AusBonsai

I thought I would start a new thread to show , talk about stuff that is happening at my place this year . The good the bad and the ugly .

First up . Because it’s flowering at the moment is a Baekea imbricata .


This year I repotted it into a ‘42 mice ‘pot .
To my eye it’s a bit to big ,but I am not braver to go any smaller .

Close up of flowers . I started it from tube stock probably 5 or 6 years ago and from what I have experienced it is reluctant to bud on older wood , that’s why it’s tall and slender . It isn’t endemic to my area but so far it handles a sub alpine climate .

pot looks good to me - better an oversized pot than a struggling tree -- a struggling tree can easily attract too much care - nice tree

If that’s only 5-6 year old stock I wouldn’t think you’d have a problem with shooting on older wood.
I would be more confident than you, but I can understand your unwillingness.

I find they are fairly good at shooting back on older wood, but I’m not in a sub zero climate.

Mine seem quite happy to shoot anywhere from a cutback. Although I find they are similar to Casurina, in that they don’t shoot back well from very young twigs. Cutting the very young growth seems to die-back occasionally. I wouldn’t have a problem cutting back on 1cm thick branches in about November.

The flowers are beautiful how they tuck in behind the leaves.

Great idea, I look forward to the regular updates with anticipation.

Rory wrote: ↑January 2nd, 2022, 11:20 pm If that’s only 5-6 year old stock I wouldn’t think you’d have a problem with shooting on older wood.
I would be more confident than you, but I can understand your unwillingness.

I may be guesstimating a bit on the age , I think I am trying to forget the last couple . It was grown in a pond pot and it’s been chopped a couple of times . Going on my memory I doubt I would of chopped below the green and if it had popped a bud lower on the trunk I would have cut down to it . I think last year I gave up trying to thicken it and went with what’s there . It was put into a bit bigger bonsai pot than this one last spring from the pond pot .
I’m moving away from pond pots into nursery flats because I don’t like how the roots set when they are scrunched up .

Hi Craig very nice little tree ,personally i dont mind the thin trunk especially with a little movement. If anything it seems to be a better representation of what you see in the bush. Next.. Cheers John.

I repotted this Kunzea today after a good trim , it’s been flowering for a couple of weeks but the new growth had hidden the flowers . The bark on this is the real feature .

Great bark and lovely movement from the trunk line into the branching.
Nice…

Love it!! Bark sure does look dramatic.

The bark at this time of year becomes all flaky , you can leave it on but it gets a nice constrasting look if you peel it off .

I dug or rather I sucked it out of the mud this Eucalyptus viminalis today . I have been watching this tree for a few years after it had got damaged in a storm and died back to close to the base . It’s been growing in a dry creek bed , not in the best of health because of to much competition from other trees around it .
We have had so much rain that everywhere is literally a quagmire so the creek is not dry anymore . Lake Jindabyne has been full for a while , maybe a couple of months . Unfortunately the powers that be , won’t release or use the water . So we are going to lose thousands of trees that are under water on the lake foreshore . It’s not going to be pretty .
Anyway now I wait and see if this tree will respond .
No snakes were harmed during this operation .

How much of those big roots are you going to hang on to?

Good luck with it!

Thanks Mel . The roots are what I am keeping . There was another ‘layer ‘ of roots underneath which I chainsawed off . In time , if it survives , I will ringbark some of these roots to encourage better roots closer to the trunk .

A good project, I'll look forward to seeing how you go with it! La Nina is being a bit strong this year, hope it doesn't mess with Winter weather like it's doing with Summer. (I am enjoying the relative cool though.)

Are you putting it into bonsai mix, potting mix or pure grit? I'd be thinking about the grit.

I hope it goes crazy on you,

Gavin