AusBonsai

I've just lucked onto a young Grevillea australis (a Tasmanian variety) at Yarralumla nursery in Canberra. They seem to change over varieties quite quickly. Will Fletcher posted a very good example in the Native competition last year, but I didn't think I'd ever see one over this side of the ditch. (I can't work out links - just do a search.)

It's interesting because the needles are small, and the flowers, for a Grevillea, are discreet, perfect for the scale we are working on.

There's not a lot on the forum on how to grow the small-leaf grevilleas (plenty on the galumphy robusta) - anyone have tips on potting, bare-rooting, pruning, wiring, shaping and the usual?

Gavin

Hey Gavin,

I dont have an australis but do have a small leaf hybrid (Allyds Pride/Bride or something along those lines, no tag & nursery thought it was a Hebe!) In general I have found Grevillea to be a bit temeramental about root work so less is more when working on them, reducing depth slowly over time & cutting out pie wedges for maintenance. Do not bare root! I have never wired one & wouldnt try to take them below the horizontal unless its a groundcover variety. Prune hard after the spring flush of flowers & you will get a mass of buds from base to tip.

Really free draining soil is a must. The growth is strong & they love a good drink & feed (mine stands in a shallow saucer & is fed heavily with Osmocote Native. Would get a pic for you but it was recently pruned & defoliated by a nasty cattlepiddler in just one night (it climbed over from my mandarin where i was happy to let him live, if only he had stayed there).

Good luck with it & look forward to seeing where you take it.

Matt

I vote for being temperamental after root work. I have lost one of my comp trees after repotting, Ddi not think I took off too much tho

Ken

I have been thinking about the whole subject of root work on grevillea overnight & what the hell i have enough time to repot & see how she responds. I also have a good mate who will be willing to carry on the experiment, so today i will get in & see what she has done over the last 18mths and set it up to see what we can get away with in the future.

Ok so here is the tree before any work. It has thumped away new buds like crazy since it had its overnight visitor. This was in a 15cm nursery pot & very rootbound, I removed the soil from around the nebari & then chopped about half off the bottom. It was repotted into straight Akadama. Out of its pot you can see the original soil still remaining and the nice healthy feeders below. I have removed as much of the original soil as i could in this repot & found quite a few dead roots in the core along with some nice new feeders. I have tried to keep as many feeders in the lower part as possible & am hoping clearing out the old soil will encourage a few more new ones to start closer to the base. It has been repotted into a mix of Aka basalt chip & a little potting mix. It was fun trying to get the soil back in around all the roots & hope I didnt break too many feeders in the process. It has been put back on the bench in its usual spot (full sun) & we will see how it goes. Matt

Many thanks, Matt. I'm taking things gently with mine...

Gavin

GavinG wrote:Many thanks, Matt. I'm taking things gently with mine...

Gavin

Wisely so, I went fairly hard on this one last autumn & it took a fair while to come back. I am hoping the different season may help it along better. If it dies we will all know it was pushed too far, it lives we learn something more.

Reptition is the father of learning In bonsai, I would say thriving or dying is the father of learning

Keep us posted. I am looking forward to see how it progresses over the year.