AusBonsai

Picked this up today, specifically with this comp in mind so I'm excited to get started on this and see what can develop.

It is a Leptospermum Petersonii, AKA Lemon Scented Tea Tree ... here's the blurb from wiki :

Leptospermum petersonii, lemon-scented teatree is a tall shrub to small tree, growing to a maximum of 5 metres which is cultivated as an ornamental and for essential oils. It naturally occurs near sclerophyll forest or rainforest, on sandy or rocky escarpments, on the east coast of Australia.

I was drawn to the bark on it primarily, but have been informed that the leaves will reduce nicely and they take to bonsai very well ...

Anyway, here it is :

yep, bark already looks nice. Look forward to seeing it develop.

Gave this a repot this morning ... it was pretty dense in the pot with a nice fine root mass (@bunce ... ) so happily cut back a little over 50% of what was there and upsized the pot in an attempt to get myself a bit more accelerated growth over the next few months. I will let it sit in a shallow water bath for the next week or so as that seems to keep Leptos happy. Off to a reasonable start ...

This hasn't slowed down much since I did the root work and continues to extend growth even as the weather cools (quite a bit!) ... I'm happy to let it enlarge and then will look to cut back some time later in the year ... late Spring?

Looking good here. I have one these and it continually needs pinching - even stripping off all the foliage in some places does not slow it down.
Love that fresh lemon fragrance!

Keep Calm and Ramify wrote:Love that fresh lemon fragrance!

Completely agree KC&R ... it's a fun tree to work on for the smell alone!

The smell on some plants is just phenomenal. I have a Chamaecyparis pisifera forest bonsai near my courtyard door - most days I touch the foliage because the smell is simply wonderful. Seems the forest is thriving but I am yet to see “pat your bonsai” as a daily activity in any bonsai book I have read.



Bonsai teaches me patience.
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I said in my first post for this tree that the "leaves reduce nicely" ... I have found a way to expedite that process dramatically. They are called possums, and they only need a night to sort it all out for you.
They managed a break in to my bonsai bunker which, up to this point, I had considered possum proof (given no other break-ins had occurred over the last 18-20 months or so). I'll be adding some more reinforcement to it today. It seems as the winter kicks in available food is becoming a little scarce and desperate times have motivated the local possum population to new levels.
They mainly feasted on the natives, for those interested it appears this Lepto, and another (Lepto Lenigerum - Woolly Tea Tree, pic below) were the trees of choice, and the moonahs.
Hopefully not a complete disaster but I would say well over 50% of the foliage got munched - it was growing on really nicely... oh well - two steps forward, one step back.
I love possums ...

Be careful, once they get the taste for it, they’ll be back.
Most of the time possums will generally prefer only the new growth.
They don’t like older hardened leaves.

But if there’s nothing else they prefer then they eat the older leaves.
When you find the solution, let me know.

They can ironically be helpful with very hardy species in that with melaleuca linarifolia Ive noticed they eat them about once a fortnight, but it’s enough time for the tree to continually push out new growth and as they don’t eat the older growth, it is enough for the tree to continue growing and maintain health. But the ramification this produces is amazing.
However with Melalueca linarifolia compacta, it doesn’t grow fast enough to overcome the frequency of munching, and thus doesn’t maintain good health.

Some pics taken today.

That bark is fantastic!

Last update for my three entries.
Also growing well and due for a bit of a cutback... Haven't gone with any wire on this one, will see what develops with the cut back it received, hopefully a few options. Happy with the progress on this also over the last 12 months - especially considering it got completely decimated during the possum break in about 8 months or so ago. It's the thinnest of my entries but still doubled trunk girth in a year, so not bad.

While I had the camera out this morning I took a few shots of these comp trees ... not much in the way of progression apart from some winter growth, but with spring pretty much here there'll be some work to be done soon.

Great growth, interesting specimen.

Looking great, Ryceman