Gday Atilla!
Thanks for the encouragement - it sometimes feels a little lonely over here in this thread, as if I'm talking to myself. Nice to know there are visitors.
Speaking of visitors - anybody else with pics and/or tips for Eucalyptus Bonsai please feel free to post. As mentioned in an earlier reply to Walter Pall, I
know that there are others out there doing Euc Bonsai, but I have yet to hear from any of them...
Anyway, while I'm here, I thought I'd post yet another recent acquisition. This River Red (E. camaldulensis) came from the same batch as the Yellow Box above. $1 for a 200mm (4") pot. The tree was about 450mm (18") tall and quite straight, with the beginnings of some nice taper at the base (approx 20mm thick). As with the previous tree, there is no sign of an ugly
lignotuber above the root system (see 'Material', above) and the bark at the base is showing signs of maturity.
The 1st pic sort of shows the tree prior to any work (sorry about the lack of detail) in June '04. Once again, the thing was root-bound and showing signs of
dormancy (see 'Root-Pruning and Repotting', above).
In the 2nd pic from Jan 1st, 2005, you can see where the initial chop was made during the repot - I had reduced the trunk height by about 50%. I could have cut the thing right down to the 1st branch in the previous picture and made that the new leader, but in the case of a tree with such little style/character, I think it is better to cut higher and allow dormant buds to do what they will. The advantages of this are two-fold: trunk girth will be increased more rapidly with so much growth on the tree; and, with so many new branches, the there are many more options when it comes to choosing a new leader. (All I am doing with this tree is creating
pre-Bonsai stock.)
Thanks again.
FlyBri.