Leptospermum Sericeum - From Tube Stock

[Patmet]

Leptospermum Sericeum/Esperance tea tree/Silver tea tree I bought as tube stock from a nursery some time in 2021.

It's been slow grown always in small pots to this point so has remained small but has nice bark now and decent taper. My goal for this is to remain as a small tree, maybe shohin size or if not slightly bigger.

It went declined in health during the last year due to being constantly too wet root bound and a little neglected. I've spent some time nursing it back to health before working on it again.

Now that it's re-gained strength I've recently started shaping the primary branch structure into a wind swept design. It makes sense for this as a coastal species and it had the right characteristics to work with.

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Oldest picture I can find July 2021. That lower fork in the trunk is the current main trunk and the upper part is the current dead wood.

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October 2021. Me just doing something with it.

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July 2024 after free growth following a re-pot to gain strength.

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August 2024 after the recent work.

[legoman_iac]

Great work, very nice tree!!! If wind swept, will you wire or prune that lower left branch?

I've got a few leptos, trunks still thickening up ... lots of neglect here, just letting them settle in.

[Patmet]

Great work, very nice tree!!! If wind swept, will you wire or prune that lower left branch?

I've got a few leptos, trunks still thickening up ... lots of neglect here, just letting them settle in.

Cheers! I'm thinking another dead wood feature could be cool on that side so I'm letting it grow out for now to do something with later.