AusBonsai

Hi everyone,
Here's a small privet I've collected from the garden that i had grown from seed in heavy clay to get the gnarly exposed roots I only potted it because I had a penjing vision an didn't want lose it. iam also going to place back in ground for a while longer. Any thoughts would appreciated. So here's the photo

Its very nice so far, only problem being the scale of the leaves. But that can be taken care of further down the track, I would just clip and grow, clip and grow from this point onwards

cute
A bit tall for me but you can soon fix that
Ken

Every tree has to start somewhere.

Privet have paired branches, so it's best to take of one of the branches to help with the structure of the tree later one. You can find some guides to this using the wiki or search.

If you have some aluminium wire it would also be a good time to wire in some shape and movement into the trunk. Putting in some bends will shorten the trunk and make it look more impressive later on. But privets are fast growing and you have to be careful not to let the wire cut into the bark as it grows.

Fast growing is good as you can get the trunk to thicken up, play around tip pruning and branch selection.

Have fun with it, keep it alive (we all kill plants ) and think about joining a club for some extra help.

Thanks for all the help lads Do you think it should be shortened substantially.
Wiring is a great idea I think may add a bit more character. All the straight lines make it
A bit sterile I think. I've searched for a club here in mildura but couldn't seem to find one. Does anyone
Know if we have one.

You don't need to shorten them right away. The more growth you have the stronger the taper of the trunk will become. If you keep the top of the tree tip pruned it should back bud and you might get some more choices for braches down lower, which might help.

If you can sit it in a tray with wet sand, or wet fine gravel, in full sun it should help the back budding and it should grow strongly.

I've not heard of any clubs in Mildura personally. Sorry.

Its lost all its leaves like all my hedges around the house so i cut it back. All the warmth and rain has produced little minute buds up and down the trunks. I really wanted to keep it as small as possible so I potted on a slight angle in this pot plant saucer with a sphagnum and gravel muck and gravel base seem to be doing alright can't wait for spring for the new growth