Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

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Ryceman3
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by Ryceman3 »

There was a Lepto Scoparium being exhibited at the BSV gig on the weekend. Check out Gerard's thread, photo #64. Not sure whose it is but might be worth trying to find out (if you don't already know). The owner may have a few pearls for you??
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by KIRKY »

Hi Rory, the Leptospermum cardwell flavescens. Were they in flower when you repotted them?
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by Rory »

KIRKY wrote:Hi Rory, the Leptospermum cardwell flavescens. Were they in flower when you repotted them?
Cheers
Kirky
Yes all of them were in flower, including all the scopariums too.
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by KIRKY »

Yes I know the Scoparium were in flower. I know probably hard to remember were they at the beginning of flowering/midway/or end of flowering? Did you loose any of the Cardwell? Or are they just sulking still?
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by Rory »

KIRKY wrote:Yes I know the Scoparium were in flower. I know probably hard to remember were they at the beginning of flowering/midway/or end of flowering? Did you loose any of the Cardwell? Or are they just sulking still?
Cheers
Kirky
No, I definitely remember. :) They were all at the beginning of flowering. The cute little pink balls were all forming. Because I spent an eternity picking them off the trees after I finished repotting.
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by boom64 »

Hi Rory
I have been following this thread and note that most peoples Leptos have already flowered. I have several yamadori Laevigatum and they are just about to start flowering now. Even the Victorians are ahead of me. Most of my other natives are also just beginning now also. I usually repot late October early November .Maybe this has a bearing on the lateness.. Thought I would throw in my observation of mine. Cheers John.
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by delisea »

Hi John, Any chance of seeing some of your collected leptos?
Cheers, Symon
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by DavidWilloughby »

Hi Rory,

I only have one L. scoparium and being brutally honest, all I have done is keep it alive and healthy since repotting it from a nursery tub to Bonsai pot.

Trimming has been when needed, there was a bit of basic shaping with wire, but very little else done. When I repotted it, I didn't do it 'underwater' but I did have a mister there on the ready to keep the roots moist at all times.

Since then it has sat in a tray of water, I scrape the moss off every so often and replace it but that is about it. It is due a repot soon so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

While this won't add anything to what you would already know mate, I thought I would share my experience with it. I cannot recall exactly what variety of scoparium it is, but here is a photo of it in its current state mate, is it a Bonsai ? perhaps that is for another time in another thread :p hahaha (knowing it always starts a fertlizer fight :p lol)
NZTT 10 Oct 2016.jpg
I look forward to hearing about your results in the future, here's hoping they be success stories.

Cheers

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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by Theodore »

It's a lovely bonsai :)
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by Rory »

DavidWilloughby wrote:Hi Rory,

I only have one L. scoparium and being brutally honest, all I have done is keep it alive and healthy since repotting it from a nursery tub to Bonsai pot.

Trimming has been when needed, there was a bit of basic shaping with wire, but very little else done. When I repotted it, I didn't do it 'underwater' but I did have a mister there on the ready to keep the roots moist at all times.

Since then it has sat in a tray of water, I scrape the moss off every so often and replace it but that is about it. It is due a repot soon so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

I look forward to hearing about your results in the future, here's hoping they be success stories.

Cheers

Willow
Hello David,

Thanks for the words of encouragement. That is a nice specimen you have there. I hope it goes well for you too. Nice base on it too.

Yes, I have been told by many people outside this forum to just continually cut them back and not to do anything heavy as well.

I think I prefer the look of the foliage/bark on the cardwells over the scopariums, as they have a more graceful and sparse look to their foliage. But obviously the flowers cannot compare to scoparium.
boom64 wrote:Hi Rory
I have been following this thread and note that most peoples Leptos have already flowered. I have several yamadori Laevigatum and they are just about to start flowering now. Even the Victorians are ahead of me. Most of my other natives are also just beginning now also. I usually repot late October early November .Maybe this has a bearing on the lateness.. Thought I would throw in my observation of mine. Cheers John.
Thanks for the input. I took a look outside but as usual it was late at night in the dark (too much going on), and I think I saw new growth on some of the cardwells. So they may just be delayed a bit more than the scopariums.

PLEASE put up photos of your collected laevigatums, I know everyone on here would love to see them too :D
Last edited by Rory on October 17th, 2016, 8:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by Rory »

shibui wrote: In my experience dwarf varieties have some drawbacks as bonsai. They are usually much slower to grow and develop than the standard types and are often less hardy
Neil, you are quickly becoming my goto man for advice. The above quote stuck in my mind after bearing witness to the 'rotten fruits' of my spoils with 'dwarfs'.
I took a good look at all the leptos today, and to my surprise... I didn't notice before but the only one that actually died was the dwarf leptospermum scoparium. :beer: Cheers Neil. :whistle:
I had also tried my hand at 2 very pretty dwarf Melaleucas... Melaleuca linariifolia purpurea compacta. :palm: Thanks again Neil... cheers! Your quote has stuck with Murphys law and killed 2 more of my trees. :beer: Well, actually I think one of the dwarf linariifolias may be hanging in by the skin of its teeth, but the other is as dead as a door nail.

There is only one scoparium which looked suspect, but turned out it only suffered die-back and has since put out new growth. So... I didn't actually lose any of the normal scopariums.... interesting.
So I actually had a 100% success rate with all 14 normal scopariums. :tu2:

The Leptospermum cardwell flavescens are all alive and kicking! :clap: They are a lovely tree.

But in summary I think I have lost all the dwarfs, yet all the regular varieties are thriving. Whats more amazing is that I have 14 or so double flowering scarlet scopariums all in perfect health!!!
So happy!!!!


The dead Lepto scoparium dwarf :
LeptoScopariumDwarf.jpg

One of the scopariums - healthy as a horse :)
Leptoscoparium1.jpg

Another of the scopariums
Letposcoparium2.jpg

One of the Cardwells.... pretty foliage. :beer:
Leptocardwell.jpg

Melaleuca linariifolia purpurea compacta - A fancy way of saying 'Melaleuca small crap'.... soon to be compacta into the ground. :palm:
Mel-Compacta.jpg
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by Pup »

At the BSWA show on the week end a couple of Leptos were on show.
IMG_4133.JPG
IMG_4135.JPG
They were grown by CJ of Newzealand teatrees.

Nice. I thought.
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by shibui »

:palm: Thanks again Neil... cheers! Your quote has stuck with Murphys law and killed 2 more of my trees. :beer:
Any time mate :tu: Glad I could help ;)
Anyone else want any good advice while I'm at it 8-)
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by gordonb »

Interesting to find the NZ tea tree on the AusBonsai Native trees forum.

I have had a few; they do not tolerate drying out at all - can be dead in less than 4 hours if they dry out, no chance of recovery. At the other end of the scale, they reputedly will get root-rot if kept too wet too much of the time.

Potting up from nursery pot - cut off about 1/3 to 1/2 of the bottom of the potful (most of this will not be roots) and trim the sides a bit, to fit your training pot and allow 1 cm of soil mix around the outside.

Repotting - do not use too-rich a medium. Use a very sharp knife, and cut 1 - 1.5 cm of the edge, and in the same way, cut off 1/2 to 1 cm horizontally off the bottom, to fit back into the same pot with new soil.

I have a hybrid variety, a cross between L.scoparium and one of your Aussie leptospermums, which is much more inclined to back bud (L.scoparium don't on mature wood) - supposed to be a bit more resistant to tea-tree scale.
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Re: Leptospermum scoparium advice if you grow them please

Post by Rory »

It's that time of year again.
The scopariums are starting to flower.

Hello beautiful!
IMG_3222.JPG
When these guys flower I think they are one of the most spectacular trees.... NZ natives... as pointed out above.

Through I'm still leaning towards loving the cardeells a bit more.
Most of the scopariums have flower buds everywhere.

Interestingly, the scoapriuns that I decided weren't up to scratch, and wouldn't make great material, I left alone and never bothered monitoring them much. They were left to their own devices and out if he range if the sprinklers.
They were subjected to very long periods of drought. Not one of them died from that. Very interesting!
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Bonsai: Casuarina Leptospermum Banksia Phebalium Baeckea Melalueca Ficus

Growing Australian natives as Bonsai: viewtopic.php?p=289480#p289480

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Growing tips for Casuarina as Bonsai: viewtopic.php?p=244995#p244995

How to reduce moss from the trunk without damaging the bark: viewtopic.php?p=295227#p295227
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