AusBonsai

One of our club members is involved with the local botanical gardens, yesterday he brought a boxful of diff natives for anyone interested. I picked up 2 for myself, a Darwinia taxifolia and a Kunzea parvifolia, both are in 6" pots with some good growth on them. I wont be doing much except potting them on & letting them grow for a few years. Both have nice small foliage, full compact growth habits and the Darwinia has beautiful flaking bark starting to form as well.

If nothing else they add to my collection of species in general tho I can see some potential for mini's in terms of growth, flowering etc its a matter of if the trunks will thicken much or not.

Has anyone else grown either of these species or varieties, all I can find is 2 lines in the koreshoff natives book, that kunzea are treated similar to callistemon.

Matt

Hi Matt,

Just be aware that Kunzea wont backshoot well, or often at all. If you take all the foliage off, you have a dead tree.

Joel

Thanks for that Joel. Now I know that will have to look at some other options for the kunzea. How do they take wiring & severe bending do you know? The wood while only thin looks like it could be brittle, as so many natives seem to be.

I have never tried wiring one. I had a few different species in my backyard. I knew they were hard to get to shoot back but i did not want them anyway so i tried to get some backshooting for bonsai and they all died. They werent that impressive or i would have tried grafting. The wood was brittle and snapped easily.

Joel