[withdrawn][Damian79] Banksia Marginata

[Damian79]

Banksia Marginata
Cost $3
290mm high

banksia m 1.jpg

Banksia m 2.jpg

Purchased from local tree/shrub grower.

[squizzy]

Hey Damo. I've killed two of these now and don't think I will try again. From my experience they don't like being cut back hard. They don't like over or under watering. A lot of care needed.

Squizz

[Grant Bowie]

Oh block your ears! I won't hear anything bad said about Banksia. You just need to get the hang of them and; like all natives, and they are a breeze.

They do better away from the coast so you should be OK.

Grant

[Stewart_Toowoomba]

I've got three banksias and they are all powering ahead. I have given them all a big head chop and they are just popping out leaves and branches around the base. Not the marginata though - i have ameula ?? and the serrata...

good luck - will need to be well fed to get some thickness going. I am fast likening the banksia family as up there as one of my favourites.

Stew

[Damian79]

LOL thanks guys
Squizz, ill give it a go and see what I can do. More than likely itll end up like yours but we'll see.

[squizzy]

I hope not Damo but as I said I have struggled with marginata.

Not at all an attack on banksias Grant as I have about half a dozen ( and I love them)but marginata has been a big fail for me to date. I am near the coast though is that an issue? Is it the humidity? Sorry for clogging your thread damo but maybe this will help anyway if Grant can give us some inside info???????

Squizz

[Damian79]

All good Squizz
I'll use any help I can get. I'm about 30km from the coast but it's cold here most of the time so humidity isn't an issue for me. I'll keep a thread going to document my efforts as I noticed there is very little info in the board about this breed of banksia.
Hopefully others will find it useful as well.

[Grant Bowie]

I hope not Damo but as I said I have struggled with marginata.

Not at all an attack on banksias Grant as I have about half a dozen ( and I love them)but marginata has been a big fail for me to date. I am near the coast though is that an issue? Is it the humidity? Sorry for clogging your thread damo but maybe this will help anyway if Grant can give us some inside info???????

Squizz

No worries.

The B marginata seem to grow naturally close to Sydney(Bowral for instance) but seem to like the drier (humidity)and cooler altitudes and areas rather than coastal. They are for instance the only Banksia that grows naturally in the ACT. They also seem to grow better over the great dividing range and very large trees can be found near Albury for instance. They are extremely variable from seed and I would usually toss out those that don't perform to concentrate an the more vigorous plants.

Cheers,

grant

[squizzy]

Thanks Grant

[Damian79]

Up date 1 on my banksia.
Really not sure what to do with this one.

banksia 4.jpg

[Andrew Legg]

Up date 1 on my banksia.
Really not sure what to do with this one.

banksia 4.jpg

Damian,

Sometimes one needs to give a tree a good hard look and ask some difficult questions. What did you see in this? Is it not worth banging it in the ground and letting it grow on for a few years? If you are honest with yourself, can you see a bonsai in this? I can't.

Cheers mate.

[Damian79]

Sometimes one needs to give a tree a good hard look and ask some difficult questions. What did you see in this? Is it not worth banging it in the ground and letting it grow on for a few years? If you are honest with yourself, can you see a bonsai in this? I can't.

As much as it pains me to say, I absolutely agree with you Andrew.
This is a valuable lesson for a beginner that, not every thing you think to begin with will make a good tree, will. With experience I guess comes the ability to recognize potential in a tree and bring it to life.
That is what makes this comp so important to beginners such as myself. Hard lessons are only learnt through experience.
I appreciate your honesty Andrew

[Andrew Legg]

Sometimes one needs to give a tree a good hard look and ask some difficult questions. What did you see in this? Is it not worth banging it in the ground and letting it grow on for a few years? If you are honest with yourself, can you see a bonsai in this? I can't.

As much as it pains me to say, I absolutely agree with you Andrew.
This is a valuable lesson for a beginner that, not every thing you think to begin with will make a good tree, will. With experience I guess comes the ability to recognize potential in a tree and bring it to life.
That is what makes this comp so important to beginners such as myself. Hard lessons are only learnt through experience.
I appreciate your honesty Andrew

No point in being here if I'm not going to be honest mate. Stroking egos for the sake of stroking egos is not my cuppa.

Good stuff mate. The most important lesson a beginner can learn is to recognise decent material and know what they can and can't grow with relative ease. The point of material like this here is to learn the properties of the tree - potting, back-budding, environment, watering etc etc. One does not need a good bonsai design to learn these, and rough stock has it's value in this process, but as this is a design compo, I think there's a lot of thinking that a lot of folk need to do about the practicality of their material!

We need to start asking ourselves about what we see in a tree and where we think the tree is headed from a bonsai design perspective before we spend money buying and trying to design it. Back to basics - nebari - trunk line - branch structure - suitability for my climate - what do I see in a tree when I first look at it? What made me buy it? Be picky!

At the end of the day, you now have this tree, so if I were you, I'd plant it into a big box/container and grow it on. Pot it. Air layer one branch. Cut another right back. Heck, you could even play around with a graft or two. Learn whether it's a decent species for bonsai, and then if you have some success with getting the physical side working, at least next time you see one you can have a critical look at the tree's good/bad points and possible design path knowing whether or not it's gonna grow and thrive in your care.

Cheers mate,

Andrew

[matty-j]

hey damian

i agree with andrew that this little tree hasn't got to much going for it AT THE MOMENT!!
dont give up on this one yet, its early days! i see this tree as a blank canvas you can take this any where you want, informal, slanting, cascading its all up to you, it has no branches but all that just means you will need to grow some

if this were my tree, i would take it out of that pot and slip it into something bigger so it will put on lots of growth in spring and change the planting angle and lean it to the left then i would remove the left hand trunk and use the right hand one it come of nicely with the base and has some taper and wire it up as the new leader give it some movement, once it starts putting on in spring feed it and re asses and i think you will find a tree in there somewhere!!

cheers
matt

[Damian79]

Admin please withdraw.
no progress worthy of comp.