Willow Myrtle From Scratch

[FlyBri]

Gday folks!

About a year ago, I removed a landscape Willow Myrtle (Agonis flexulosa) from a wine barrel as it had withered and appeared to be dead. When I saw the size of the tuber under the soil, I thought I'd give the stump a second chance, and plopped it into a large plastic pot with well-drained soil. The change of soil from cheap, water-repellent potting mix made all the difference, and the stump sprouted all over. For some reason, one side of the stump died, but I think I might be able to make something of it...

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I've also attached a couple of cruddy snaps of a mature Willow Myrtle in Melbourne's Treasury Gardens. It is highly unlikely that my little stump will achieve such character...

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Thanks!

FlyBri.

[dragon]

hi fly
i am sure in about 100 years it might get to that stage but still
as i see it the only way to find out is to try it but over all your tree looks good
well done
cheers dean

[bodhidharma]

Damn good beginning Fly. I will watch and learn on this posting as i have a few i am playing with. It is nice to Know you can take it out and do root work and it survives very well. At what time of the year did you do the root work and did you completely defoliate it?

[FlyBri]

Gday Dean & Bodhi!

As it turns out, all the work I've done to this specimen was done yesterday, including rootwork, trunk chop and intensive flame treatment. I have yet to see how the tree responds, but the large lignotuber gives me some hope...

Thanks.

Fly.

[MattA]

Hey Fly,

Looking good!.. I too will be watching this one with interest, they are a species I have tried & failed with in the past but see soo many around that have real potential.

You say you collected it about a year ago.. can you remember when? & how you went about it.. bareroot or not?... how much root you got?.. how far you cut it back??? etc etc

Matt

[FlyBri]

You say you collected it about a year ago.. can you remember when? & how you went about it.. bareroot or not?... how much root you got?.. how far you cut it back??? etc etc

Gday Matt!

Sorry to say that I didn't really keep any records when I dug this one up... It was performing poorly in a wine barrel (I think the potting mix was infested with ants and become waxy) so I chopped it to about 450mm (down from 2-3m) and pulled it out. There were numerous finger-thick roots which I cut back to about 50-100mm, and I placed it into a large nursery pot filled with commercial Bonsai soil. It was left in a shaded/sheltered position and largely ignored until now. I cannot recall what time of year it was when I did all this...

I hope this helps (but I doubt that it will).

Fly.

[MattA]

Hey Fly,

Thanks for the extra info it helps more than you know, it just goes to show how easy all this bonsai stuff can really be ... shove it in a pot & ignore for long periods of time

Somehow i had missed the bit about being in a wine barrel... In my experience, coming from potting mix compared to ground makes a huge difference regardless of species, the 2 media work very differently. I have a eucy from 75ltr nursery bag that has just started to throw buds, will get some pics as & when theres something to show beyond a sumo stump in a cat litter tray.

Matt