Hello!

Another interested Reader from Germany!

Thanks for your information/advice concerning Eucalyptus, as I am trying to cultivate a bunch "Eucalyptus spathulata" -seeds I bought at ebay.

Unfortunately I didn´t find any Shop in Berlin selling Eucalyptus-plants so I´m starting from scratch.

Right now they´re about 2mm high so it is a bit early to "prune the hell out of them" as Walter Pall quoted...

Greetings, arne

its great to see people growing aussie species as bonsai....you've inspired me to try and grow some

Howdy all!

Sorry about the delay in responding to the last couple of comments - been very busy with work, as well as the fact that I had a hard time locating this post after its 'relocation'... I had thought that maybe it had been removed due to my shenannigans, but here it is. Thanks to Schneum and Jarryd for the encouraging comments - hopefully the outcome and 'findings' of this article will be of some use to you both. BTW Schneum, from what I have gathered about E. spathulata, it is an arid climate tree which originates in the dry, dead centre of Oz - I don't know how you will go trying to keep such a tree in your climate, but I suppose it can't hurt to try.

The next installment of 'Eucalyptus as Bonsai' will be about pruning, and I hope to get at least some info up sometime over the weekend, including a pictorial guide to the branch selection and 'pruning for shape and ramification' on the project Angophora above (pictured today in the attachment).

Please bear with me and stay tuned.

Thanks.

FlyBri.

Attached Images

Angophora_costata_0105_web.jpg (59.4 KB, 192 views)

"it is an arid climate tree which originates in the dry, dead centre of Oz"

Seems like my patented mix of pure neglect and the dry, dead centre ontop of my central heating will do the job as usual...

Mainly I´ve chosen this species for its small leave-size and the nonexistance of a lignotuber.
As German living-rooms have desertlike climate in Summer I will try to grow them mainly indoors.

I was adwised by the seller to winter this euc in cold dry climate; between 5-10°Celsius. Is that true?

greetings from (rather cold) Germany, arne

Oh, and I am impatiently awaiting your article about pruning...

This is great stuff FlyBri,

It inspired me to go out and find a nicholii today but there none around, although I did managed to find a nice eucalypt under the damaged product section for $2! the fella there said it was E. sideroxlyon rosea, but the leaves pictured on the label are much broader than those on the tree which looks like nicholii to me anyway. His excuse was "juvenile foliage", but we'll see how it turns out. I also found a very nice Banksia serrata.

Oh, with the repotting, were you saying that even if the tree has new growth on it, it's ok to repot as long as it is completely defoliated?

Thanks heaps,

Nic

My Goodness..............Of all the years I have been doing bonsai I have never considered trying an Eucalyptus. I see thosands of them here where I live and see them as giant weeds. Huuummmmm there are seedlings every where.
Peace
Bob

Morning all. Sorry it's taken so long, but here is the bit about wiring and pruning. I hope to follow up with a pictorial guide soon.

Thanks.

FlyBri.

PS: Schneum - I have never tried to grow Eucs indoors, but then again why would I? I would be wary of keeping any tree in a centrally heated home, but especially a tree which comes from a region where the daytime temperature can reach 45-50°C and night time temps can be below freezing.

PPS: That's right Nic - I'm saying that I've had success repotting any time with the removal of all the foliage (and even success by removing all foliage but the 1st leaves on every branch).

PPPS: Good luck with your collecting Robert. Try to dig trees which have grown in moist conditions, as their root systems should be more compact and easily collectable. San Diego has a climate much like ours here in Melbourne, if my memory serves me correctly. Do you know which species of Euc you have growing there? When I was on the West Coast of the US in 1989, I did notice all the Eucs growing there, but was not educated or interested enough to identify them...

Pruning and Wiring

Let me preface this section by stating that – once again – the bulk of the information I have gleaned about the subject has come from Dorothy and Vita Koreshoff’s book, ‘Bonsai with Australian Native Plants’ (1983, Boolarong Publications). Usually in Bonsai literature, the subjects of ‘Pruning’ and ‘Wiring’ are separated into two categories, but the general growth habits of Eucs require that both processes go hand-in-hand. As the Koreshoffs state: “Many Australian trees show strong tendencies to grow upwards, often at the expense of the lower branches and any horizontal or drooping growth… it is important to use pruning [and wiring – FlyBri] to direct vigour in order to create and maintain acceptable Bonsai form.” I have followed their guidelines (with a few minor exceptions) and am yet to lose a branch due to improper pruning/wiring.

As mentioned above, many Eucs display a tendency to grow straight upwards, especially when putting on vigorous adventitious growth. Also, the general ability of Eucs to recover from fire means that there are countless sites from which such growth should occur after pruning – making backbudding a simple task. (Eucs which do not backbud readily when healthy should be abandoned as unsuitable material, as backbudding is an integral part of branch ramification.) Such growth can be useful in the development of trunk lines and trunk girth, as well as the creation of new branches, but it is important to keep it in check by wiring down towards the horizontal and/or pinching back to one or two sets of leaves. According to the Koreshoffs, failure to do so can result in the loss of established branches lower down the tree, as nutrients and water are preferentially transported to the more active new growth.

Eucalypts may be pruned quite heavily, and even back to bare wood, but the Koreshoffs advise that this only be done “just prior to regrowth, when the leaf buds are swollen. This is most important. If you cut back to bare wood after the new growth has started, the branch will die back.” I have not strictly adhered to this advice, and I have pruned when I thought it was needed. I have yet to see any ill effects, but I am most probably not using material of the age and calibre of which they are speaking. When pruning large branches and trunks (10mm or greater), I prefer to leave a ‘stump’ or ‘collar’ intact rather than hollowing out the cut – the collar may be removed at a later stage, once the tree has begun to heal. (A feature of many Eucs in the wild is the ‘knuckly’ appearance of trunks and branches due to the collars remaining intact when branches are shed.)

It is important to bear in mind that the adventitious growth on many Eucs can be quite long and leggy, with long internodes on which no budding will occur. As with other species, early pinching of new growth will keep the internodes short, as well as encouraging angular, better ramified growth. When pruning or pinching fine growth, I like to cut just before the node in order to prevent die-back of the leaves which are left intact. With time, the stem which is left over will wither and fall off.

My current approach to the wiring of Eucalypts (and my trees generally) is not to use anodized aluminium wire on the branches themselves, but to use ‘guy wires’ attached to the rim of the pot and the ends of branches, then twisted to pull branches downward. I am not against the more ‘traditional’ wiring, but I find that the combination of ‘clip and grow’ techniques plus the guy wiring of branches simulates the effects of gravity and age quite sufficiently. Besides that, the new growth on many Eucs is so fine as to be very difficult to wrap wire around, and the rapid thickening of such growth means that there is the ever present risk of wire scarring. Another warning comes from the Koreshoffs about the positioning of branches when wiring: “There are many species that sometimes shed their branches when they are positioned below the horizontal, and no amount of pruning back upward growth will help the weakened branch regain its vitality. In most cases, you will find that it keeps shooting from the base of the branch.”

Hello FlyBri!

Thanks again for your tutorial on Eucalyptus and your advice to me concerning the indoor-cultivation of them.

My idea to try Eucs as Bonsai derived from the fact that some species are sucessfully grown as garden-plants here in Germany (The problem is always to winter them properly since we have very cold winters here)

So it would be a outdoor-Summer/Indoor-Winter -thang.

I guess I made a particular mistake by choosing "spathulata" since there are more common and proven Eucs in germany, that can cope with the climate.

Greetings (and apologies for my strange english)
arne

Hi there

I have just got onto this forum and found this thread...I have been doing gum as bonsai for a while now and have great success in keeping them alive and thriving and some are just starting to take shape as a 'tree'. I use a similar repotting technique to yourself in mid-summer and no problems.....I'll and attach a picture of one of my several gums...

Attached Images

angophonacostata.jpg (26.5 KB, 231 views)