And here is a similar Angophora which endured more-or-less the exact same treatment back in October. Once again, this growth form is not usual - this tree was about 70cm tall, and all the others in the same size pot were at least twice that. The 1st pic was taken directly after the repot - the 2nd and 3rd are as it is now.

I hope 2 use this tree as an example when it comes time 4 the 'Pruning' section.

Thanks.

FlyBri.

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FlyBri,

I have sent this link to LIsa Kanis from Canberra who has forwarded it to Roger Hnatiuk, hwo is THE expert on indigenous trees.
This is the first feedbeack from Lisa:

'The Eucalypt that won "best of show" at the AABC Seminar is a
Eucalyptus nicolii. I have to ask the owner's permission
before I give his name. Two things I remember friends telling
me about Eucalypt bonsai:
1) when repotting, always plant the lignotuber at the same depth as before;
2) periodically, prune the hell out of them once they are well established.

Thanks again Walter!

I thought that might be an E. nicholii - the leaves certainly say 'Willow-Leaf Peppermint' 2 me, but the bark doesn't appear 2 have the fibrous fissures of a mature tree. Thanks also 2 Ms Kanis (if U happen 2 read this thread). Looks as though I might have 2 contact Mr Hnaituk also.

Stay tuned - once the blood clears out of my alcohol stream, I intend 2 do some pruning 'the hell out of' a couple of Eucs, maybe even my most established Euc - a little E. camaldulensis.

Thanks.

FlyBri.

Just some advice from a reader's point of view: The BBS-speak, with the 2's and 4's and U's is REALLY annoying. Unless you spend a LOT of time reading that type of language, it kills the flow of the sentence. For a short post, go ahead and use them. But for a long guide like this, it makes it appear immature and not worth reading, when in fact the complete opposite is true. It is similar to the looks I get from people in the northern US when they hear my southern accent. They ignore the content and focus on the delivery. Same thing happens here.

Just a tip. Great tree, and great guide. Keep it up.

Frog

Gday Frogboy!

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Point taken - I already got in trouble over @ the GW Forum for my use of NetSpeak - and a big 'Howdy' and a hug to Ken McD if you are around! In future, I will attempt to type in good, old fashioned English words.

BTW (by the way), any perceived immaturity in my posts is a by product of my immaturity - I find it keeps me young.

Thanks.

FlyBri.

Happy New Year all!

Well, the hangover has subsided, and I thought I'd post some pics of some of my other Euc acquisitions. None of them are great quality, but they should give readers an idea of the sort of trees I'd be looking for when it comes to Eucalyptus pre-Bonsai material.

Let me begin with my very 1st Euc 'Bonsai' - an E. camaldulensis (River Red Gum) which I have cared for since about 1996, when I purchased it as 50mm tubestock. At that time, it was about 60cm tall, thinner than a pencil and straight as a die. The bulk of the training I have done on this tree has been through the clip'n'grow method, with the occasional bit of wiring.

The 1st pic is as it appeared in September of 2004, just after a serious prune. It stands about 15cm (6") tall, and is in a shallow 15cm nursery pot (which is held together by duct tape - don't ask...). The base of the trunk (mosly obscured by gravel mulch) is just thicker than my thumb.

The second pic is the tree as it appeared on the 1st day of 2005 - apologies for the lack of detail, but I think it still gives the viewer a sense of how the foliage of Eucs can be made to reduce, and how well ramified they can become with regular pruning.

More to come - but 1st I have to plumb in our new washing machine, lest I provoke the ire of The Good Lady...

Thanks.

FlyBri.

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Morning folks.

Next cab off the rank is this E. meliodora (Yellow Box) which was 1 of 4 Eucs picked up from a local native/indigenous nursery in June of 2005. They were all going very cheap ($1 each) as the nursery folk had deemed them 'below par' for one reason or another. In the case of this particular tree, I suspect that it was rejected because it did not have the long, straight trunk that one might expect from a tree of its age (probably 2-3 years old). It was also terribly root-bound and dry with not a new leaf in sight, and all the mature leaves had the look of distress. As mentioned above in the 'Material' section, this is exactly the sort of Euc that I look for.

The 1st pic (apologies again) shows the Yellow Box after it was root-pruned (as above in 'Root-Pruning and Repotting') and placed into a 6" nursery pot. You can see exactly how little foliage was left intact. The tree was initially cut down by about 50% of its height, and since this pic was taken, I reduced the tall trunk by another 25mm or so, leaving the overall height at about 200mm (4"). The base of the trunk was already a good 30mm thick.

The 2nd pic shows it as it was on New Year's Day... It's not really my fault that you cannot see what is going in the tree's interior - the thing has just put on so much growth in 6 months. Many of the new branches are already 5-6mm (¼") thick.

Thanks.

FlyBri.

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Hey, FlyBri,


Thank you for this thread.
I admire your passion for the eucaliptus, keep it up. I am sure your efforts will pay off sooner or later.

Regards,
Attila

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.

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To me one of the greatest "adventures" in bonsai is experimenting with new species. Very few people do this (to my knowledge), the majority find enough challenge in succeeding with the traditional material.

With eucaliptus, I will be really excited to find out from you in the future how they respond to root pruning when they become more mature pre-bonsai and then later when you plant them into bonsai pots. The concerns I've heard from the very few people who attempted to work with them is that they hate pot-culture and root pruning. I think that if you work with as many different species as you can lay your hands on, you will find out which ones are the best to work with. This woud be a huge contribution to the bonsai community.

Regards,
Attila