AusBonsai

Last week was designated Native Week at Shibui Bonsai when I got stuck into some well overdue repotting.
Here are some pictures to give you an idea how I go about repotting native plants for bonsai.

The first is a ti tree. These came from seed collected at Smoky Cape, NSW. The parent trees were dwarfed plants growing in cracks in bare rock so I figured they should be adaptable enough to make good bonsai. They have turned out to be happy to shoot from older wood when pruned and I have had no problems when pruning the roots. The only drawback is they are slightly frost sensitive down here but they have always sprouted again in spring. No flowers yet. Sorry about the focus on that one. Someone had adjusted the camera to manual focus

Native week has actually turned out to be native fortnight. Today I did a few more and whenever I have another look I find a few more that need a repot.
I nearly missed this Melaleuca which was hiding among the others that are getting close to getting their own bonsai pots.
Melaleuca in a 30cm orchid pot. I needed a saw to cut through the roots on this one. A few larger roots have been cut This is probably not the ideal pot for this tree but is the best I could do today.

I've been repotting natives this week too! I'm a lot more tentative with my pruning, clearly! Will see what happens this year, and may look at being a bit more aggressive next time.

Do you put them straight out into full sun Neil?

All my trees are watered well then put straight back on the bench where they came from.

I'm a lot more tentative with my pruning,

How hard to prune depends on many factors. 2 of the most important are 1. species: some tolerate root pruning far better than others and, 2. Whether it has been root pruned before. All these trees have been repotted several times so I know they have a good fibrous root system which means they can tolerate pruning better.

Ok thanks. The three I did were all nursery stock, hopefully next time they'll have a better root system.

I did a few as well this weekend.
What is that Mel species shibui?
Does it backbud? Already starting to look great!

I'm pretty sure it is Mel linariifolia Boics. Quite common as a street tree and farm tree. This one was self seeded on the edge of a neighbour's dam when I collected it about 3 years ago. I have not tried cutting it back hard yet but I'm pretty sure they will bud on bare wood which is good because it is starting to get a bit leggy and will need drastic pruning in the next few years.

Hi Neil,
Picked up a Cal Sieberi from you in July of this year. It has grown on strongly and over this weekend I have given it quite a significant prune and added some wire just to start shaping it. It is in need of a repot I feel, given the work I have done should I hold off or in your experience can I go ahead with this too? I'm confident enough with cutting back above the soil, but I begin to question myself when it comes time to attend to the roots.
Any advice welcome.

I usually do a prune and root prune at the same time. I saw that Pup prunes a bit before repotting so the tree is ready to shoot. It seems that with callistemon you can root prune in summer either after or with a top prune.
The C. seiberii that I repotted this week were really full of roots so I guess the one you have will be too. I still have a few more to do..........

Awesome. Thanks for the advice... As always much appreciated!
I might get in there if I get a chance (depending on work) this week.

shibui wrote:I'm pretty sure it is Mel linariifolia Boics. Quite common as a street tree and farm tree. This one was self seeded on the edge of a neighbour's dam when I collected it about 3 years ago. I have not tried cutting it back hard yet but I'm pretty sure they will bud on bare wood which is good because it is starting to get a bit leggy and will need drastic pruning in the next few years.

I'm glad you mentioned it being a bit leggy Neil.
As that is exactly what I had in mind - trim this all back a bit and reduce the canopy to closer to the trunk and this will be well on it's way to looking a lovely native broom style.

I've never had problem backbudding with my Mel Lin*
Even on bare wood from memory?

The 'waterswept' callistemon is the next one to be repotted. This year it has 3 flowers just opening this week.
Here's a shot with all the spring shoots This is Callistemin sieberii which has smaller, white-pink flowers. Not as spectacular as some of the red flowered species but still nice. I'm not sure what root pruning would do while it is flower so I'm just going to prune all the shoots back hard and leave it for a week or so until flowers are done then repot. Note that my aim for this tree is to try to maintain a sparse, elongated shape rather than allow it to get bushy so I've removed quite a few inner shoots and pruned some sections of branches where I thought it was getting too dense. Looking at the photo maybe I should take even more off
I'll try to remember to take photos when I repot this one in the next couple of weeks.

I like the sparser look too Shibui.
Very nice.

shibui wrote: I'll try to remember to take photos when I repot this one in the next couple of weeks.

That would be great to see! I hope you remember.... It's a great tree.

How to root pruning a Japanese buxus. How hard can i go on them?

I really like that M. Lin Neil. What would be the damage for that guy?

I have a M. Lin that I'm working on at the moment, they actually grow quite quickly. Once summer kicked in it only took 1 month for some wire to cut in 3-4mm on the new leader.