Introducing myself and my Privet design

[daamsie]

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking around these forums long enough, it's time to pluck up the courage and get some feedback on my own projects. I'm still very new to this, although I am a bit obsessed and have been watching lots of videos online and learning as much as I can.

Today I wired up the small branches on a weedy privet I dug out of the garden about a year ago. I split this tree in two at the root level, so it has another larger half as well. Anyway, attached are my photos of tree after some light wiring and my attempt at a design for it.

privet1_wired_Jan2014.jpg

That left most trunk is dead, so I'm thinking I'll try my hand at jinning it at some point.

privet1_virt_2014.jpg

Would love to get some feedback

Peter

[matty-j]

Hey Daamsie

Some things to think about with privet that I have learned....... the hard way
privet dead wood rots very easy so large jins wont last very long unless protected with lime sulphur or wood hardener
also wiring shoots this young need to be checked regularly especially with privet especially at this time of year because they will thicken quickly and bite into the wire very quickly.
I think the best thing for now tho is to let it shoot and grow and gain some strength, then you can see what you have to work with and make a design.

Cheers
Matt

[bodhidharma]

I have been wrong before but, i think your privet is a fig.

[MoGanic]

I have been wrong before but, i think your privet is a fig.

I agree

[squizzy]

Not sure. It could be a large leaf privet?

Squizz

[thugdeezee]

I think fig aswell..... the way the new shoots are coming through with the darker leaves.

[bodhidharma]

I would add also that it is a Banyan

[daamsie]

I'm quite certain it's a large leaf privet, as seen on this page. I have a few of the trees still growing in the garden, maybe to take out at a later date We don't really get banyan figs growing like weeds down here in Melbourne. A big positive is these things just don't seem to die. I really didn't give it much attention for the last year and had pretty much given up hope when it started shooting new branches.

And thanks for the tips matty-j . I'll keep an eye on those wires, these branches are growing rather fast!

Edit: just realised I didn't have my location listed in my profile, which would have been useful.

[bodhidharma]

Edit: just realised I didn't have my location listed in my profile, which would have been useful.

That is useful info daamsie as, you are quite right, figs dont grow like weeds here. It does look amazingly like a fig though. I have never seen a large leafed privet.

[hard1all]

I'm voting for privet.

I have one with identical leaf shape and new growth, especially the colouring.

I've been told it's English Privet and I've only seen one other as a bonsai.

[squizzy]

Hi Daamsie,

Welcome to ausbonsai,

sorry for the brief post before but I was only responding to the id on my phone. I have now had a better look at it and I will stick to my guess that its a Large leaf privet.

My thoughts on this variety are that they may be better than people give them credit for. There is no reason that they wouldn't reduce well and make great bonsai. Probably half the reason you don't see them as bonsai is the negativity that goes with the word privet? Then the people that do like privet probably think why go the large leaf if you can get the small leaf just as easy.

I think your design is good but why not challenge yourself to create a better trunk line than the existing one. Virts at this stage are hard because with a bit of time growing you could easily chop and grow a few more angle changes into the main trunk line before you worry about branches. I am in that stage of my bonsai career where I have a heap of trees that resemble nothing as they are all trunk lines in the making and hardly worth photographing.

If you have a few more of these why not work on this one based on the virt you have and grow a couple on with the trunk chop technique.

Just a thought?

Squizz

[daamsie]

Hi Squizzy, thanks for the feedback. There are quite a few of these in the garden that could have their trunk chopped and developed. I chopped one back this morning to get started It should bounce back easily enough.

Before trying to bonsai these, I did do some googling to see if there were any decent large leaf privet bonsais out there and came across a few, so I figure it's worth a try. If nothing else, it allows me to practice some techniques without anything to lose as these needed to come out of the ground anyway.