older than I think (how time flys when your having fun ) . It was one of a batch that I started for landscape trees for my garden maybe nine or ten years ago .

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This one is about 8m high . It’s had a good life lots of water and no chops except for Black Cockatoos which love the seed and occasionally prune it .

[Sno]

Original! Very enjoyable.
BTW, is that a Tranter pot? Nice. Goes well with the tree.

Lisa

Hi Lisa , thanks . Ah another test , i bought this pot at the CBS show in October. He was selling pots next to Graham I thought it was Samarkand pots .

[Sno]

Otherworldly... reminds me of ET's neck.

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Just sayin'

Bugger now I can’t unsee it .

[Sno]

Really nice Sno. Marginata is the only local banksia around here too and I recently bought some tube stock. Your tree is pretty much how I'd like it to look.

Matt.

Thanks Matt .i think if you start them early with root training they respond better . Like Rory and Shibui I’ve had trouble when I’ve bought some more advanced nursery stock . I’ve seen some really nice examples of them bonsaied out there .

[Sno]

They are the most anti-tapered Banksia I have grown.

Hi Rory . I gave up trying to get taper on this tree ,it was chopped at least three times and it still grows like a sausage .or ET ‘s neck .

[Ryceman3]

Less of ET’s neck on the landscape version... it’s missing out!

[Sno]

[quote=shibui post_id=272023 time=1574924389 user_id=781
The bark on your tree looks similar to our local inland ones I've grown so I assume you've sourced this tree from your area Sno?
[/quote]
Hi Shibui . Yes it’s from local sourced trees . Unfortunately they will become rarer up here because the deer that have gone rampant up here eat all the seedlings so there are no new trees coming on .

[LLK]

Hi Lisa , thanks . Ah another test , i bought this pot at the CBS show in October. He was selling pots next to Graham I thought it was Samarkand pots .

Sorry, Sno, I should have been more precise. Samarkand Pottery is owned by James Tranter.

Lisa