Hibbertia Cuneiformis - A native alternative to Gardenia

[Patmet]

I was 4wding along the coast at West Cape Howe national park, which contains the southern-most edge of Western Australia. A species that grows there caught my attention years ago before I started practicing bonsai, and once again this time.Hibbertia Cuneiformis or Cut-leaf Hibbertia.

I think it has very good characteristics and potential for bonsai. It immediately reminds me of Gardenia, particularly Gardenia Radicans, not so much the flowers but the small glossy dark green foliage.

It's a species that flowers profusely with bright yellow flowers. It appears to ramify well judging by some of the savagely wind pruned specimens on the coast. It seems to be quite hardy and adaptable growing as a shrub or developing one or multiple trunks. Aged plants have rough fissured bark. I'ved bought one from the nursery to start testing as bonsai and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes.

I've attached some pictures below of the habit and environment.

Cheera, Patrick

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Ramified wind pruned specimen on the West Cape Howe Coast.

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The coastal environment on the southern ocean. You can see everything gets pruned flat by the wind in open areas.

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The coast line

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The bark on a garden plant on someones property

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A flower on my bonsai starter.

[treeman]

Very interesting and looks like a good candidate for bonsai. I have a H. scandens going but this looks better.

[shibui]

That one seems to have much better trunk than our local species. Similar flowers but ours only ever grow to small straggly shrubs.
I'll be interested to see how you get on with root pruning and whether they can be cut back up top.

[Patmet]

Just gave it it's first cut back, so we shall see how it responds. I am aiming for a roughly shohin sized tree.

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Before

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After

[Patmet]

Seeing as I want this to be a small tree I just did a hard cut back. Really happy with how it’s travelling. No wire has been applied so far just clip and grow. I’ve made some small deadwood features which will be a good test to see how it holds dead wood. If wired it would have to be on very fresh young growth as even before the branches have become woody I did some test flexing and they are very stiff and break easily.

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[GavinG]

Nice work. Will it flower if it stays so small, or does it need a bit of a run to set flower buds?

Gavin

[Patmet]

Nice work. Will it flower if it stays so small, or does it need a bit of a run to set flower buds?

Gavin

Not sure yet Gavin. I’m thinking it probably will still flower but time will tell.