AusBonsai

My Banksia serrata has flowers for the first time this year.
Last spring it produced some buds but they did not open. This time 4 out of 5 have flowered. I've seen flowers and cones on one at the Collection so it's not unusual but thought it was cool that mine has flowers.

That's a superb little serrata Shibui.

Banksia flowers are beautiful.

The second image really shows how well you have developed this one, what would the trunk diameter be? Also what is this ones age? Thanks.

I was only looking at your historical post yesterday when you grew your first Banksia flower.

Well done and thanks for posting.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin.
The trunk is around 11 cm at ground level and, like most serrata I have grown it tapers quickly.

I had forgotten that I had previous flowers so I just searched the archives and found that post. Appears to be the same tree way back. Now that I see the pics, I seem to recall that flower did not fully open that year.

If the two trees / posts relate to the same tree, i thought I'd post the link to the older thread we are referring to:

https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/forum/view ... 69&t=27843

Kevin

Hi Neil,

I have a large serrata which has not flowered yet.
Not sure whether is the fertiliser I ,my spring removal of the frost effected leaves or the time between repotting.

Hi Neil,

I have a large serrata which has not flowered yet.
Not sure whether is the fertiliser I ,my spring removal of the frost effected leaves or the time between repotting.

Not too sure what can help or hinder flower formation in banksias.
Buds form on the tips of the previous season growth so whenever we trim long shoots we also remove potential flower buds. You will notice that the flowers here are on small, inner shoots that did not grow last season and therefore didn't get pruned. I assume there will be a cut off date for pruning like there is for other spring flowering sp like azalea and callistemon and still get shoots mature enough to flower. Just don't have the experience to nominate a best before timing.

Removing leaves should not have much impact on flower formation though it could reduce vigour a little.

Fert has always been associated with flowers - low N and higher K seem to be the common nutrient factors. Mine get Power feed and Chook poo pellets whenever I think about it and have the time to apply which is not all that regular.

I experimented a few years ago with using a fruit and flower fertiliser regularly and found my Banksia serrata flowered three years running, even when it was in a fairly small pot. It's fairly straight forward logic that the fertilising helped the flowering. It's in a bigger pot now, but didn't flower this year - and didn't get fruit and flower fertiliser.

I always get flowers on my banksias. I find that if the tress are mature, haven't recently been repotted and you haven't trimmed hard they will form flowers. The banksias I'm still developing never flower as they are getting root work done or trimmed all the time or just too immature.

This flower is really small compared to the others on the tree