Taxandria Juniperina - Western Australia

[Patmet]

These trees grow everywhere in the wetland directly across the road from my house. Tiny leaves+flowers, heavily fissured mature bark, and naturally growing in all kinds of gnarly contorted shapes, has always interested me in their suitability for bonsai cultivation.

Around two years ago i dug a couple of little seedlings out of the roadside gutter growing in gravel and sand. They have started to become quite vigorous this year and are now out of the original plain sand i dug them with and in my development mix.

So at this point i've managed to keep them alive and healthy but have no idea how they will respond to bonsai practices. They have both had a prune a year ago to encourage more growth lower down which worked with a lot of back budding. I'm looking forward to more experimenting!

Anyone else had a crack at these for bonsai?

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[Patmet]

An update on these two. Nothing to write home about at this stage, but I'm starting to invest more time and interest in these. They have been somewhat neglected, becoming very root bound and not having much thought to styling thus far. I will get them root pruned and re potted soon to give them more room to grow. This wire will be coming off very soon also as they swell and it bites in very quickly when they are growing this vigorously.



#1 after a prune and wire applied Jan 2023



#1 growth today Feb 2023



#1 branch structure started from underneath



#1 lower branch structure from above



#2 front hasn't been selected yet



#2 different angle



#2 different angle

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[Jan]

The trunks have thickened up very nicely so far. They're looking very promising for bonsai use. Always good to see someone experimenting with another Aussie Native with potential. I do enjoy smaller Aussie bonsai and these small leaves certainly make that a bit easier. What vision do you have for them?

I'd reduce the height of the first one if you're going to keep it as an upright; I think it would look more balanced (just my worth).

I'm trying a Verticordia plumosa, or the Plumed Featherflower, from WA - saw two specimens in the Newcastle Regional Botanic Gardens. Plants were hard to source over east, best I could do was tube stock, but you've got to start somewhere.

I look forward to seeing where you go with these, and to your pot choices.

Jan.

[boom64]

Bags of potential with these Patmet ,enjoying the trip and looking forward to the updates. Keep up the great work . Cheers John .

[Patmet]

The trunks have thickened up very nicely so far. They're looking very promising for bonsai use. Always good to see someone experimenting with another Aussie Native with potential. I do enjoy smaller Aussie bonsai and these small leaves certainly make that a bit easier. What vision do you have for them?

I'd reduce the height of the first one if you're going to keep it as an upright; I think it would look more balanced (just my worth).

I'm trying a Verticordia plumosa, or the Plumed Featherflower, from WA - saw two specimens in the Newcastle Regional Botanic Gardens. Plants were hard to source over east, best I could do was tube stock, but you've got to start somewhere.

I look forward to seeing where you go with these, and to your pot choices.

Jan.

Thank you. I do intend on bringing the height back down in the future. My current game plan at this point with the first one is to grow the leader out for a while to let that upper section gain some more thickness and movement. While this is growing I will keep playing it by ear and working with what the tree gives me, potentially replacing with a new leader again. I also want the lower trunk a bit thicker. I suppose I'm also keeping the option open to make it a slightly bigger tree as well because I'm a little concerned with how vigorous this species is, that it might be difficult to manage the growth at too small a scale. Might not be the case, but it's something I'm thinking about.

I hope you can have success with that species, it would be spectacular as bonsai. I have found that almost all of the local WA species I am trialling I have had to start from tubestock. I like starting from there though it leaves endless possibility.

Cheers, Patrick.

[Patmet]

Well it's been a year since the last update on these. They have since been repotted into terracotta wide shallower pots.

I cut one back today and applied some guy wires. I'm trying to use clip and grow + guy wires as much as I can, as the wire bites in super quick and the branches are very brittle once they harden off. I will need to do some wiring though in the near future to position things a bit better.

The focus at this stage is to keep the lower branches pruned back hard to get some ramification happening a bit closer in. The top half needs to grow out a bit more to keep developing and complete the overall tree.

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Before

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After. As it sits in the current pot.

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With some forward and side tilt.

[Raniformis]

Your tree looks good mate, from lush and green to old and raggedy, I'd be happy with that in a smaller pot.

[Patmet]

I've been having a good look at this tree, and am liking a lot of the movement and branch angles going on. There's some interesting features developing. I'm just having a think about which viewing angle best shows them. There's no rush to do anything just thinking out loud.

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This is the front I've been working with

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Different views showing other features.

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Have been thinking about eventually jinning some, or doing away with the top portion. The straight section has always been a bit of a problem not fitting in with the rest of the movement. Haven't been quite sure yet whether I like the fact it breaks up the movement or if it just detracts from the overall image..?

[GavinG]

My 2c., I hope you don't mind.

There's lovely energy in all of it, but as you say the top doesn't seem to sit with the rest of it. I think the clearest angle, from the photos, is in no. 3 - that swoop over to the left is great! If you get rid of the top completely, there is already the jin there - another might not be any better. Another thought might be to take off the top horizontal branch - it's good fun, but it doesn't relate, for me - and bring the left branch down as hard as you can, and maybe lean the tree a little to the left - the activity on the left then might counterbalance the right branch/trunk thing a bit - it's a bit too high to do that now.

Just a stab in the dark, it looks like it's a lot of fun!

Gavin

[Patmet]

My 2c., I hope you don't mind.

There's lovely energy in all of it, but as you say the top doesn't seem to sit with the rest of it. I think the clearest angle, from the photos, is in no. 3 - that swoop over to the left is great! If you get rid of the top completely, there is already the jin there - another might not be any better. Another thought might be to take off the top horizontal branch - it's good fun, but it doesn't relate, for me - and bring the left branch down as hard as you can, and maybe lean the tree a little to the left - the activity on the left then might counterbalance the right branch/trunk thing a bit - it's a bit too high to do that now.

Just a stab in the dark, it looks like it's a lot of fun!

Gavin

Don't mind at all Gavin. Actually I was hoping some one would chime in. Always like hearing your thoughts.
I agree with you 100% it's that swooping trunk that is the best feature, and the top just kind of stabs straight into it. I am leaning towards no jin as well if I get rid of it. It would only be a straight boring one anyway. The only part of the top I will be sad to cut off is the fun little loop at the top of the straight section.

I've mocked up a few different options to give an idea of partially or fully removing the upper section.

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For me this is the best view to appreciate the branch movement.

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This front probably has the best root base (it's hard to see in the photo because it was covered in dirt yesterday). Also the trunk comes towards you but perhaps a little too much right now.

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This is a bit less extreme and could possibly be a good compromise or first step towards taking all the top off. The remaining top section would just need some re-working.

[Patmet]

I know I said no rush before but I just had to do it now. Got my wifes opinion as well and she straight away said this was the best front in her opinion.

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