Banksia marginata

[Sno]

Sorry, Sno, I should have been more precise. Samarkand Pottery is owned by James Tranter.

Lisa
[/quote]
It’s my bad I really should of known his name . He makes great pots .

[LLK]

Rory wrote:

It naturally develops an aesthetically pleasing rugged look, without requiring much work. They are the most anti-tapered Banksia I have grown. No matter what you do, they often bulge all over the place and have inverse taper everywhere, but it also resonates a lovely natural look when the entire tree develops it all over.

A member of the Canberra Bonsai Society read this and consequently sent me photos of her two Banksia marginata which have no anti-taper tendencies. One dates from 2002 and the second from 2013. The latter is growing more of a ringed bark, the way Sno's big one does.

Lisa

Banksia marginata 2013.detail.jpg

[LLK]

Apologies! I forgot the text that goes with the two Banksia marginata. Here it is:

My large B. marginata was small nursery stock purchased from Grant Bowie in 2002, grown in ground for about 8 years with some cutting back of the top and digging around the root system twice a year (maybe not every year). When I repotted it in 2015, I found that the root system had developed into a big woody plate, with a fringe of fine roots around the outside. No wonder it was not doing so well. I dug concavities into the underside of the plate and applied rooting powder. Seemed to help but the tree still did not flourish. In 2018, I went further and drilled holes into the plate and again applied some rooting hormone. I had to scrape/cut away some dead root mass at this time. Doing better now.
The small tree came from Bunnings in a 10cm plastic pot. I’ve done very little but separate the trunks. I think this Penny Davis pot is perfect for it.

[Rory]

Rory wrote:

It naturally develops an aesthetically pleasing rugged look, without requiring much work. They are the most anti-tapered Banksia I have grown. No matter what you do, they often bulge all over the place and have inverse taper everywhere, but it also resonates a lovely natural look when the entire tree develops it all over.

A member of the Canberra Bonsai Society read this and consequently sent me photos of her two Banksia marginata which have no anti-taper tendencies. One dates from 2002 and the second from 2013. The latter is growing more of a ringed bark, the way Sno's big one does.

Lisa

Banksia marginata 2013.detail.jpg

Hi Lisa,

I think if you look very closely at the branch structure you might find a lot of bulging. It looks like that even from those pictures you added

Of the Banksia marginata that I have growing nearly all of them have significant bulging and/or reverse taper. But there will probably be many different variants of marginata.

From my experience they have far more bulging and interesting growth than any Banksia I’ve grown and is what I actually adore about them.