AusBonsai

Wasn't really sure where to post this so I've put it in this forum under advice/philosophy.

Maybe no-one will care but as a newbie, it was a nice moment for me in learning about bonsai philosophy. sorry there's no photos but it's more about what i learnt from what didn't happen than what did.

I have an acacia howittii that i have been training as a cascade. I bought it from a big box nursery quite awhile ago and have had it in a hanging box since then. When my interest first started in bonsai it immediately occured to me that alot of the styling needed for a cascade had been formed already I just needed a few season of refinement.

I found a pot for it yesterday and excitedly set to the work of putting in said pot. Whilst considering planting angles before removing it from it's original pot it occurred to me that there was a small straight section of the tree that could greatly improve the movement of the trunk by being bent away from the viewer slightly.

It was a fairly thick section, say 15-18 mm across. Having never tried a large bend with the sticky wattle, I wrapped in raffia and wire. Then attempted the bend.

Oh Bugger!

1/4 of the tree is gone and many of it's cascading properties are also gone. Lesson 1 - Sticky wattle dont bend well.

After nearly having a heart attack (this was my first BIG stuff up since starting in bonsai), I realised that the tree could be saved. However I was presented with a couple of problems....

1) The large break sends the only obvious new leader directly away from the viewer.
2) Instead of a pre-bonsai, I now have an advanced trainer.

As the pot I had bought for the original design was larger than the small hanging planter i had the tree in and because I have no other trees with cascade plans at this stage, I decided to pot it up into the pot I had anyway.

It was then that i realised this "oh bugger" was actually an "oh, ok."

The new front (dictated by the new leader given the brittle nature of the species) has a far more interesting root structure than what would have been the old front and the new leader is naturally heading in the direction I want. Also, The cut (break) will improve what was passable taper. Finally, the original tree would have been too large for the pot.

There you go. Life gives you ugly shrubs. You make beautiful minature trees.

thanks for reading.

When I was a teenager, my mother's poodle chewed one of my bonsai figs to a pulp and as a result improved it tremendously, by reducing the height and giving the trunk a lot of character. That also was a "Oh F%$# to Oh, not so bad" moment. Still have it today and it looks great.

As soon as you said you were plannig to bend it, i knew where this was heading. I broke the top off mine when new abo9ut 5 years ago and have been trying to graft and regrow the apex. Takes a very long time too

Ken

Yeh, I broke the top off mine to.

Thanks hackimoto, ken and mick,

Wish I'd read some more before attempting to bend it.

Ken and Mick,

What are their healing properties like? Where I broke mine has a significant cut sealed with cut paste and is thankfully at the 'back' but I would like to hope that they roll over relatively quickly.

Ken,

The reason that I thought that they might heal quickly is that I have a few 2 y.o. starters that have been going bananas this year. splitting bark on the strongest growing limbs. it surprises me you've had so much difficulty regrowing yours after 5 years considering we're only about 40 km from each other. I hope there's significant climate differences otherwise I'm in for a long wait.

I lived in cranebrook for a few years (well before my bonsai interest started) and i remember it gets alot colder there in the winter than it does here in south-east sydney. Not sure where you are though.

Anyway, hopefully the new tree will be better than the old .