AusBonsai

Hey guys i recently bought this Myrtle from a Local Nursery,

It has quite a nice little nebari if i dig a bit

and the altered colour of the base of the trunk has occurred after exposing the trunk from a substantial amount of a Black Moss like growth
(Possibly Fungi, anyone have an idea of what it is? sorry no pic)


I would like to include it as a majestic 'forest' tree in a penjing with a tiny little Pagoda/Temple in the foreground. (Post a pic of it later)

However, i'm unsure of how such trees can be styled.

Does anyone have some time for a quick virt?
Or even post a pic of your own Nothofagus Cunninghamii! I'd love to see what one of these further along the journey can look like!
What i believe to be the front.
90 degrees to the right
180 degrees to the right
270 degrees to the right
Shot of the Nebari, well what i've left exposed anyhow.

SO! What are your thoughts!

Edit: Woops! Forgot to label the images

I think I am very jealous. I have wanted one of these for ages after seeing it in a book of trees. Looks like my seeds have failed again this year.
I will have to hit Will up to send one over.

I would ask your man Will but I am thinking leave it grow for the year. maybe slip pot with a light tease I think this will get you as much growth as possible. Then next year I would select one of those two front branches in the last picture to be a new leader do some selective root pruning and grow hard again.

so you think create a new leader? and keep the other main branch straight off the trunk?
or get rid of it?

I really like the idea of a 'mother and daughter' tree.

but i'm not sure how i go about growing this as one, and still gain the taper i need :S

Shohin or whatever the smaller one is could be an option with the small leaves. I think the second trunk is a bit high at this size though.
Although the trunk shows promise I don't think it is believable at the moment either. Growing it out in this case would be as much about the movement as it would the size. I am not sure how fast these grow but I am thinking slow.
This is a good example of what I was talking about the other day. Look at where the tree is getting it's energy and use this to shape the trunk and get growth to your advantage. If you look at the close up of the first branch you can see that it is exibiting strong growth. You can see how much sugar is traveling through to this branch by the fluting in the trunk. With a close inpection you could work out wich roots are feeding that area too. I see this as the future of the tree.
Now you could lop everything above this off at the moment but I think that being a slow grower a slow aprroach will gain better results over the long period. As I understand it it is too late to do any root work so I think we should use the established root system to get as much growth a spossible for this season. The more leaves you have the more food the tree can make I think only what is needed to be taken off should be taken off at the moment.
The part of the trunk that I don't think fits this tree is the bulge in blue. What I see in the tree this will be going anyway and the branches around this area seem to have lost some vigor. "the tree likes that first branch better as a producer of food" not that they are unhealthy!
So there is little possibility the branches around this area will take of and upset the flow of the trunk we want to encourage meaning we can hold onto them this year just to help increase overall size of the base. I would trim back all the branches and existing trunk lower than the branch that will become the new leader about the hieght of the red cut line on the main trunk. This new leader should be easy to enchorage to grow faster than the other branches and trunk with occasional pruning because you can see the tree wantsto use it.
Then next year sculpt the trunk with the new leader and taking into account which are the stronger roots (by looking at the sugar flow and vigor of the roots as above) start working on balancing the nebari. I see doing the root work and top work at the same time benifical in broadleaf/deciduous in general, hence making use of the extra branches for overall growth while we wait for this step.
Now the scuplted little tree can be potted up left to grow for another couple of years shaping the trunk maybe a couple of times before it needs repotting again.
I think this is the best plan no matter what size you are after. But you or others may see something else in the tree.

No worries Mate

Oh sorry! thankyou bretts!

I was away the weekend and didn't get to post a 'thankye'
(Long weekend in Tassie)

Went up Northeast Tas for a River Festival,

We were in a River Race,
with our own homemade raft,
dressed up as KISS (you know, the Starchild, Demon, Catman and Spaceman?)
ended up on the news because we looked so awesome.
then went camping for the rest of it!
(Scored some wicked little Suiseki river stones on the way down)

Oh! and visited Aaron_Tas on the way up!

you know... your average weekend

LOL no worries I just thought you didn't like my thinking

Nah its a great idea

Shohin is the ideal size i'm after, considering thats practically my whole collection thus far
the only worrying factor in that design of yours, is that the curves you show (in green) aren't actually visible in the picture
the branch you see as coming 'smoothly' off the main trunk actually branches off in a 'T' shape

I may try to find myself a decent brace or whatever they're called the ones designed to slowly bend trunks! (i can't believe i cant remember the name!)

and Thankyou for the amazing insight you have in the growth pattern of these trees through the movement of the sugars!

I'll give him a good prune tomorrow arvo and post a pic for you! Then you can abuse me for doing something wrong
By the way, would you recommend potting it into a Poly Grow box at the same time as giving it a good prune? (Minimal
root disturbance of course)

i've officially learnt more from this site than i have from research in books

the only worrying factor in that design of yours, is that the curves you show (in green) aren't actually visible in the picture

Sure they are Jordy. Maybe i have drawn too many lines and confused you. If you look at your base shot you can see two distinct "muscling" of the trunk. They head straight into that branch. I may have mentioned but what stands out as well is that this branch they lead into has very young bark. I would guess one year old but in any event it is younger than the other branches yet 2-3 times the diameter. This shows how much vigor this branch has.

I have looked over the pictures again and I don't see the angle this branch exits as an issue to the final line I saw. I don't always head to the chop for a tree but I think the tree will go with you very easily in this direction.
I look forward to what you came up with anyway.