Xanthostemon bonsai

[Ash]

Xanthostemon is a genus of tropical trees and shrubs in the family Myrtaceae. The following species are Xanthostemon indigenous to Australia that I have grown in containers for bonsai:

Xanthostemon chrysanthus copy.jpg

Xanthostemon chrysanthus the Golden Penda (bright yellow flowers wild tree above) which is easy to grow and responds well to pruning of roots or shoots. I presently have one in the ground (see picture) trained over a board to encourage it to develop a spreading buttress of roots. This plant requires a lot of water and frequent fertilizer to grow well in a container. It has large leaves but these do reduce somewhat when it is pruned regularly. It is a stunning tree in the wild and one I particularly wish to emulate as bonsai. The photo is of a small specimen growing on the side of a creek.

Xanthostemon verticillatus copy.jpg

Xanthostemon verticillatus the Bloomfield Penda (creme-white flowers above) which is easy to grow and responds to pruning. Mine have lost vigour if cut back hard but after some months they regained strength. I now seal the cuts. It will bud back off old wood if the plant is healthy before prunning. It is a shrub in the wild and has recently become popular as a garden plant. There are new cultivars with fine dark foliage and smaller leaves. Mine are a bit coarse like the wild type.

Xanthostemon youngii copy.jpg

Xanthostemon youngii the Red Penda (red flowers above) is not so easy to grow and does not tolerate pruning of the roots and shoots very well. It is slow to establish and has slow root growth. I have tried to graft it onto stronger root stock but have not had any luck yet. It is now ten years old and only about 2 cm thick but does produce beautiful red flowers each summer. I find it requires very regular fertilizer and easily becomes chlorotic if it does not get what it needs. Maybe that is an indication something is not right with the root system. I grow it in sand, loam and bonsai mix blended together. In the wild it grows on white sand.

Xanthostemon chrysanthus in training.jpg

All of my material is cutting grown (even the red!) so I do not yet have a show bench specimen. I have attached an image of a cutting grown X. chrystanthus 'Little Goldie' in training to encourage root development with trunk now approximately 5 cm diameter. Has anyone else tried Xanthostemon? If you have I would love to hear about success or failures.

[Jamie]

gday mate

I havent heard of or worked with these species before but they look like something I should look into. any chance we could see what you have acheived so far? a 5cm trunk makes a good size for shohin

jamie

[craigw60]

Hi Ash, how does the leaf size reduce do you know ?
Would be great if you could show us the whole plant
Craigw

[Ash]

Hi Craig- Here are a couple more pics showing leaf reduction so far:

Golden Penda unpruned.jpg

Above: Not pruned, in ground, leaves 10-12 cm max

Golden Penda pruned.jpg

Above: Pruned, still in ground, leaves 3-4 cm.

When I kept it in a shallow tray in the first year after cutting it was smaller, the leaves were about 3 cm but I wanted to grow a trunk to put it into the ground.
Jamie I think I took this cutting in 2007 and it was a green shoot probably 2 mm thick. The root spread is probably 15 cm (see bottom pic in last post) as it is over the top of a clay drip tray (I said board but I just remember it was a clay 15 cm drip tray). I planted it in the ground in March 2009 when it had a trunk about 5 mm thick.
cheers
Ash

[craigw60]

Looks like you might be on to a good thing there Ash, it will be great for you guys in the tropics to have another species to work with.
Craigw