Eucalyptus rubida 'The Deer Stick '

[dansai]

Love the variety of colours in the bark. Awesome

Love the heavy duty stand too. Looks like its been there for a long time.

Well done Sno on both accounts

[baldtwitlion]

Hi Sno
Your tree has progressed wonderfully
Love the trunk line
Very jealous


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sno]

Thank you everyone for the kind comments . I’m hoping I can take it to the next level . I am still learning how to maintain a Euc’s health while trying to refine them . I find growing them easy but that next step it’s a fine balance .

This really has turned into a beautiful tree. I had to check if E. rubida was an actual species, because I was sure you'd made it up. As in: Da deer rubida the trees....

ok, sorry. I'll leave now.

Very funny . I had to look up what it meant too after that and I should of known what it meant from when I worked in nurseries .

[Sno]

It’s been 8 years since I dug this one up . I am pretty happy with its progress I feel it looks like a tree now . I like the height now because you still have to look up into it to see the detail of branching . When you see a mature Candlebark they are a big tree .
I reduced the height a bit early last spring because it was getting too tall and in the last couple of months it took off again , I am not sure if it’s because I now live in a semi tropical environment the weather up here has been warm and wet . It started to shed its bark around Christmas . I have been waiting for it to finish shedding especially in the canopy so that when I pruned it the bark wouldn’t interfere with any new buds popping on the branches .
Today I stripped off the bark and pruned it back to the first leaves and I have replaced the moss . I may repot it when it starts to pop new shoots . I don’t think it needs repotting but I was thinking of putting it into a show next year and I don’t want to repot in the same year . I think it’s good enough to be displayed now . Critiques welcome .

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[Patmet]

It's looking great I'd be happy to see it on show as is. I just read back through the history of this tree. Well done on the successful collection, and thriving. I agree with you it is really starting to look like a mature tree now. It's got a very natural feel. After looking back and forth, I like somewhere around photo 6 as the front angle personally. If it were me, I might also lower the height of the canopy a little bit - Maybe 25mm or so for better proportion to the trunk. That's just my by looking at photos. Look forward to seeing it progress

[Keep Calm and Ramify]

Girth envy!

[melbrackstone]

Love this tree, and looking back at 2022 I can see why you'd want it to be more compact. However I reckon it's looking much more natural with the extra height and rangieness of the foliage. I've posted the 2022 and 2024 shots as my preferred fronts purely based on the amount of movement in the trunk. I know that photos lie, but feel your preferred front seems to be in too much of a flat plane?

Anyway, it's an outstanding tree, and the peeling bark is just magnificent. Shame you can't get it in a show when that's happening!

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[Ryceman3]

I agree with Mel on the view she puts forward as the “front” but I also agree photos can be misleading so I defer to your experience and observations as you see fit Sno. It’s the best eucalyptus I’ve seen I think… hats off.

[Sno]

That’s interesting that the three of you ( patmet ,Mel and R3) see the front there . I have been out with a torch to have another look . I think if I changed the angle it’s potted at and stood the tree up a bit that may work . At the moment at that view it leans too far back for me . It’s got the most interesting roots from that point and the girth looks more impressive . It would depend on what was going on under the soil from memory there is no roots on the opposite side and there is a chunk of styrofoam propping it up . The pot looks a bit too big when you view it at this angle which makes it difficult . It’s hard to find a stone fired pot big enough that will stand the frosts and the pot has to big enough so the tree doesn’t get blown around in the wind . I still put this tree on the ground during the big winds ( a couple of times a year ) it’s been blown out once and I have found it rolling around the lawn in the morning .

[melbrackstone]

It does lean back a long way, and that's obvious from the other views, but clearly we all agree that you're a magician of the finest calibre Sno, and reckon you can do what's necessary, lol. Finding another container will be another problem. I guess nipping over to Adelong to see Pat Kennedy is out of the question? I'm sure he could build you what you need.

[Rory]

As I said when you first posted this tree... I knew it was going to be a ripper. You have not disappointed us.
To me, this tree appears to be styled very much like how a Snowgum grows in the wild. Beautiful

Eucalpytus always look really good in round pots so you can kind of go with whatever front you prefer. With more ramification this will be even more stunning in time.
I'm with Melbrackstone, in that I prefer the look of Eucs with the peeling bark left on. From my experiences with Eucs, they are like soldiers with new buds, and the new buds will easily split through the bark, or push it off completely as they come through. You're just being an overprotective parent Sno

For your particular tree, and nearly all Eucs, they always look better on the taller side. Even the smaller mallet Eucs in the wild look nice and elongated. They don't usually take on a squat appearance, so I'd be inclined to keep the tree taller and more natural looking, but thats just my opinion. You do see squat Eucs, but not as often.

Not in regards to this tree, but for Eucs in general, the overall size I keep a Eucalyptus at will usually depend on the foliage size : if its going to be a non-stop battle of trying to reduce the foliage, then I grow the tree much bigger so it is more in proportion. That way you aren't always sickening the tree by constantly cutting back foliage to maintain reduced leaf size.

So which ones are the far easier ones Rory? Can you show an example where you have say cut a primary branch say 4 or 5 times and have it ramify 4 or 5 times?

oops... just realized I didn't reply to this.
For me, the purpose of growing a Euc as a bonsai, is to have the bonsai look like a Euc and not to simply grow the Euc as a bonsai because I want a Eucalyptus bonsai.

The two highest recommendations I would give are crebra and nicholii.

I adore the 'scythe' look that you get from a lot of varieties of full grown Euc foliage. So if that is one feature that really attracts you to Eucs, it helps to have material that don't need to be grown large to give off this nice 'scythe' look. The best material I have ever found for this to develop the sycthe without being enormous is E. crebra.

E. nicholii is probably overall one of the greatest Euc to grow. It backbuds well and has small foliage. The foliage isn't strongly scythe looking but its adorable with the short internodes and small foliage. And because of the short internodes its propensity to shoot from a cut branch at the point of the cut is much higher than most Eucs.

For grace and beauty, its hard go past E. melliodora.

The problem with a lot of Eucs is that the foliage grows so long that a lot of people try to constantly reduce the leaf size, and the reduced leaf size ends up looking more like a stubby odd version of the large graceful mature foliage. Its for this reason that I give up on certain Eucs that don't have a nicer look to their reduced foliage size.

[Keep Calm and Ramify]

For me, the purpose of growing a Euc as a bonsai, is to have the bonsai look like a Euc and not to simply grow the Euc as a bonsai because I want a Eucalyptus bonsai.

Wtf? Are you growing a Eucalyptus bonsai or a bonsai Eucalyptus?

[Keep Calm and Ramify]

That’s interesting that the three of you ( patmet ,Mel and R3) see the front there .

...just to throw a spanner in the works I prefer what you consider to be the best front as below.

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The sweep of the lower trunk from one side to the other looks ideal. The lack of root display is insignificant IMHO.

[boom64]

Hi Craig, love this tree and the direction you have taken it. Tall, open and plenty of movement what more could you want. Cheers John

[Sno]

I guess nipping over to Adelong to see Pat Kennedy is out of the question? I'm sure he could build you what you need.

Thats if you could find him , he would be out fishing somewhere .