Collected Callistemon

[Josh]

So the shopping centre across the road is doing a multi million dollar reno. I've had my eyes on some callistemon in the car park for some time so figured now was a good time to try. Had a chat to the foreman who said he would call me if they pulled them out. Got a phone call to dig them out so very happy now.

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I have a heater in the hot house and mist sprays to keep humidity and temp up. The one that was too big for the hot house I built a hot house over it to help recovery. Fingers crossed now.

[Watto]

That is a find. I hope they are successful. I personally have found these to be quite tough so I am confident.

[Rory]

Cripes.

I hope your daughter gets into bonsai, otherwise you’re going to develop the worst hernias when you get much older champ.

You’re like the anti-shohin grower. That is a gargantuan effort.

Personally I don’t see the value in material this big, but I admire and will enjoy watching your efforts. I find that anything much taller than a metre is too difficult.

And thanks to Steven and Treeman they have sparked my interest in the smaller and smaller trees.

But wow, when gargantuan bonsai come back strongly in popularity, you’ll make a fortune.

Well done.

[shibui]

I already feel the back pain Rory. Too big for me too but it is the big ones that get all the attention at shows and these should have great potential for large and medium size bonsai.
I've also found callistemon quite resilient and most of the transplants I've done have survived. A couple had been lying on the side of the road for a couple of days when I rescued them and still managed to grow.
From the bark and habit I'm guessing these are c. 'little john' which has been popular as a smaller callistemon.

We will watch with interest for further development when these recover from transplant. Hope you are familiar with carving dead wood.

[greg27]

Nice score. I saw these pop up on Facebook a few days back and I'm still trying to picture the look on my wife's face if I rocked up home with something like this.

Don't stress if they lose all their leaves - I had this happen to a dug callistemon and, after sulking for a few months, it started throwing buds out everywhere.

[TimS]

I do love big bonsai, but that’s a step too far for me Repotting would involve an engine crane at minimum I should think!

[treeman]

the big ones that get all the attention at shows

Yes and this is directly proportional to the viewer's level of sophistication.
Personally I'd rather look at a nicely shaped twig than a boringly shaped gigantic tree.
(Not referring to your Callistemons Josh)

[shibui]

Me too Mike.
I'll usually just walk past those giants with barely a glance to look at the more interesting smaller trees.

Big is not always better, especially in bonsai

[TimS]

A multitude of sins can be hidden in a big bonsai

[Josh]

Cripes.

I hope your daughter gets into bonsai, otherwise you’re going to develop the worst hernias when you get much older champ.

You’re like the anti-shohin grower. That is a gargantuan effort.

Personally I don’t see the value in material this big, but I admire and will enjoy watching your efforts. I find that anything much taller than a metre is too difficult.

And thanks to Steven and Treeman they have sparked my interest in the smaller and smaller trees.

But wow, when gargantuan bonsai come back strongly in popularity, you’ll make a fortune.

Well done.

Got plenty of small too mate. These will be long term trees, no hurry on them. Already got offers to buy them so selling them won’t be an issue. I collect and sell all the time so have people looking for trees so know when I’m collecting if I want to sell I can. I keep the good what I want, sell what I don’t and it pays for the ones I keep.

Cheers

[Josh]

I already feel the back pain Rory. Too big for me too but it is the big ones that get all the attention at shows and these should have great potential for large and medium size bonsai.
I've also found callistemon quite resilient and most of the transplants I've done have survived. A couple had been lying on the side of the road for a couple of days when I rescued them and still managed to grow.
From the bark and habit I'm guessing these are c. 'little john' which has been popular as a smaller callistemon.

We will watch with interest for further development when these recover from transplant. Hope you are familiar with carving dead wood.

I’m set up pretty well for handling big trees now so not too bad. I wouldn’t say big trees get all the attention, a well defined small tree kills a big tree every time imho.
Yes I’d agree on Little john. Couple of these have potential to be cut back a lot yet. Some will be larger. I’m also a landscaper so if they don’t work for me as bonsai I can easily sell them feature trees worse case scenario. Carving is no issue if needed, it’s a prerequisite on most big trees .

[Josh]

Nice score. I saw these pop up on Facebook a few days back and I'm still trying to picture the look on my wife's face if I rocked up home with something like this.

Don't stress if they lose all their leaves - I had this happen to a dug callistemon and, after sulking for a few months, it started throwing buds out everywhere.

My wife’s used to it now or she just doesn’t care anymore . I pulled up with the first ute load and she was ok until I told it was only two trees in ute

[Josh]

I do love big bonsai, but that’s a step too far for me Repotting would involve an engine crane at minimum I should think!

No engine crane here mate (not yet). I’m set up pretty well for handling big trees. I’m thinking this is my limit now although I do have one with agonis with a trunk 600mm across.

[Josh]

the big ones that get all the attention at shows

Yes and this is directly proportional to the viewer's level of sophistication.
Personally I'd rather look at a nicely shaped twig than a boringly shaped gigantic tree.
(Not referring to your Callistemons Josh)

My personal hate is stump bonsai. A tree cut off as a stump with some branches. There’s got to be something more to it for me, taper, nebari, Shari, character etc. finding that in large trees can be hard.

[TimS]

I’m happy for people to start with a stump and create a bonsai from it, but to try to pass off a stump as bonsai is just plain wrong.

I have a couple of ginkgos im starting from stumps, but I’m careful not to refer to them as being bonsai at this stage. They are pre-bonsai or projects and probably will be for a few decades until I would be able to call them bonsai I’m good conscience

Anyway I digress, a well developed large bonsai is a treat to see, so I’ll enjoy following this along