bulky old lilly pilly becomes bonsai

hugh grant · Post by **hugh grant** » January 25th, 2013, 9:24 pm

heres a tree i spent today working on.
this lilly pilly was dug from my grandmothers garden 2 years ago. originally a very large tree about 5 metres tall, it was cut back to a stump of about 30cm in height before i got to it. after collecting it was left to recover for the last 2 seasons to grow and gain strength. lilly pillys are prone to die back when cut back hard, and so, over the time it has been in this pot much of the trunk had died back save for a few veins around the trunk supporting the foliage. this left me with lots of area for carving. alot of the wood had rotted pleasingly so it made finding natural lines alot easier to find.
heres the result after a days carving and a bit of wiring of the remaining foliage.

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still has a long way to go with branching and ramification, i still want to do more work on the wood, refining, torching, lime sulpher etc. also

Hugh

rudy · Post by **rudy** » January 25th, 2013, 10:50 pm

love it, can see the potential with that fantastic base as a foundation.

lackhand · Post by **lackhand** » January 26th, 2013, 2:20 am

Looking good. That tree already has a huge presence to it, like an ancient tree that has survived a lot. This will be a very nice specimen once you get the ramification and such. Nice job!

hugh grant · Post by **hugh grant** » January 26th, 2013, 9:59 am

Thanks guys, next quest is going to be finding a pot! The base measures at least 30cm!!!

Hugh

Jan · Post by **Jan** » January 26th, 2013, 10:57 am

Coming along very nicely!

Have you considered giving it the Australian (Bushfire) look by charing and brushing back like Pup sometimes does? could add even more character to an awesome base

Look forward to seeing the progression as you build branches,

Jan

hugh grant · Post by **hugh grant** » January 26th, 2013, 12:08 pm

Jan wrote:Coming along very nicely!

Have you considered giving it the Australian (Bushfire) look by charing and brushing back like Pup sometimes does? could add even more character to an awesome base

Look forward to seeing the progression as you build branches,

Jan

Thanks jan
Your spot on. Just like I do on all my dead wood work I will be burning it mainly to remove any harsh lines made be the power tools and to get rid of the fuzzy stuff. It also adds age to the wood. The wood still needs refining with a dremel and the flexi shaft, but after all that ill give it a good burning.

Hugh

bodhidharma · Post by **bodhidharma** » January 26th, 2013, 4:03 pm

A very nice job Hugh. This is going to become a very nice tree. Was the bulk of the carving with a die grinder

and what bits were used. Very much looking forward to updates on this one.

anttal63 · Post by **anttal63** » January 27th, 2013, 7:14 am

A great result Hugh !!!

Steve B · Post by **Steve B** » January 27th, 2013, 10:09 am

That's a peach alright! Enormous potential in this one and it looks great already.

Wondering how you are going to run your ramification strategy? I've been playing around with two lilly pillies (one Syzigium - red/pink fruit, one Acmena - purple fruit?

) and keen to know how you approach ramification with the new growth. When the new growth comes through in both cases I get long shoots with opposing leaves and the internodes lengthening out with each new set of leaves that appear:
1. I've tried pinching out the new growth as it comes through which keeps the internodes shorter. When the next round of new growth comes through I generally get a single shoot growing straight out from where I trimmed, lacking any angle or change in direction.
2. When I let the shoots harden off after putting as many leaves on as they like, I get the long internode (trimming back to one set of leaves) but the next shoots tend to come out as 2 from the base of the remaining leves, giving a decent change in direction for the next tier of branching.

I've been using option 2 mainly and with the apical dominance these guys show, the longer internodes up top are getting more noticeable as I get out to 2nd and 3rd tier branching. Looks Ok when it shoots and hardens off as it's a pretty impenetrable canopy, but on trimming it back it looks a bit ungainly. Is there a better approach or is this one of the features of the species you learn to live with? Given the number of new growth stages lilly pillys have during a year is it even worth trying to get to 3rd tier branching or better to let the new growth cover it up as it regularly comes through?

Dario · Post by **Dario** » January 27th, 2013, 3:48 pm

Fantastic vision Hugh

very impressive!
Will be a STONKER

Cheers, Dario.

hugh grant · Post by **hugh grant** » January 27th, 2013, 4:33 pm

bodhidharma wrote:A very nice job Hugh. This is going to become a very nice tree. Was the bulk of the carving with a die grinder and what bits were used. Very much looking forward to updates on this one.

Thanks mate.
All of the carving so far has been done with th makita long nose die grinder (and a few ants and what not). I've only got a simple set of bits, first I use an Aluma cut bur to remove the bark and reduce the wood.
Then I used straight cut router bit. Works a treat for rough carving out of grooves and hollows

Hugh

hugh grant · Post by **hugh grant** » January 27th, 2013, 5:26 pm

Thanks Ant and Dario!

Steve B wrote:That's a peach alright! Enormous potential in this one and it looks great already.

Wondering how you are going to run your ramification strategy? I've been playing around with two lilly pillies (one Syzigium - red/pink fruit, one Acmena - purple fruit? ) and keen to know how you approach ramification with the new growth. When the new growth comes through in both cases I get long shoots with opposing leaves and the internodes lengthening out with each new set of leaves that appear:
1. I've tried pinching out the new growth as it comes through which keeps the internodes shorter. When the next round of new growth comes through I generally get a single shoot growing straight out from where I trimmed, lacking any angle or change in direction.
2. When I let the shoots harden off after putting as many leaves on as they like, I get the long internode (trimming back to one set of leaves) but the next shoots tend to come out as 2 from the base of the remaining leves, giving a decent change in direction for the next tier of branching.

I've been using option 2 mainly and with the apical dominance these guys show, the longer internodes up top are getting more noticeable as I get out to 2nd and 3rd tier branching. Looks Ok when it shoots and hardens off as it's a pretty impenetrable canopy, but on trimming it back it looks a bit ungainly. Is there a better approach or is this one of the features of the species you learn to live with? Given the number of new growth stages lilly pillys have during a year is it even worth trying to get to 3rd tier branching or better to let the new growth cover it up as it regularly comes through?

Hi Steve
This is the first lilly Pily I have majorly worked on so I'm still learning myself. I however have pruned this one quite a few times to push growth back to the trunk and establish main branches. From that I have Tried to create basic ramification with secondary branching and have always seemed to get the 2 preferable nodes growing as you have said when you let it grow out and harden off. I haven't got to the stage yet where I've been trying pinching after bud burst so I'm not sure on that one, as I start working on the tree ill let you know how the tree buds out when I cut it.
Thanks for the observations mate, I'll try get some results for you as the tree progresses.

Hugh

hugh grant · Post by **hugh grant** » July 21st, 2013, 7:59 am

heres an update on this big old lilly pilly. the photo is from a few months ago after i repotted at this new angle. you will notice i changed the front at repotting. when it came to placing it in the pot it was going to be near impossible to place the tree in a pot convincingly with the old front. i re- assessed the tree and went with my original idea for the front which actually shows the widest base by far. Alot of braching still to be gronwn and developed though so its got a while to go yet. The tree should grow really well this season with some fresh open substrate and room to develop in its new growing position.

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Ash · Post by **Ash** » July 21st, 2013, 8:57 am

Hi Hugh, It certainly has a lot of character, I like it a lot. Ash

Andrew F · Post by **Andrew F** » July 21st, 2013, 10:27 am

Epic base mate!!! I really like the carving as well, once it matures it will be very convincing.

KUTGW!

AusBonsai