BANKSIA INTEGRIFOLIA AS BONSAI

[Grant Bowie]

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Banksia after carving; some months ago and then painted yesterday with 50/50 lime sulphur and black Indian Ink. Followed carved area almost to apex.

Grant

[Rory]

That looks awesome Grant, really good.
The black makes it look so natural.

[squizzy]

Just when I thought I should leave my banksias alone you show me this.

Magic Grant

Squizzy

[Grant Bowie]

Tip for Winter.

With the Banksia in Canberra I have found it very important not to trim too hard in Autumn.

Two Reasons.

1. You may encourage excessive new growth coming into Winter; which will get clobbered by Frost. Any trimming and new growth you get in Autumn MUST have enough time to fully harden off before Winter. Some years are mild, ie only down to say minus 5 degrees. Other years can be harsh with minus 8 and 10 degrees in bad years. So probably stop hard pruning/cutting around say end of Feb. Tip pinching is fine.

2. Make sure three tree goes into winter with plenty of Foliage. This way the tree will not waterlog over winter and induce root rot. Also the extreme cold years may cause even healthy trees to die back up to 50mm, which can be trimmed out in spring.

Grant

[Grant Bowie]

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[Grant Bowie]

Here is a Banksia integrifolia compar that i grew from a cutting taken from my Banksia that is now at the NBPCA.

It has had a very checkered past. I grew it on to thicken it quickly, but it turned ugly . I cut off all the thickening branches but was left with severe reverse taper. 10 years or so of growth since and the reverse taper has largely disappeared. I have chosen to reverse the tree to take advantage of the die back sections to create a deeply carved base and trunk.

I will post photos of the new work when they have had time to age.

Grant

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[Grant Bowie]

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I have left this tree alone for a few months and as you can see it has gone berserk. Today I trimmed it back to prepare it for oncoming spring growth. It is fully hardened for winter and it has been a very cold winter so far here in Canberra.

Carving has naturalised a bit and new cambium lines have developed so I will be able to do even more carving soon.

Grant

[Alby R]

This is a brilliant & very informative thread Grant thanks for sharing. I’d give this three (or four) thumbs up but I only have two to give.
Funnily enough, I went to Ray Nesci’s on Thursday for a look around and found myself walking away with a little serrata to play with (my wife is now resigned to this phenomenon) and I’m sure I’ll be rereading this thread for a long time to come as I use these techniques you’ve set out on my new stick in a pot. I remember seeing your carved banksia the day before the native show earlier in the year, (and still have a photo of it) the photos don’t do it any justice.
Cheers again.

Alby

[BonsaiBobbie]

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I have left this tree alone for a few months and as you can see it has gone berserk. Today I trimmed it back to prepare it for oncoming spring growth. It is fully hardened for winter and it has been a very cold winter so far here in Canberra.

Carving has naturalised a bit and new cambium lines have developed so I will be able to do even more carving soon.

Grant

Looks like you are going to need that edge trimmer in the background!

[Grant Bowie]

Recent repot of the Banksia integrifolia . The root system looks really great, very fine roots and many of them,

Grant

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[BonsaiBobbie]

I told you you would need that edge trimmer!!!

[Grant Bowie]

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Hi all, we repotted this tree a few weeks ago and it is and was going great guns. The heat is finally starting to arrive and it is thriving at the NBPCA. New buds coming on the 2 integrifolia and lots of flower buds on the serrata. Hopefully the heat will hang around and that will suit all the natives beautifully.
New pot is a high quality Chinese pot in a neutral biscuit Color.

The trunk has grown really well over the last 30 yrs or so.
Grant

[Rory]

Looking beautiful Grant.

There’s always something lovely about seeing a tree in sunshine, starting to take off after a repot.

Maybe it’s the energy it’s getting from the biscuit.

I love how you’re going with the downward branch on that Integrifolia. I also have a few Banksia that I am encouraging this on too. So often in nature you see these lovely long and gnarled Bankisa branches drooping down and touching the sand. It really looks so lovely to replicate this on a bonsai. Beautiful, Grant.

I’ve repotted all my banksia as well. But I repot them earlier up here, in early September. I like to have all that out of the way so it can be ready to take advantage of the stronger growing season. I have also tried my hand at another Banksia ericifolia dwarf.
My integrifolia are just powering on now too. My integrifolia ‘sentinel’ is going crazy now too.
I’m so glad I enjoyed your threads so many years ago and tried my hand at Bankisa again. I have you to thank Grant. They’re one of my favourite genus now.

[Grant Bowie]

Update on cascading B integrifolia.
carving not yet finished, waiting for a few places to bulk up and roll over.
Grant

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[Max Jenkem]

Hi all,
How long do you typically leave a Banksia integrifolia in dappled shade after a drastic root prune? 2 weeks? Until it shows new growth? I've just given these two their first root prune from 250mm nursery pots down to ⅓ of their size. They were pretty root-bound and are in a sieved ⅓ pine bark, ⅓ diatomite, ⅓ zeolite mix.

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Cheers!