AusBonsai

In order to make the forum more visually appealing we are running a competition for pictures of Australian native bonsai.

All submissions will feature on AusBonsai.com and the best ones will feature in the header at the top of the forum. Prizes will be given for the best 5 tree's.

Prizes are as follows:
1st - Masters Grade pair of stainless steel Ashinaga Hasami pruning shears - Au $75.00 value
2nd - Stainless steel bonsai root rake with spatula
3rd - 60ml bottle of SuperThrive
4th - Packet of Kyoto moss spores (half oz)
5th - Bottle of Tri-Flow lubricant (perfect for maintaining your bonsai tools)

Eligibility and requirements:
• The bonsai must be an Australian native
• The bonsai must be part of the submitting artists personal collection

How to submit your material:
• You may submit as many times as you like by posting a reply in this forum
• Photographs should be a minimum of 500 x 500 pixels and in full colour
• A brief history of the bonsai should be submitted (max 450 words)
• Botanical and/or common name of tree, years of training, size (height and width), name of artist (may be your AusBonsai screen name) and state or territory of artist must be included
• By submitting your material you are giving AusBonsai full copyright to use and display the picture/s and text on AusBonsai.com and bonsaisolutions.com.au (credit will be given to artist)

Review and Judging:
• Submissions will be reviewed by the Moderators of AusBonsai and our decision will be final
• Judgment will be based on the following three criteria: -
1. Physical/anatomic quality
2. Design quality
3. Total image (presentation etc)

The competition will close on 30th January 2009 and winners will be notified by 3rd February 2009.

Note: Photography is not being judged however the best possible picture/s should be submitted.

Winners will be notified via PM and will be published in this forum. Prizes will be posted worldwide to the winners upon receipt of their postal address (by PM - no addresses will be made public)

Good luck and thank you!

Steven

This tree is a Melaleuca parviflora ( swamp paperbark ). It was collected from a swamp in 1992 Gosnells a suburb of Perth Western Australia. A Friend of mine who died of a heart attack his wife gave the stock piece to me and I tried to sell it to raise money for her. No one wanted it so I gave $10-00 for it. this was in 1995. It was one of those trees I did nothing for three years.
It had a chicken breast curve about half way up which caused problems. it has a lovely aroma so the positive was every time I walked past I would pinch prune it. I notice how ell it budded. So I thought one day after a couple of beers ( aka Ernie Kou ) I cut the top off.
Oh!! bugger then I cut of all the branches ( PRE digi days ) so no pics. I ended up with a slug of trunk I then waited to see what would happen. It started to bud every where ( aka she-oaks ) so the next thing choose the future branches.
I did that and away we went in 2001 the Bonsai society had the national AABC convention in Fremantle.This tree was given on behalf of Solita Rosade President at the time of BCI best in show.
I have named it Houdini because three times it has nearly carked it. It is as you can see thriving. It is one of my favorite trees. I hope you like it also Pup.
Pup,Perth Western Australia. I have been growing Bonsai since 1985,

Thank you Pup for sharing this beautiful example of an Australian bonsai with us!

Here are two other melaleucas Lynette

Very nice Lynette, I especially like the first one.

Jon

Lynette wrote:Here are two other melaleucas

mel nov 2006.jpg

20060515_0074.JPG

Lynette

Put the first one in a nicer pot and reduce the folaige to show a bit more negative space and you got yourself a show stopper Lynette.
Lovely little tree, looks very natural.
Peter.

Thank you Lynette for posting these lovely tree's.

If possible, I'd love to see better photo of your second tree [Melaleuca linariifolia?] taken from lower down at the correct viewing angle.

How did they start out life? Were they nursery stock or yamadori?

Regards,
Steven

very nice lynette indeed. i also would like some better angles on those shots.

This is a Babingtonia virgata ( formally Baeckia virgata ) . This tree was dug from a neighbours yard 5 years ago. The drift wood was part of the main trunk. It kept dying back and I thought I would lose it. It stopped how ever. I have been developing it with the roots exposed as well. Next re pot it will get a slight change of angle rotating slightly to the right to open up the root exposure. Height approx 460mms base approx 120ms.

A lovely tree Pup, looks like it has been in training for longer than 5 years. Can you post a close up of the detail on your deadwood please?
Regards,
Steven

Steven here are some earlier shots. I will look for more if I have none.I will take some. It is five. These were taken on the 17th of Nov 2006[]

Hi all, here are some pics of my lilly pilly. It is an Australian brush cherry (or Newport Brush cherry) and the scientific name provided by our nurseries is Sygyzium panniculatum. They are very popular as hedges and topiaries in Southern California. I have many of these trees around my yard as topiaries.This bonsai started out as an unwanted volunteer that sprouted up in a corner of my backyard. For many years it was repeatedly chopped down by my gardener but kept coming back. 4-5 years ago I decided to keep it and train it in the ground as a double trunk bonsai. 3 years ago I dug it up and discovered it had a big hollowed , termite eaten trunk and some very fat curving roots. I then placed it into a plastic training pot and restyled the smaller trunk as the first branch that you can see here. Last year I placed it into this Japanese pot. After a lot of sun and fertilisers, the tree bloomed quite well this summer, and now still has a few fruits left. I never had to carve the trunk at all. I applied lime sulfur for the first time only yesterday. And after brushing the trunk and removing the lime scale build up, I discovered it also has a very nice light red brown smooth bark. I experimented with different lighting setups and different stands. The bonsai is about 22 inches tall.
Hope you all enjoy the pics.
Good day!
Si

beautiful work, presentation and photography Si. thankyou for sharing this with us.

Compliments on the quality of the photography Si and I can sure see why you placed this one in a round pot - 4 photos and 4 possible fronts. I love it

Jon

Nice bonsai mate. Which angle is your front?

BB