Casuarina Sacrifice

[PeterH]

Hi,

This Belah (casuarina cristata) didn’t make it passed the second year of captivity due to incorrect timing of a repot and wrong technics. Next time I will approach from a direction.

Why I have posted these pics is to show that it is possible to collect natives with potential.

To give you an idea of size the plastic pot is 50cm Dia.

This was only one of 4 in that area. Needless to say I will dig the others when condition are right.


Peter

[PeterW]

wow....nice material Pete! Please post your thoughts on timing etc.
Regards
peter

[Steven]

Really nice stock Peter, shame it didn't make it!
I too would be interested in your experiences with timing.
Regards,
Steven

[anttal63]

where was i? this was great material. not only am i anxious to here about the do's but to really learn from this the donts are just as important. what exactly do you believe you have done wrong ? at your conveniance pete.

[PeterW]

where was i?

Where were you! Probably wasting your time with silly non bonsai related stuff like eating and talking with the family and sleeping and that!

[anttal63]

ya think so oh yea how silly

[PeterH]

Sorry about the reply time (busy with repotting )

I dug this tree in Feb 2005 it did not show any signs of life until november 2005. Over the winter it was in the yard with temp as low as -7deg C and numerous heavy frosts. I thought it may not make it, but was relieved when It started buding back.
Over the next 12 months I trimed some branches out with a chain saw.

My error was bare rooting mid feb 2007 and deciding to remove a lower portion of the root ball thinking that there were more feeder roots up higher. ( WRONG ) I should of layered it before any of the above. The good thing is that there are more.

As for where . It was out west. When I dug it it was after some rain had fallen over a 2 month period.

The reason for the size is as you may see from one of the pics that the sheep had kept the trees small. The other ones I intend to dig in the same area the same height but larger trunks so survial may be more of an issue ( wont really know until I do dig )

Hope this answer some of your questions,

Peter

[Hector Johnson]

I think we've all lost trees that were headed places. In the last three years I've seen the following become "permanently dormant", mostly as a result of water restrictions and a neighbour who used to report me to the council whenever I watered on the wrong day.

Celtis (great tree with fantastic ramification)
Pyracantha x 2 (Both nice trees)
Taxodium (Swamp Cypress, with a very good taper)
Flowering Plum
Buxus - windswept (Really annoyed about that one)
Japanese Maple (Okashima)
Black Pine (Stock tree that cost me $480)
Junipers x 3
Azalea (Good tree, from a deceased estate)
Camellia
Mulberry (Crows killed that one, sitting on it to eat the fruit and broke all of the branches off)
Trident Maple (Missed out on water for three days, when my automatic watering system broke down while I was away)

I refuse to add up just how much money I spent on those trees, as stock plants or as finished trees. I don't have that many tears in me. I keep trees that are between 50cm to a metre tall, so they're not cheap stock to buy.