First bonsai trees

[C8lyn]

Hello Bonsai-ers.
These are my first trees. I have a feeling I'm taking the hard road by starting with small untrained trees but I guess there's no better way to learn.
I really wanted a Japanese maple but small ones were diffucult to find locally so I picked one up from Northside Bonsai in Brisbane.
I wanted to get a few different trees going at once so I've been keeping an eye out for potential plants.
On the weekend I was at the nursey with my parents and found a nice little variegated gardenia and a small lemon grevillia with a cute little bent trunk.
From what I've read so far I can see that grevillias can be a little difficult, and that I should do my gardenia potting after it has flowered.
I'm open to any advice or recommendations!

[lenlen]

Hi C8lyn,

My recommendation is to do a lot of reading if you can! There is a ton of information online, and very knowledgeable people on this forum.
Start with the basics - watering, feeding etc. Bonsai is a hobby that requires patience, so I have a few young trees growing and while I wait for them to develop I try to work on and maintain an older tree so I can get experience with wiring, pruning repotting and so forth.
Welcome to the forum!

[Boics]

Welcome C8lyn.

Check this out for some direction.

Post away, ask for help, everyone is pretty nice around here.

[Bougy Fan]

While you are very keen you need to let the maple grow and then cut it back for taper and movement several times. Right now if it was mine I would cut the middle trunk off and use the left hand branch as a new leader and use the right hand branch as a sacrifice. Look up those terms in the wiki and you have started your bonsai journey

[Paul W]

Welcome C8lyn.

Check this out for some direction

Hey Boics
Whats he got to check out,there does not seem to be a link to anything showing up LOL

[C8lyn]

Thanks for the tips guys.

I've had a bit of a read through the Wiki and it's great!

Are there any good Youtube accounts that you recommend following? I sometimes find it easier when learning to see something being done rather than reading about it.

I am a little concerned about hard trunk pruning. Forgive me for sounding extremely uneducated, but I'm afraid that the tree won't grow well without many leaves???

[C8lyn]

I love how these shoots can just grow from anywhere!


And my grevillea is exploding. Already had a couple of flowers that I pruned off today. They're prettier than I expected.



My gardenia has seen better days and I'm waiting to see if it will pull through at this point.

[longd_au]

I don't know much about the others, but with the maple, I would let it grow a few season making sure the two lower branches stay healthy.
This will thicken the base. At some point when the base is thick enough, cut off the middle main branch as suggested earlier.
Look up how to trunk chop. It will leave a bit scar but it will heal over if the other two branches are healthy.

As for too little leafs. Look up defoliation. You can take all the leaf off and it will grow back a new set in no time.
I would do the trunk chop in late winter just as leaf buds start to swell. Maples suffer from fungal infection very easily if cut too early.

Also, keep an eye on the nebari and with each re-pot, do some work on the nebari.

[Boics]

Welcome C8lyn.

Check this out for some direction.

Post away, ask for help, everyone is pretty nice around here.

Oops.

I think I was intending to throw a link to the Wiki: https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... =Main_Page

Some great information in there for you.

[C8lyn]

I really love my grevillea. It's loving this weather and will not stop flowering. haha. Should look really nice when it's larger and more developed.

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[C8lyn]

My maple has gone insane. I can't wait for winter so I can prune.

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Its trunk seems to be thickening which is good to see.

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I cut back my grevillea because it had a lot of dead leaves and caterpillars on it, plus the branches were getting crazy long. At least this way I can get an idea what I can do with this tree in the future.

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[NAHamilton]

Your maple looks really healthy, do you have to keep it in shade up there?

Cheers,
Nigel

[anthonyW]

He is a little bit of direction maybe for you with the maple,cut the right hand branch off,wire the left hand and middle trunk same way at the junction until it clears the predicted height of branch then bring the top back over the centre,drawing explains ,but as Tony said when right time of the year cut back, grow,cut back, grow and so on for taper,be careful when wiring watch your buds,the middle is still smaller enough to wire don t let it cut in,remove repeat,just an idea for you and a rough drawing.

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[C8lyn]

Your maple looks really healthy, do you have to keep it in shade up there?

Cheers,
Nigel

Correct, it lives in the shade. The air is too dry. I tried having it out in full sun early on but it didn't like it at all. I still pull off a couple of old shrivelled leaves occasionally but other than that it's doing really well. It now sits on the edge of our pergola so it gets plenty of light

[C8lyn]

He is a little bit of direction maybe for you with the maple,cut the right hand branch off,wire the left hand and middle trunk same way at the junction until it clears the predicted height of branch then bring the top back over the centre,drawing explains ,but as Tony said when right time of the year cut back, grow,cut back, grow and so on for taper,be careful when wiring watch your buds,the middle is still smaller enough to wire don t let it cut in,remove repeat,just an idea for you and a rough drawing.

phpH6OVyhAM.jpg

Thanks for the drawing! I've been so torn about what to do with the shape of the trunk and I'll have a better idea when all the leaves are gone, but that will certainly give me some direction