Collecting Casuarina & PaperBarks? Advice greatly needed

[Ryan1979b]

Hey all, looking for a bit of advice & also assistance in identifying a native. I am looking at collecting some casuarinas & papaerbarks of some sort. I have a few photo's attached. There are two Casuarinas, one is decent decent size only about 1m tall but have a trunk of about 60-70mm thick. There are a few around so i have to investigate which will be the most appropriate. They have a very course thick needed is this because they are old growth or is it due to the species type. Do you think they will be ok to collect for bonsai? I don't want to dig up something that's not appropriate. The other smaller one is a root sucker I think, wondering what the chances are of cutting & collecting this one as it has great tapper. What is the best way to collect this type of tree? There are a heap of root suckers around that would be brilliant for bonsai but I wasn't sure of how easy they would be to collect. Are they a hardy terr & bounce back or produce new roots easily?

The second trees are small paperbarks, hoping Pup might be of help here. There are some medium one around about 1-1.5 tall with thick long taped trunks & also plenty of small 30-50cm ones. I was wondering if they would be suitable & also there growth habits. Will they produce new shoots of will they be difficult to produce new growth. I would lave to collect a larger one for a single tree & maybe 5 of 7 of the smaller ones to make a forest?

Any help or opinion would be absolutely great. I'm keen to try & get a few Natives into my bonsai collection, some of the ones I have seen on here are stunners.

Cheers all.....

Cas1.jpg

Cas2.jpg

Cas3.jpg

PB1.jpg

PB2.jpg

PB3.jpg

[bodhidharma]

I have collected both and have found them easy to collect. Both are tough. Mind you i did do preparation work on them the year before so i am sure that benefited greatly. If you can i would do it that way. (is it your property?) and success would be assured.

[bodhidharma]

I have collected both and have found them easy to collect. Both are tough. Mind you i did do preparation work on them the year before so i am sure that benefited greatly. If you can i would do it that way. (is it your property?) and success would be assured.

[Ryan1979b]

What sort of prep work did you do on then to make the transplant easier. There not on my property but are in a ditch on the side of a busy road, not many people would dare to stop in this area so they are pretty safe to do work on & not be disturbed.

[bodhidharma]

I cut through half of their large roots and fertilized them and then covered them back over then repeated the process on the other half three months later. When i lifted them i chainsawed the bottom flat and repotted into a growing box. this is the tree now.

[Petra]

What sort of prep work did you do on then to make the transplant easier. There not on my property but are in a ditch on the side of a busy road, not many people would dare to stop in this area so they are pretty safe to do work on & not be disturbed.

Ummm ah ha, doesnt give you the rights to rape the highway then. Specially in Newcastle. Fines are higher there.

[MelaQuin]

Rape or preservation? Never heard that Casurinas were any where near the endangered species list... around my way they could be called pests.

If it is in a ditch presumably the soil around the roots would be damp which should assist you as feeder roots could be near the trunk.

Yes, the mela will shoot back on old wood. I'd suggest putting both collected and repotted trees in water trays while they recover. Actually, you are probably not collecting them, merely doing a removal to a more convenient location.

[Ryan1979b]

mmmm..never thought I would see that word in a bonsai forum,I guess thats one way of putting it.They are directly under the fence line of a farm which I can collect no worries. they have already ben considerably damages as they are constantly eaten by the cattle on the property. I don't think I am removing an national treasues here. plus I will take care in reomve the selected trees, I don't want to be wasting my time for nothing.

Cheers Melaquin...I think I will do that, the soil is reasonably wet where they are so it should be fine. the small sucker plant has a root of about 25mm thick either side but had a fair few fine roots sprouting as well so it should hold out. (cas3)

Cheers