AusBonsai

I thought I would share some photos of a Melaleuca - Claret Top Forest I had. It was about 80 cm tall and was created using unwanted shrubs from my brothers garden.

For our recent WA trip I took my advance bonsai stock to a nursery to babysit, but didn't take this one due to the size. My neighbour looked after the watering. He said my tank pump and hose head were taking too long to water so he used his hose and watered them all from the one spot. Unfortunately the forst did not get enought water in the shallow pot and most of the trees died. I had hoped that it would shoot back, but only one of the trees is still alive. I know this is a common story with vacationers (I also heard of a similar story whilst in WA).

Anyway, the live pics are from our club show earlier this year and the last is the poor state it is in now (I didn't see the need to weed it).

AG

thats a bugger mate. it must suck to have this happen to such a nice composition. it worked well for me

and the trees looked like they had some time, effort and a lot of training put into the to.
sorry to hear about this but look forward to seeing your new composition

regards jamie

That pisses you off! I think it was a BEAUTY!

hey AG,

i cant tell on my computer which one is the survivor? could you let me know. my desktop has a tiny little screen and i cant tell.

thanks.


jamie

Albert I feel for you as I did for Dianne.
I was very lucky with my baby sitter. None have died due to his lack of care.
In fact he looked after them better than his own, so I am told by his spouse. I know one thing they had less weeds when I came back than when I went.
I is certainly hard to get good baby sitter's these days. You will bounce back as Dianne has.

Good luck Pup





edit typo

That sucks! At least, you didnt kill it. My tree suffered the same fate after i moved it and forgot about. Three days later... It might live...

that sucks so bad! it looked so great!

I'm one of the luck ones and have a Professional Gardener as my next door neighbour.
you need to make sure you get a good sitter next time! :S

Mate, thats heart breaking to see a great setting meet an end like that.

Thats devastating...it must be hard to look your neighbour in the eye? and i bet you get a sick feeling in your gut seeing your trees treated that way.

Very sad to hear about your loss. Its the old story about finding someone with enough knowledge to care for them while you are away.

Why can't it be the no hopers that die. I don't go away for that reason and I have few trees as good as the forest. Really sorry to hear about it.

Thanks for the responses. I had worked on it for about 8 years and it was starting to get somewhere. I won the 'Most popular tree' vote at the show with it. I thought the photos needed to be shared before I split it up. Maybe I should make a bonkei out of the remians.

Jamie, the last survivor is hard to tell from the pic, but it is the one furthest in the back. A middle sized tree.

I can't feel bad towards my neighbour, he's a really nice bloke and helps us out all the time.

Next time I will try and rustle up a local from my club to help out.

Thanks

AG

That's really tragic. I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm currently in my 3rd week of my honeymoon in Bali....I sure hope I don't return to a similar greeting.
Anthony

Oh no, that's very sad =( That was an awesome looking setting!! It must be hard to see somethng you've put so muhc effort into jsut die like that =(

As everyone has mentioned that's a real shame to lose such beautiful trees.

I had the same happen and a great Trident died. Now as insurance I've installed a watering system and electronic timer for when I'm away.

Trust no one.