AusBonsai

I acquired this Tea tree from MelaQuin a while ago and gave it a bit of a tweak last night. The lower left branch troubles me and I'm not sure if this is because it is weak or because it shouldn't be there. As you will notice, I haven't touched that branch yet.

I would appreciate any feedback or virts (Jamie?).
Regards,
Steven

This sort of tree is my cup of tea
Steven- I know it is an unconventional suggestion but if the tree were mine I would retain that left hand first branch but raise it up (shock and horror- how could he say the up word) so that the branch slopes upwards in a similar line to the trunk and so that the foliage at the tip joins the crown. That is what you would see in wild growing Leptospermum near here.
As it is this branch does not look large enough or old enough to have that 'dragged down pine look' so commonly used. The other option of removing it is bit hard to reverse if you change your mind- and the tree may appear more bare without it. The up option may increase its strength over time.
I would not coil wire it at first, just guy wire it up a bit to have a look first.
cheers
Ash

Hi Steven,
First thing I would do is prune it more. I would also follow what Ash said and grow it more towards a broom. I have one of these trees it is in fact the first tree I did at a series of cae classes run by bsv in 1983. When I took it in I was told I would never make a bonsai of it and it was a bad choice of material, how attitudes have changed. I of course wired all the branches down flat as you did in those days. These trees have a strong sense of apical dominance and you really have to pinch the top hard to keep the lower branches going. I think if your tree was grown in more of a broom style you would alleviate some of that problem. One of the great things about leptospermum is they root prune very easily and at the appropriate time of year I would try to sink yours into the pot a little more to eradicate that little hill its sitting on. Your tree will with age develop beautiful bark with deep furrows and the lemon scent when they are pruned is great.
Craig

coming right up with a few of the said options

be back soon.

Nice Steven. I have one too
Not as developed as yours but getting there

My first thought was to raise the left branch too so it almamost meets the underside of the top. This will make it more sympathetic with the right side too

Ken

here ya go, left branch removed, left branch wired up and my thoughts keeping the left branch where it is and fill it in with foliage creating more of a dome canopy, thats how a fair few of these are around here

jamie

if it were mine steven the first thing i would do would be kill it
natives hate me its on my 2010 plan though pines and natives nice tree though i dug up a cracker looked well then seeya think i kept it to dry but you learn good luck

Jamie wrote:here ya go, left branch removed, left branch wired up and my thoughts

jamie

Were you looking for this one mate?




Here's another with a bit more weight, but same position.

thanks mitchell, i uploaded the same pic twice
thats the one i was trying to put in

it happens when ya havent slept in over two days.


jamie

just thought I'd have a crack at a virt...........first one ever

just my version bending the upper left down, removing the thin left branch and moving the apex to the right.
please let me Know what you think.

Cheers
Gott

interesting gott i actually done one up just like that aswell but didnt post it as i thought it was more of a traditional bonsai style that you see done with exotic trees more so than natives.

very well done mate

jamie

thanks Jamie was hoping to hear what u thought of it..I did think was kinda traditional but hey.....just another option

cheers
Gott

to right there Gott its always good to have lots of options and most trees have plenty of them

Gday Steven I thought you might have got a few more hits on this one.

I think Jamies 3rd one is the right style for this tree. It gives us an Australian style tree with a Japanese Bonsai feel.

I think this is what we need with our trees so we stop this.

Them and us attitude with our trees. Australia's trees are unique in a lot of respects. We still need the discipline to bring out the best in them.

Just as I have said one mans opinion.
Cheers Pup

G'day,

It's been a while since I updated this progression and I also located some earlier photo's so I'm going to start the progression again...

Here is how it looked in 2007 when Melaquin purchased it from the old Riverview nursery.
Melaquin cut it back hard and did some styling work to it but didn't pot it up until January 2009. Knowing her, it's roots would have been savagely beaten (treat em mean, keep em keen).

It was kept trimmed to shape and then repotted again in September 2008. The pot was filled with fibrous roots.
It was displayed at the 2008 Australian Plants As Bonsai exhibition in Canberra. It was wired again after the exhibition.
It was again show at the Castle Hill Show in March 2009 as part of a native display.
In August 2009 it was repotted into the reddish ocher oval pot that it is still in today. At the time of repotting the first left hand branch was snapped. It was wrapped in vet tape but never really healed.
This is around the time that it found its way into my garden.
Several members posted virts of how they envisaged the tree being styled. The lower left hand branch was still very weak and I hadn't been game to remove the vet wrap and splint from where it had been cracked 12 months earlier. I decided I would try a restyle by removing the weak branch and bending something down into it's place.

I let the branch (second apex on the left) above the damaged one grow a bit longer while maintaining the rest of the tree. You can see some wire on the branch I intended to bend down. This was put on while I was testing how flexible it was.
In September 2011 I removed the weak branch and wrapped 2 strands of 5mm wire around the upper trunk/branch. Slowly and carefully it was massaged and persuaded down into position. Not an easy feat on a brittle branch like this one. The tree was trimmed and left to rest for a while.
I had been keeping it trimmed to shape but let it rest again over winter. It never really stopped growing and through winter it continued to push out the nice red new growth that petersonii are famous for.
Last night I applied a bit more wire to some secondary branches and the apex. To apex was moved slightly to the right to be more inline with the base. It was trimmed to shape and some unnecessary and crossed branches were removed.

It is now approximately 400mm tall from rim of pot to apex and 500mm wide.
I'll repot it in a month or so and possibly change the pot to something a bit shallower.

Feel free to comment, critique or give me your suggestions. All feedback and discussion, good or bad, is encouraged.

Regards,
Steven