AusBonsai

All, This is a Collected Melaleuca rhaphiophylla,

i have my own thoughts about how to design it but thought there may be some people out there with other opinions differing from mine, which could help me some,
it's approximately 180mm across the clump base and the main trunk that i have left in play is 120mm thick, the tree stands 600mm high and as can be see has an old wound/spit/shari to the fron nid trunk,

I would love to hear your thoughts and see some virtuals please,, it's a good chance for some tree design practise

if more pics are needed ,i can do that

Nice find type of material i would need to see in person lots of options here , sorry for poor drawings getting late here they are just two ideas i quickly sort of would this tree bud back further if so i would go with the second picture maybe may make a nice tree with a power full trunk

G'day Craig, this was a hard one because everywhere i put some pads they just didn't sit or look right, i turned it 90 degree and had it as a cascade which didn't look to bad but i felt it had lost its Australiana. I have put a colour filter over it so it stands out from the blank white background and missed the smaller chop. Again its a hard to get the direction from a clump in a photo which is one dimension but this is how i'm sort of seeing it but with a bit more jin out the top and the main trunk apex more dominant. I have also had a few friday arvo beers.
Cheers Mark

My thought will be to drop the right hand branch and make a Semi cascade,
the trunk on the left becomes the low apex, Sorta like what Magzy has done

Ken

much appreciated guys, it seems your all on about the same page, thanks for the effort i'll let you know how it pans out

kcpoole wrote:My thought will be to drop the right hand branch and make a Semi cascade,
the trunk on the left becomes the low apex, Sorta like what Magzy has done

Ken

I'm just wondering how you would drop the right hand branch ken, it looks very thick to me , would it really bend down ?

I am with ken on this one. It seems to lend itself to a semi cascade.

I have attached a sketch of my ideas. Possibly a little bit of work to get it to here. Good luck with it craig. Nice stock once again.

Squizz

G'day Squizz, that's an awesome sketch mate, thanks alot. It has alot of good points , your joking about the long cascade branch though eh rhaph x cascading branch = .

A very conflicting design but i love it I would really like to hear what others think,

I had a little play with it mate , ahh colour,

If you can get it to this design it will be a great tree an i would think it is very possible to do as well

Hi Craig,

Just re thinking this one. Not sure if the roots would allow you to get it this vertical but here is an upright option. You will have to add your own colour again as I have nfi. Cheers

Squizz

Squizzy you have a real talent there mate, Both drawings are , I'm partial to the first one and as I always say "trust your instincts", your first instincts are always close to the money. Very much appreciated Squizzy

I was out back working this tree some more this afternoon, so before i can show that work i thought an update on how the tree has recovered since being repotted.

This is how the Mel looked on the 15th of September 2012. Some light tip pinching has been done already at this stage to encourage further backbudding at recovery stage. Originally the thought was to only use the main trunk and maybe the others as deadwood to enhance the base but now I consider alternative options . The smaller trunks have some really great features that would be a shame to not use. The rear or other side of the tree also has a nice feel to it. The design ideas presented to me here are quite possible and definately strong contenders for the trees future.

The Melaleuca has been growing strongly since these pics were taken and has been receiving decent amounts of ferts.
Presently with around 4 times the amount of new shoots seen here and alot more foliage,I decided today that I would chase out the distinguishing features of the Mels trunk. I have previously mentioned about some Mels having Life lines or live viens which run up the tree just as junipers do, most of the time the only possible way to find these life lines is to do some very Drastic searching.

This is a method or technique that I have been trialing on a low level basis for some time now, I am unsure if anyone else has tried it either. It involves removing most of the Paper bark from the trees trunk. . ""Oh what the hell is this guy doing"", you'll be saying to yourselves, . I am wondering if anyone here has any thoughts about this, i know pup wasn't in favour of it being done but , this is how I beleive Melaleucas will move up to the next level.Start to show the truely amazing trunks with deadwood, this is how they are seen in the wild when very very old. The bark becomes very thin , it's almost like they do not have any at all.
Imo a Melaleuca can be as truely amazing as any Juniper I have ever seen, a little effort is all it is going to take.



if any interest i will post some pictures of todays work soon. thanks for reading

thats comin on well bud.

Great vision Craig...your gonna re-write the rule book on this species mate