How Many Oz Native Bonsai?

[Ash]

Platinum my Xanthostemon are both spending some development time l in the ground and are thus not that photogenic. When I am sufficiently humble to present them I will let you know
cheers
Ash

[Steven]

I never got around to voting or posting in this one when it was live so I'm reserecting

I have just counted mine at the office and have 69 keepers here. 47 native and 22 others - about 70% native.
There are about 100 trunks, cuttings, whips etc at home and at a guess 80 to 90% would be Aussie.

A very interesting poll Mr Fly! Thanks for putting it together mate.

Regards,
Steven

[Ryan1979b]

At the start of this spring this year I had 1 Native A PJ fig, and now I have 10 lol...the collection slightly grew and I have tow airlayers on a bottle brush still going. I think there almost ready to come off. So fingers crossed that it will be 12 in a few weeks. its probably 50 of my collection now

Cheers

Ryan

[Greth]

I think a lot of us have been inspired to try more natives since Ausbonsai started up, but theres a bit of lag time. My 10% is gonna greatly increase, I have some things to layer, some to lift, new things are put in the garden which will yield cuttings or layers once they get going this year.
Im trending more towards them with all your encouragement, especial thanks to Pup and Fly,and of course Steven for all your hard work, but most of my achievements are only in my mind just now, will be different in a year's time!

[MattA]

I have done a rough head count of everything i have. Almost all are at the in training stage with none really counting as finished bonsai but its about the 50% mark. This will go up over the coming years as i cull out alot of non native stock.

Out of curiosity i would be interested to know what percentage of trees people have that have been bought as partially/fully trained to self grown or collected. I now have only a handful(under10%) that have not been started or collected by myself, also why none are at a showable stage yet.

Matt

[Greth]

I did start typing a reply Matt, but it quickly turned into a can of worms comparing species, different methods of collection, different climates, my head started to hurt very bad when I thought about it.

Ask someone nearby whats the quickest way to get a nice tree without spending a fortune.

Mine are nursery stock or collected, I have airlayers and more collecting planned, but not until the season gets a little cooler and more amenable. I do not spend more than $10 on a potensai, and the quality of my stock reflects that limitation. I have not been discouraged by the time and effort involved, actually I love the challenge of finding cheap stuff which has potential, and enough time to try.
Suits my personality to try an expensive hobby cheaply, lol, maybe I like beating my head against a brick wall. Next job will probably be making diamonds from charcoal, prob from bonsai firewood of aged herb plants. Hmm, rosemary scented diamonds.
Im never gonna have a $1000 tree, but would love to get some of my cheap stock up above $100 in nominal worth, some is close now, Im sure its possible.
I do not own a 'bought advanced bonsai' have not got any 'collected finished' my best is still a year away from being something to be proud of. The worst are soon to be firewood.

[Pup]

Matt 80 percent of my natives are collected as we can in WA with a licence from the depart of of CALM. The other 20 percent are made up of bought and traded.
I am always willing to trade a good exotic for a good native.
One tree I bought from a friend a couple of years ago was paid for then, I on sold the pot so the cost to me was very low.

I have a lot of struck cuttings of natives going at the moment. As I now concentrate on trees at or less than 700 mm high and at a weight less that 40 kilos .

I have some miniatures under 4cm most are under 23cm.

Cheers Pup

[MattA]

Greth in days gone by i had the money & often did buy advanced stock, they have all now been sold, given away, on traded or lost to misadventure. Nowdays its not about the money but the joys of seeing something i have worked on from scratch. I am past the impatient stage & now figure i have atleast 30 good growing yrs (touch shari) health wise so am happy to take the long road, also very necessary with the larger sizes i prefer. I guess as my trees start getting closer to finished i will be looking at selling or trading some, tho its much harder for me to part with those that i have put the time & effort into.

Pup i would love more minis, especially if i could get them as good as yours. Alas the littluns dont last with me. One day when you share your secrets to keeping them alive i may start getting back into them. Speaking of, most of the cuttings i took from the hokkaido look to have taken. It seems those that had more old wood are the best strikers for me. Am not the best at raising cuttings & seed stock. Get my shadehouse rebuilt & we shall see.

Matt

[craigw60]

I would like to throw a spanner in the works. What is a native ? Many of you out there have been born here in Australia and probably several generations before you. You would consider yourself to be Australians but the plants our ancestors bought with them are not. How long does a species have to grow here before it becomes a native ? If i buy an obscure banksia that only grows in one location of WA, is that a native to me here in Olinda. I love to grow australian plants and believe I have done a lot to promote their cultivation around the vic. clubs. but really with bonsai I now believe that good material is good material and I don't care if it comes from Australia or timbuktu. There was a time when i considered growing only native plants and I am very glad now that I didn't go down that path.
A lot of people in the enviromental movements now say a native is only native if it is indigenous to your area.
Craig

[MattA]

For regeneration work its advisable to go with locally endemic species as some of our natives are now becoming weeds grown out of there locale eg Cootamundra wattle. To me a native is anything that naturally grew here prior to white man. Alot of introduced plants have adapted & naturalised but it doesnt make them native. Maybe in a couple thousand years or so when there origins have been forgotten we will call them native. By then who knows what the flora & fauna of australia may look like. By then we may have finally realised we are just animals & gone back to the wild life... that would be nice to see.

[Steven]

I would like to throw a spanner in the works. What is a native?

G'day Craig,

For my piece of mind, the following reference from dictionary.com clarifies it nicely;

Originating naturally in a particular country or region, as animals or plants.

Regards,
Steven

[craigw60]

I understand your point Mat, but do you consider yourself to be a native ?

[MattA]

I understand your point Mat, but do you consider yourself to be a native ?

Hell no, i am of english blood & even tho i was raised here i still have alot of british traits. I do however consider myself to be an aussie, coz to me an aussie is someone who makes australia home because they want to. I have been o/s & nothing compares to the aussie way of life.

[Shannon]

60% for me......... only because over half my collection is QSL figs

[craigw60]

Hi Steven,
Did you originate here ? i didn't I am definitely an exotic.