White bottlebrush

[Naym]

G'day,

Admittedly I have never styled a literati before, nor did I have any intention of entering this competition as I know very little about the style.

However yesterday when I was wandering through the local native nursery I saw, across the yard, this callistemon salingus poking up through bunch of pots in a corner. I thought, maybe that could be a literati. After browsing around and finding some other trees for other things I could not leave the callistemon behind so I bought it too. So here I am with my entry, I suppose the worst thing that could happen is I learn something

With perfect timing I see that Jamie has started a thread to disscuss the literati/bunjin style

bottleBrush_20091107.jpg

It's a young tree (also my first callistemon), that's a 125mm pot, but it's got some good new growth starting on it and the trunk is still quite flexible. I was going to put it in a bigger pot but I think I'll wait now, given the growth I think I'm too late. For now I will just feed it (general or low phosphate?) an let it grow while I think about what to do with it, perhaps I'll put some wire around the truck and start to get some shape to it.

Current musings/ideas:
- Thinking of coastal trees in the salty wind and sandy soil.
- Need to select some branches at the top to develop.
- Maybe I'll let one of those high shoots come out to be a new branch.
- There is a second trunk that has been pruned off that has a lot of shoots on it. I am thinking to select a leader there and establish a shorter and low lying second truck.

That's all for now. I'll update when I do work or have an epiphany.

Thanks
Naym.

[Pup]

Naym that is a good start .
Callistemons are really moving along over here in the west.
It appears this one was as I explained about trees growing up fast in search of light.
It was crowded by other plants.

Reason for Edit is I had a seniors moment, read as a new post and not competative. Ah ! well it happens.

Cheers Pup

[Naym]

It appears this one was as I explained about trees growing up fast in search of light.
It was crowded by other plants.

Exactly what I thought when I saw it.

I understand from reading other posts that I should fertilise right through the growing season. However I have not been able to find anything on the requirements. Do they need a low phosphate feed, similar to banksias?

Thanks
Naym

[Pup]

It appears this one was as I explained about trees growing up fast in search of light.
It was crowded by other plants.

Exactly what I thought when I saw it.

I understand from reading other posts that I should fertilise right through the growing season. However I have not been able to find anything on the requirements. Do they need a low phosphate feed, similar to banksias?

Thanks
Naym

Naym I am not sure what you can get in your area. I use for all my natives Miracle Gro for Azaleas and Camellias the phosphate level is fine for Banksia's also. There is another if you can get hold of it. It is called Phostrogen. I have used this for 25 years on all my trees. With good results. It is getting harder to find now and I am not sure why. I am going to try to get onto the supplier in Melbourne.

[Naym]

Naym I am not sure what you can get in your area. I use for all my natives Miracle Gro for Azaleas and Camellias the phosphate level is fine for Banksia's also. There is another if you can get hold of it. It is called Phostrogen. I have used this for 25 years on all my trees. With good results. It is getting harder to find now and I am not sure why. I am going to try to get onto the supplier in Melbourne.

Thanks mate. I know I've seen both of those around, I just have to remember where.

[MelaQuin]

I would let the soil dry out a bit and just before the callistimon starts to flag wire it and put bends in it. You would do well to shape it now before the trunk becomes too brittle to do interesting things with. If you want sharper bends/corners and the tree seems unwilling, do a bit today, a bit in a few days time. Branches bend easier when they are not full of water.

Repot in a growing container with Osmocote for Natives mixed in the soil. That's a slow release. Wait 6 weeks after repotting and then fertiliser with half strength solution of Charlie Carp, a natural product that rids the rivers of carp. Natives love it.

Callistimons are very happy sitting in water trays and you can get good growth that way but get your trunk shaped first so it has something to grow into.

[Naym]

I would let the soil dry out a bit and just before the callistimon starts to flag wire it and put bends in it. You would do well to shape it now before the trunk becomes too brittle to do interesting things with. If you want sharper bends/corners and the tree seems unwilling, do a bit today, a bit in a few days time. Branches bend easier when they are not full of water.

Repot in a growing container with Osmocote for Natives mixed in the soil. That's a slow release. Wait 6 weeks after repotting and then fertiliser with half strength solution of Charlie Carp, a natural product that rids the rivers of carp. Natives love it.

Callistimons are very happy sitting in water trays and you can get good growth that way but get your trunk shaped first so it has something to grow into.

Thanks mate. I was planning to bend it this coming weekend, but did not know the trick about letting it dry out.

Are you recommending repotting now? As I mentioned above I was going to wait until next season to repot as it it seems to be well into it's growth. In the past I have not had good results repotting now (esp. natives) but have also not worked with this species before. If you reckon now is the time I'll do it this weekend.

[Naym]

I did a little bit of work on this this weekend. I wrapped the trunk with wire and put a little bit of shape in it.

bottleBrush_20091114 copy.jpg

There is some forward movement that is more clear in the next picture taken from the right.

fromRight_20090715.jpg

That's also a bigger pot than it was in before. When repotting I leaned the tree to the right to favour the new shape and also lifted it a little to expose some of more of the base and the second trunk. There wasn't much of a root ball so the only roots that were removed were those that would have stuck out of the soil at the new planting angle. Soil mix was based on the Debco commercial mix that I have been trying this season (no verdict yet). 5 pts of that with 1 pt zeolite and 1 tbsp of Osmocote for natives. I'm waiting to see if one of the shoots on the second trunk (see below) becomes stronger to make a low pad reaching in the same direction as the main trunk.

closeupBase_20091114.jpg

No pruning yet, but all the shoots on the trunk were removed, even that one I thought I'd keep as did not like it's position with the new shape. I'll probably remove the leader to encourage new buds and to alleviate crowding, but I'll look at it for at least another week before deciding exactly what to do. What do you guys think?

Melaquin: Thanks for the tip about letting it dry out before bending, it worked a treat.

Question: Do callistemons respond well to pinching?

[Naym]

G'day again,

It's been two weeks since this tree was repotted and it has spent that time in shelter with only morning sun. The first week with extra watering. Over that time every branch has begun shooting new growth like this:

bud_20091129.jpg

In addition there are a string of new buds down the lower part of the trunk, marked with a red oval on the picture below:

bottleBrush_marked_20091129.jpg

The majority of these buds on the trunk are facing down or to the rear. I have rubbed most of the off to maintain a clean trunk, but have left a couple that look like I might be able to use them for a second foliage pad (marked with arrows above). I may cut these off later, but for now I'll leave them. I also removed the top two thirds of the main leader and the tip of the most upward pointing brach (marked with X). I did this because they both were strongly growing upwards, which I don't want and I felt that the central leader was crowding the centre of the tree. In addition I wanted to encourage some of the buds that are forming lower down on these branches. Here is the result:

bottleBrush_20091129.jpg

The final thing I did was to choose one of the shoots near the base. All had increased growth since repotting so I chose the one I thought was in the most favourable direction. I also shaped the dead stump a little.

closeupBase_20091129.jpg

So that's all for now, another small step. I think for now I will just keep up the care and once the new buds add some length I'll start pinching to encourage some branching. Taking it slowly as I learn how this species reacts.

[Naym]

Time for an update.

The tree seems to have responded very well to a repot and feeding. There was very strong growth only shortly after the last post and I pinched out the tips to try to get some more branches to work with. I've learnt that this tree puts out shoots that get long very fast but it responded well to pinching. However 2-3 weeks ago came a grasshopper, a big one, that ate all the new growth It has since paid for it's crimes and fortunately tree tree responded with more strong growth as seen by the red in this photo.

bottleBrush_20100112.jpg

I recently moved house and lost my photo wall That new branch midway along the trunk will be removed as soon as I find the box that has my tools in it. You can see some of the strong growth that has been in that shoot I left near the base which is now easily visible in the above photo. Here's a close up, because I can.

closeupBase_20100112.jpg

Not quite sure if I want to keep this yet, but I'll let it grow for now.

The prolific budding on the mid trunk has settled down and moved to the base. A lesson learned is that if you rub buds off this species this happens:

closeupBuds_20100112.jpg

So I am now letting them grow out a bit and clipping them off (hence the before-mentioned small branch midway up the trunk).

The new growth received another pinching last night and the short term plan is to let it grow more, probably until the end of the season. I will probably pinch out the tips again in a few weeks. While is going on I need to do some more research to try and learn a bit more about the literati style. Then I will start choosing which branches I want to keep and try to get some shape into the canopy.

[Naym]

Well recovery from the grasshoppers has gone well. Unfortunately the tree was washed (not blown) off the bench in the rain we had last week. As a consequence the tree has been knocked off the line I potted it in. The shoots at the base are still a problem but I'm persisting in cutting the off every week or so (10 or so shoots 70mm-100mm long each week).

Last weekend I decided it was time to try and do something with the top. Here is a photo taken before I started.

bottleBrush_Before_20100214.jpg

I removed the centre branch on the right and the top of the 'leader' and then wired the rest to reach the the right. I'm still thinking of a tree reaching over the coast, and I was down at the Botany Bay national park cliffs recently to see how its done for real. Many of the branches were very small so I gave Steven's coil technique (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=108&p=514&hilit=coil+wiring#p514) a go. It worked quite well here.

Unfortunately I found that the branch on the left had broken (probably in above mentioned fall). This was a branch I wanted to keep so it could 'reach' in to the right. So I used wire to hold it in place and sealed around the break with my usual wound paste (mud + PVA glue) in a hopeful attempt to save it. Here is the result of my work.

bottleBrush_20100214.jpg

This is it for now. I just wanted to get things growing in the direction I was thinking. I think it's still a bit busy but I don't want to remove anymore until I know if that broken branch is going to die. Also I don't want to go nuts removing branches or leaves at the moment as I suspect that will make my the sprouting at the base worse (if that's possible).

Still undecided about the branch at the base, but leaning toward removing it, once the sprouting in that area calms down.

As usual I'll look at it for a while before I proceed.

[Naym]

I noticed today that the trunk wire was getting tight so I removed it. Nothing else has changed, but it's progress so here is a photo.

bottleBrush_nowire_20100224.jpg

I don't know how well callistemons hold their shape and I am about to go away for three weeks so I can't watch it and see. Can anyone advise if I should re-wire straight away?

[Jamie]

if you rewire make sure you wire in the opposite direction as the original wire, and also "cage" wire it, this will give it room just in case it does decide to boom and thicken massivly on you while you are away. this way you are garuanteed not to lose the shape you have put in

looking good other wise

[stymie]

When repairing breaks or fastening back after removing a wedge, the join is only as strong as the healing cambium and bark. I advocate the use of 'superglue' (cyanoacrylate) on the heartwood to give more strength. This has no detrimental effect if it is kept away from the growing/cambium area and avoids the need of binding and wiring to hold in place. I've re-joined quite thick branches this way.

[Naym]

Thanks for the tips guys. Stymie, I'll remember to drop a tube of cyanoacrylate in my bonsai box, it's a great idea.

I got back the other day and learned that aphids like white bottlebrush (but my citrus are fine). Fortunately it looks like a recent attack and so little damage is done. Otherwise it looks like the branches have set nicely in the wire I applied before I left. Some of it is starting to get tight so I will work on this tree this weekend and do a proper update with a new photo.