Do bottle brushes back bud??

[ace2weather]

I've been offered 3 large ish trees with long fat trunks..
If I trunk chop them, do they back bud???
They are about to be dug up


Worth the effort??

[Pup]

YES

Cheers Pup

[ace2weather]

Is it worth the effort of digging them up?
I'm told there is a total of 8 and they are all free....
But they all have a straight boring trunk....
I'm I wasting time and effort.....

[Pearcy001]

Do you know of leaf size can be reduced well? They appear quite large in the photos.

[ace2weather]

This is also what worries me.....

[Pup]

Have a LOOK in Callistemon in the native section of AusBonsai.

[Watto]

Pup is correct, they are worth digging and they do bud back. Like most trees, with ramification the leaf size will reduce. I think you will find these most rewarding and a lot of fun. Get to it!!!

[Jason]

The trunks might be straight, but they would still be worth trying they back bud really well, so you can just cut them low and use a new shoot as a leader and create some movement from there As pup said, check the native section, as he has a number of posts on bottlebrush that are really helpful

[ace2weather]

I'm going to try take 2, shame no one in the Adelaide area that might want to take one....

[Jarad]

Collect them all, chuck em in foam boxes with some dirt. and in 9 posts time (when you reach 50) put them in the for sale section for some money.

[ace2weather]

8.

I can't store full size trees. So can I chop them all and pot them on??

[Jarad]

If you're going to do it to 2, why not all of them?

Also, the better half is more likely to be ok with you acquiring more trees if you're going to be selling them. There's a chance that some will die, so the more you get the better your chances of the two you want will live.

[ace2weather]

I'll try grab as many as I can....
But I have a collecting problem...... I have 2 many projects on the go.......
Counted over 60 plants already and my wife is already getting annoyed..
Can I hide 8 trees!!!!!

[ace2weather]

Near impossible to remove, dirt is as hard as rock and in lime stone.
Managed to get 2 out and had to give up.
Couldn't even remove with root ball in tact..


This one has good movement in the trunk..

But no idea if either one of these will survive, I've watered them in with seasol with hope of forming new root as not many were kept/saved..

[shibui]

I would probably have cut these to a stump, especially with few roots but there is also good reports of leaving the tops intact and still good success.

Don't be surprised if all the leaves turn brown and drop off. These are under a lot of stress and Callistemon reaction to stress is to drop leaves. Good news is that they usually bud up again after a few weeks so certainly don't throw them out for a couple of months at least.