AusBonsai

OWNED & TRAINED: Carole
HEIGHT: 67 cm
WIDTH: 62 cm
AGE: Approx. 14 years

IN TRAINING: About 3 years
LIVES IN: Queensland

History: In 1998 I purchased this plant in a 6” black nursery pot. I bought ten of them for the nursery and transferred them to 12” pots to grow them on. Nine of them were shaped and sold but this was the ‘worst’ one and no one wanted it. I planted it in the ground in abut 2002 and let it grow untouched until 2006. It was a tall tree by then and I wish I had taken a photo of it before it was removed, but I didn’t. The root-system was cut back so hard that it was transferred to a large box to allow the roots to regenerate.

In 2007 I used a reciprocating saw and removed all the large branches which had been cut back but not removed when the tree was dug up. I was left with just a trunk and I cut everything away to give me the movement you see today.

As we all know, they never shoot branches back exactly where we want them and many of them were removed and I started the process of growing them again. In November 2009 it was root pruned and planted in the bonsai pot in the photo. I partly wired it for this photo which is the first proper wiring it has had. I still have about four branches that I feel are in the wrong place so as the branches mature some more will be removed.

Love the tree, any chance of removing the shadow?

It would be nice if you could bring the tree a further forward from the wall to reduce the shadow behind or try & bounce the flash off the ceiling to cast a downwards shadow?

Cheers

Ryan

Thanks Ryan, I will try your suggestions. I did have it out from the wall about 80cm and I had some light behind it but I must admit I am a hopeless person when it comes to photos. Guess I spent all my time playing with my trees and haven't put pics in a competition before. When I blow the phot up there doesn't seem to be much shadow there, apart from a couple of leaves.
Cheers Carole

if this was your worst one then i would love to see the others carole, this is a cracker! great work love it!

Great, great, great tree carole! All the Elements are there to now be refined into a Rippa. Well done!!! and Good Luck!

Jamie wrote:if this was your worst one then i would love to see the others carole, this is a cracker! great work love it!

Thanks Jamie, it quite often happens like this. The customers pick what they think are the best ones, we take the worst and grow them on for a further 5/6 years and end up with a better tree for it. So when it is refined some more it will probably better than some of the others. I have a friend who bought one of them and he brings it back every year for me to work on and it is probably the best of the lot.
Cheers Carole

anttal63 wrote:Great, great, great tree carole! All the Elements are there to now be refined into a Rippa. Well done!!! and Good Luck!

Thanks for the encouragement. I don't think this one is refined enough to be a 'winner' for a while, but I have sure had some fun tidying up my neglected natives and sharing them with other 'tragics' like me. Huge thanks to 'ausbonsai' for getting us all going like this.
Cheers Carole

That's cool, I struggle trying to reduce shadow myself. Never the less it is a great tree, one I would love to have in my collection

Cheers

Ryan

Hi Ryan, don't get me wrong I want to try your suggestion. I am pretty dense when it comes to things 'not bonsai'. I am not sure how I bounce the flash off the ceiling without pointing my camera up there. I only have a digital camera, pretty average and old compared with the latest technology. Happy to have your help. Cheers Carole