AusBonsai

Thanks Gavin

I see they are popular in my area in peoples gardens, but I guess pot culture is different. They only cost $2 so its no loss if they dont make it, and if they do, (doubt it from what I hear) I will pass on my experiences for others to hopefully gain from.

Its been a long time since I updated this post.

Once of the birch's I planted on a nice rock and it was doing great but then suffered a lot of dieback and sadly went to the big pot in the sky.

The other seedling from this post is still alive and kicking albeit a little neglected. I planted it in a colander about 7 years ago and it was severely root bound.

It has really good nebari, and will make a nice shohin once it develops some more branching and ramification. Lets hope this one stays alive

That's really nice nebari on the birch, hope you can develop the tree with some ramification. Re the bleeding of birch trees, it should not distress it too much. In Europe birch trees are regularly tapped like Canadian maples to obtain the sap which is drunk as a refreshing juice. This is done by drilling a hole in the tree and hanging a container under the hole. It can be done to a mature tree about once every 3 years without harm to the tree. A large mature tree yields over a liter in a couple of days.
Cheers, Frank.

Bit of a late update (again).

This photo is from October 2023 and is the latest photo I have on my phone. (I am bored at work updating bonsai threads)
It has since been potted in to a slightly bigger pot and is going gangbusters!

I have a lovely little walsall pot in mind for it come late winter. If I remember I will update photos when I get home

As promised.....

Photos as of today. I plan on potting in the smaller Walsall pot this coming winter

I like this one. Looks like the bark changed to white around the 10-12 year mark? I wonder how much of the colour change on these is age, and how much is size dependent.

Promethius wrote: ↑March 18th, 2025, 4:59 pm I like this one. Looks like the bark changed to white around the 10-12 year mark? I wonder how much of the colour change on these is age, and how much is size dependent.

The photo in the colander from 2020 had white bark around 8 years from me getting it as tube stock. Id assume the tube stock is a year or 2 old so I think you're spot on. I'm not sure if size has much to do with it though, I would think it is all age. But then again, I am no expert.

The nebari is starting to get some black bark coming through too.