AusBonsai

Please take note.

Ku-Ring-Gai Council Community Nursery closes to the public on Friday 26th August forever. This friday will be your last day you can buy anything from them. I would have posted this earlier but I only found out today.

Address: 430 Mona Vale Rd, St. Ives NSW 2075
Phone: 0409 035 570

I think I paid $15 for most of these. I included a bottle of wine to show you the size of the trunks. A lot of the trunks start at 1inch thick, up to about 4 or 5 inches thick for really big material.

For those that know the nursery well, it is probably the best non-bonsai nursery in NSW for acquiring raw stock.

Mark who runs the place is one of the nicest nurserymen you will meet. He says it is a shame, but the council is no longer putting the money behind it. My advice is to get there ASAP and buy anything you want. Bring cash. Now, he says he doesn't know whether the council will offload the stock to wholesale nurseries, or have a sale day for the public, he isn't sure. I still say, buy it now, buy it all now.
They have tonnes of good based Eucalyptus, Melaleuca, Callistemon, Water Gums, Kunzea, Bakea. I can't remember the endless numbers of others, but you should bring a trailer.
It is my duty to make you all aware of this stock. I regret not buying more, but I can only maintain so many.
They also have oodles of tube stock, but the diamonds are their large based raw stock. Sorry I didn't take photos of the nursery.

It was quite funny as I ran into someone that was browsing and we struck up a conversation and he was a bonsai enthusiast too (not a member here, but after chatting he might be), but also unaware it was closing for good.

Here is what I picked up (mainly Eucs / Gums and some Casuarina and some other stuff that I didn't photograph here for the kids to experiment with):


A beautiful Angophora with a very lovely natural looking trunkline. $15! I couldn't believe it. I would have paid a motza for this.
Strong movement in this Gum. The right hand trunk is all deadwood. $15! Again...I couldn't believe it. The colours on this one are so gorgeous, the photo doesn't do it justice.
After Ken said Water Gums are worth a go, I snapped this up for a pittance.
Fantastic branch options on this Gum
I love the twin trunks with gentle movement.
A multitude of branch options for this Angophora

I went there about two months ago and was told the same thing but they didn't know when they were getting the chop.

I visited again a few weeks ago and enquired as to when it would be as I am watching it with interest to snap up some bargains.

I will go there this arvo and see what price I can get the monster I was watching with interest.

Cheers for the heads up Rory, I would have missed this!

I love that place. It's a shame that its been closed down but I knew it was coming. Now they get to sell that prime land to developers. Beware though most of their stock is severely root bound and very high chances of not surviving. 7 out of 9 plants I got died. The other 2 are barely showing any growth.

I have just repotted, root pruned and cut back nearly all the 12 trees I bought today and not one of them was root bound.
They have been using the new growing pots with the open holes all up the sides as you can see in my pics.
It greatly enhances the root systems.

Though, seedlings or tube stock is always a pain for root bound material in every nursery.

Macguyver..... I think I know the one you are referring to. Massive base and massive movement.

I believe you may be on the right track Rory!

They were reluctant at first but I persuaded them to sell it to me.

Going to pick it up this arvo.

I owe you a beer Rory as I would have missed out on this had you not posted this thread up.

Will post up a thread in time.

I am heading there today arvo. Anyone else want to join in. Is this the monster gum we talking about. I asked about it on my lad visit and they wouldn't budge.

MacGuyver wrote:I believe you may be on the right track Rory!

They were reluctant at first but I persuaded them to sell it to me.

Going to pick it up this arvo.

I owe you a beer Rory as I would have missed out on this had you not posted this thread up.

Will post up a thread in time.

I'm just so glad someone on this forum bought it. I look forward to seeing the updates on it. That is a massive effort for that thing. My hat is off to you good sir.
I wish I had bought more Gum stock, particularly some of the smaller leaf varieties, but too late now.

All these comments are making me excited to see this gum you speak of haha

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Thanks Rory

I call in there from time to time on the way to the driving range but didn't realize it was closing so thanks again. I went this morning and picked up 8 trees, leptos, mel, callistemons, water gum, crepe myrtle and a blue grevillea which was hiding in one of the green houses. All up cost for the 8, $200 a bargain.

It's Marks last day tomorrow so I might go back. The big tree you mentioned is big, I reckon a forklift would be needed this afternoon.

Regards
Paul C

Thanks Rory,
Will head out tomorrow morning!
Hopefully there's stock left, fingers crossed

PAC wrote:I went this morning and picked up 8 trees, leptos, mel, callistemons, water gum, crepe myrtle and a blue grevillea which was hiding in one of the green houses. All up cost for the 8, $200 a bargain.

I hope they all grow well for you. I would take it easy when you repot the larger trees, because being in those old school pots they may be a bit root bound.

I spy with my little eye the Mel in the back left of your photo. I spent quite a while pondering that particular tree. But in kindness to the tree I left it for someone else who would hopefully have better conditions for it to grow in. Definitely update us on that one, I'm so glad a bonsai enthusiast purchased it. Its a great piece of material that paperbark.

I couldn't resist. Picked out 2 larger and 2 tubestocks. Guys might want to call up as the lady was saying today is the last day to someone on the phone. Super cranky old lady but still very nice. Gave me the 2 tubestocks for free . Still plenty of treasures left. And the monster gum is still there.

Btw any tips on how to manage the tubestock. Very sad and root bound. I've put it in seasol meanwhile.

Thanks Rory

At this stage, time of the year etc, I've just given them all a trim, removed about 5cm of weeds/moss and soil from the top of each pot. Hopefully they will be strong thru spring and I will repot in summer. In fact some of them got a trim at the nursery, I only have a station wagon!

I do have my eye on those large water gums, the ones about a metre tall nice thick trunks, but methinks the wife would spot those ones.

PC

Well I hope it hasn't been built up too much but here are some pics:


That's a 230 litre pot.

The base and a bit of movement:




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Yep, thats the one. You should put a can of coke or something in the photo for scale, to show people the size of that trunk.
It doesn't look very big without a reference to compare.

It was in a concrete tub wasn't it? Did u just take a bit of the soil off and shove it in that pot then lift it on the ute? Good stuff Macguyver!

EDIT - Did he mention what species it was?