AusBonsai

This is very interesting discussion because Australia is so huge it is likely that different Australians would consider their icon to be different trees.

I live on the 19th parralel and I would suggest the same trees that are used in advertisements as icons of this region- hoop pines, strangler figs and fan palms for the wetter north and ironbarks ghostgums and ash for drier region.

Each place has their icon which is usually chosen not because it is common but because it is distinct- S W central Queensland- Queensland bottle tree, Bunya mountains bunya pine, tropical west aus Baobab, so here it is probably the strangler fig or mission beach fan palm. But most would be hard to translate into bonsai. Outside of aus our most famous trees are probably the southern giants of Tas and SW WA, tall tall tall and straight as a ruler.

In terms of translating it into bonsai a strangler fig would probably capture me the most. The design elements of such a tree would differ from many bonsai because it would have a wide flutted butress (and not a flat nebari), be tall with no low branches and have a flat crown in the top 1/4). The branches would radiate as like the whisks of a broom from one point, the leaves would be at the ends of the branches and not in clouds of foliage.

Good to see where this one goes

I would consider the Eucalypt the most iconic Aussie tree and it will be only a matter of time before we understand more about which ones Bonsai well. It is seen overseas as Aussie as Kangaroos and Koalas.

Peter.

My vote goes to Eucalypt, Callistimon and then Banksia

Ken

In the Central highlands we are known for our Candlebark gums but i do not think it is Bonsaiable. I have tried and failed many times. My pick would be Acacia, Sheoak, eucs

Lots of great thougts on what are iconic trees for Australians.
The real point of the excercise is not to debate WHICH species should be icons, rather to accept that there are species that mean enough to individuals, tribes, regions or nations to be accepted as iconic species.
Once we have accepted that there are special species it follows that we would put special effort into finding out how to cultivate them as bonsai even if they are more difficult.

As my iconic Australian trees I nominated:
Eucalypts, especially the gum barked ones and in particular Red Gum. These grow over a large proportion of the continent. The European settlers found them on the plains and along all the river systems where they supply fencing, furniture and fuel as well as shade and lots more. More on Red gums in the design section later.

Banksia - One of the first Aussie plants described by the Europeans and named after our first? botanist. Made even more famous in literature by May Gibbs.

Wattles - Australians have celebrated 'Wattle Day' for many years. We use the green and gold for national sporting colours and have adopted one of the many species as our national floral emblem. Acacias vary from tiny prostrate plants to towering forest giants like Blackwood. Whose spirit is not lifted by the golden flowers in spring?

It was great to see all 3 of these groups on display at the native show in Canberra. Congratulations to those who are doing the work to crack the cultivation code.
I have chosen to spend more time at this relatively early stage of Native bonsai cultivation on the other group - Easy to grow natives for bonsai.

So.... I guess that makes me the winner.... I know I know, winning isn't the point.

I have listed some attributes that would make plants easy to grow as bonsai:
1. Hardy
2. Grows easily from cuttings - I suspect that this characteristic will make the plant amenable to rootpruning when necessary.
3. Shoots back easily when pruned - this should allow us to keep a compact shape and carry out reduction pruning when necessary.

Additional desirable (rather than necessary) traits would include:
Attractive bark and trunk.
Quick growth
Small leaves
Compact growth
Flowers on older wood rather than tips.
Note that potential bonsai species do not need to be 'trees'. Some great bonsai species are shrubs or shrublike.
You can probably add to this list

The most obvious group that fits these attributes would have to be Ficus. These have been used almost since bonsai was introduced to Aus. They fit all the needs of bonsai so well that some growers forget that these plants are natives!

Around my area I found some potential candidates to trial.
Calitrix tetragona As you can see, these grow on granite outcrops in small pockets of soil and cracks in the rock so they must be hardy.
They grow easily from cuttings and appear to tolerate rootpruning well.
The trunks can be spectacular I have had truble getting it to shoot on bare wood so it will need some special techniques to grow good bonsai from this species. I also found it is extremely brittle and is almost impossible to wire.

Callistemon - One species grows along the rivers near here and shows great promise. I'll show more in the design section later. Many other growers are having good success with a number of Callistemon species. Some pics in the gallery section at the conclusion of this article but pup and others have posted lots of images already.

More potential bonsai species occur in garden plants:

The three that i would say from an ordinary overseas visitors perspective would be:
1. Gum
2. Wattle (Cootamundra)
3. Waratah (although i've never seen one as a bonsai)

From an Aussies perspective
1. Gum
2. Ficus varieties
3. Put a few in a hat and draw one out!

Australian Native garden plants with potential for bonsai.

I've been looking at compact types in the hope that these will be amenable to shaping as bonsai.

Melaleucas look good. We know that pup has been having great success with his local Melaleucas - wait for his pics in the gallery or search for those he has already posted elsewhere - and quite a few melaleucas from growers in Sydney and Canberra were shown at the native bonsai show.
Melaleuca violacea took my fancy. I thought the compact growth habit would make it easier to shape a bonsai and it has lovely purple flowers. So far it is happy to grow horizontal branches but is slow to gain branch density and trunk thickness.

Melaleuca incana 'velvet cushion' is another selection that is more compact than the normal species. I haven't had time to fully explore this one yet but the species has been used successfully.

We found Melaleuca hypericifolia as natural bonsai on a headland on the NSW north coast It looks like they must be hardy to survive here! It turns out that these particular plants are genetically prostrate unlike most of the species which are open, upright shrubs.
There are about 300 species of Melaleuca all around Australia from tiny shrubs to huge trees. Some have tiny leaves. There's a variety of flower colour and quite a few produce flowers on older wood so should flower easily as bonsai. There must be plenty of opportunity in this genus for bonsai experimentation!

Here's Rulingia hermanniifolia growing in a garden. Dot and Vita Koreshoff featured Rulingia as a cascade bonsai on the cover of their native bonsai book some years ago.

Hypocalyma angustifolia impressed me as a possibility This one has been pruned hard and has grown back well.
It also produces a stong trunk with plenty of character These have only just touched on the variety of Australian plants that could be used as 'easy to grow' Australian native bonsai. Look around and see how many more you can find to try.

G'day again guys,
Another aspect of this discussion is whether we use a species as bonsai to emulate that same species as a big tree. For example the Eucalyptus and Corymbia here (near my house) have very big leaves not too good for bonsai, but a Leptospermum brachyandrum has similar bark and leaves and can be grown to look like a Eucalyptus as bonsai. I would like to open this out as discussion- What do you think about using the same species or different species to emulate a particular tree?

I remember a grower here had a superb Babingtonia bidwillii that was styled like a Brazilian raintree. We used to show it at the SGAP native bonsai show here (yes we had one every year for five years!). It was very convincing and was often the most popular tree at the show. It has now migrated to another town.

ciao
Ash