AusBonsai

G'day guys
i went around to a few nursery's today to see if i could find anything... armed with $14 dollars off i went
ended up getting two callistemons for $5 each ( There were marked at 6) and a little tubestock allocasuarina litorallis for $4
anyway i liked the curve near the base on the callistemons but i dont know how to go about turning them into a half decent looking bonsai (im thinking trunk chop?) any advice about the species and how to style would be great
cheers
tree #1 tree#2

hi KB
Best time to cut back callis. would be spring. So many diff. kinds though. Love the colour of the brushes. And I would only cut back to above the lowest branch so nutrients flow towards the leaves remaining after the prune. Maybe somebody has exp. with a hard prune to stumps, not me though. Some hate the frost too. Goodluck!!
Woody

Hey woody
we dont get frost here so that wont be a problem
i'll probably just try and keep them alive untill spring and see if anyone with more experience with them says anything
cheers for the reply
khan

Khan, Most callistemon will sprout from bare wood so you can cut anywhere you want and expect new buds to grow. I think I would wait until spring though.
I have had no problem repotting and bare root during warm weather - here, Nov-Feb. All the ones I have experimented with have responded well.

Leaves do not reduce much so larger trees look better than smaller. Try searching some of Pup's posts on callistemon or bottlebrush for some really great tips and some inspirational callistemon bonsai designs.

Hey shibui
Glad they shoot back off old wood I'll definetly wait untill spring before any major chops are done
I have seen a few of pups threads am they were what made me want to try callistemons his trees are absolutely amazing so I will be re reading his threads when I come to work on these
Cheers Khan

Yes Pup's advice on callistemons is working well for me. I bought a taller one kind of like yours and chopped it hard and it has responded very well. Plus, following Pup's instructions, all the cuttings I took seem to be doing well too. New growth on all of them. They seem like great beginner trees to me, very hardy, fast growing, nice bark, what's not to like?

any chance we could get a pic of yours lackhand or do you already have a thread on it ??

There is a thread already.

viewtopic.php?f=55&t=14458&p=150052

All the cuttings are pushing new growth and no longer in their mini "greenhouses", and the original stump has gone crazy too. Since they are so thick, it will take several years to get good taper, but they should all be nice trees when all is said and done. Mine was $10, but with the cuttings, I'll call it $2 per tree and be happy about it. Mine was also super straight, no nice trunk movement like yours. Anyway, I would have been happy with half the results I ended up with, so it's hard for me to imagine yours will disappoint you.

I remember seeing that thread now
Looks like you'll have some awesome trees out of that
The trunk movement is what made me get them haha and they were cheap
Can't wait till spring now so I can chop and see what happens