AusBonsai

This Leptospermum was collected locally on August 24, 2009.

Its long leggy growth was pruned back to encourage finer ramification. The plant was allowed time to recover and reshoot after a heavy branch facing forward and one crossing behind it were removed. Carving away the stub/base of these branches should remove the thickening at this point on the trunk improving the taper look. I have been working on branch ramification by tip and clip ‘n grow pruning and am happy with the response so far. The plant is 34cm high and is growing in south east NSW.

Jan

P.S. Leptospermum obovatum is the only one listed for my area so presume this is it.

The plant has settled in well and is starting to fill out foliage.

I pruned it back again to encourage further ramification, then I carved away the stub of a large branch that crossed over the junction of the branching. Carving carefully I was able to remove the stub of the branch entirely while not damaging the bark on the branches it crossed so there id little trace of its existence.

I carved the stub of the major branch that had been growing out to the front to reduce the apparent thickness at the junction of the branches and to prepare the area for burning at a later date. The heartwood was left slightly proud to add to the texture of the burned area.

There is one stub on the left of center that has shot and the shoot has been wired for the moment. I am considering eventually removing this stub and adding to the burned area or possibly adding it to the shari/burned area by removing the bark and burning the stub to blend in. This would further reduce the perception of thickness at the branch (sub trunk?) junction and prevent the trunk from having a slight look of inverted taper. This would leave me with four major branches (or sub trunks) and I would prefer an uneven number for visual balance.

I used guy wires and “air wiring” (as Colin Lewis calls it), twisting wine into coils around a guide (pen), pulling them out to form a coil and then “screwing” them onto the soft shoots (they wind on well causing minimum damage to the soft shoots). The shoots are then held in a coiled cage and guided in the direction of my choice while hardening off over winter. It looks relatively untidy but efficiently does the job required at this stage. The plant will be moved into a slightly smaller pot than this training pot next spring giving it plenty of room for roots to grow and foliage to fill out next summer.

Jan.