AusBonsai

Thanks for the help and guidance everyone. I have had the tree for over five years now and it has never flowered in that time. As to the root that Melaquin pointed out, it will go, but as it had a twin on the other side which I removed this repot, I erred on the safe side to not remove both at the same time.

This tree does not appear to like wire as almost all branches that I have wired in the past have either suffered die back or died.

Yours in Bonsai
Jon

Jon most paperbarks handle wire OK the one thing they do not like is past the parallel.
I have found no matter what I try they do seem to suffer . If you go down past that point bring the end back up. I have also found that breaking the branches is better than cutting both will give you new growth, but breaking will give you more and quicker. T
he other thing I find with Australian trees they in most cases are tolerant of the odd drying out.
Not recommended though so I tried something about 10 years ago it worked.
The exotic species we are told to dry them out. Well I have found that watering prior to re potting is beneficial so you are working with wet soil. You do have to be careful though.
Then when Masahiko Kimura was in Sydney he heard that they cut the roots under water on our natives!!. Is the ID any where you could google it and see if I am close. Pup

Hey Pup, I want to relay thank you for percervering with this, it is important to me.

I googled both Melaleucas (Groveana and linarifolia) and I think that the leaves on these are much bigger than mine so I took a macro shot with a paperclip as a gauge.
Yours in Bonsai
Jon

Thanks Pup, for the book referral.. since it is covering my 3 favourite species I will try to track it down.

Hey everyone... let's all go out and buy a copy of Bottlebrush, Paperbarks and TeaTrees. Amazon is flogging two. Postage is only $3.99 but the books are $650 and $747.50. I think I'll pass on this idea. And I rather presume that is USD. Wacko the fairy ducks!!!