AusBonsai

Rory wrote:

.... NZ natives... as pointed out above.

And Australian
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=lept ... 20&bih=984

https://biocache.ala.org.au/occurrences ... ecordsView

Yes indeed.
Although L. scoparium does occur naturally on the shaky isles it is also native to Aus. (until some botanist decides to review the genus and separate them into different species )
Some of the cultivars that are sold in nurseries are hybrids between ours and the NZ plants so it is hard to say whether they are really Aussies but because the species does grow here I think we can still recognise them as natives on both sides of the ditch.

not another case of dual citizenship!

KIRKY wrote: not another case of dual citizenship!

Hahahahahaha.
Next time I work on these, I'll be sure to strip them of some bark, and their NZ citizenships, that way they'll be allowed to continue as members of bonsai.

Well its been over a year now and the scopariums are thriving - even after some of them had heavy root work done. Good to see they love the conditions in my area. (reasonable shade and intermittent sun levels) Another amazing feat is this variety appears to be totally resistant to myrtle rust. It laughs at the mere sight of the rust, while continueing to party. I think I've struck gold with these Burgundy queens.

My previous failed attempts of scoparium for me were all with the single-petal varieties. This might be something to consider for others wanting to trial this seemingly hardy double-petal variety.

The floral display is just sublime - probably the best native display of any genus I've ever seen, for bonsai that is. Definitely going to make fantastic material for bonsai.

Perhaps I shouldn't have been so quick to give away most of them. But I kept only the 4 best ones that I thought had a future. I've come to the conclusion its better to discard mediocre material asap and only work on the high quality stock.

Nice one Rory, Flowers look a treat!

Hey Rory,

Here's a variety of L. scoparium called 'Wiri Adriene'. I was chasing backbudding so removed 99% of the flower buds but left a couple to look at

These ones seem to open with a hue of pink then fade to be more white?

Cheers,
Pearcy.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

Has anyone noticed that the size of the flowers are smaller when the material is in very low sun during the flowering period?

This is the first year that the Leptospermum scoparium burgundy queens have grown in very strong shade. Normally they are given a lot of sun, but during this period of low winter sun, I confidently put them into the area of my backyard where they are lucky to get 1 hour of sun a day. This is because the other varieties that require more sun get the better spots. These trees are very tolerant of shade, but what was very interesting is...

Prior to them having the low level of sun, the intitial flowers were almost 2 cm when opened.
Once they were moved to only about 1 hour of sun a day (and provided that 1 hour was sunny), it dramatically reduced the overall size of the remaining opening flowers to only about 1cm when opened.

Has anyone noticed this before. It was by accident I noticed this and was not intentional, but may be really handy before a show if this is a potential way of reducing flower size for a short period of time.
The trees were and are in excellent health, and there was no change of the medium in about 18 months.

I have sold or given away all but a handful since this endeavor.
I have progression threads of the 2 best ones, but since the server upgrade I’ll need to re-post the pictures with updated photos too. I have since purchased 2 more that had great trunks but might sell them in future to reduce my collection to an even more manageable number. Their trunks are about 2cm at the base and have been continually trunk chopped over the years.
I’ll try to update the threads in the next few weeks.