AusBonsai

Out and about walking the dog , or should i say he was walking me . I have found what i believe is a nice patch of Woolly Tea Tree Leptospermum Polygalyfolium or Silky Tea Tree Leptospermum Lanigerum . I have searched the net and i will go with Woolly Tea Tree . These were chopped off just above ground level or slashed and smashed and have regrown into very interesting bases . These were collected in 5 minutes this morning and will be trimmed and used for trainers until they fill out and develop more foliage , i have collected around 8 different styles so i will do a progression as i find the time to play around with them .

Cheers Alpineart

Looks like great material Alpine I need to invest in some tea trees, very appealing native.

Alpine looks very simular to some of mine and my neigbours garden tee trees?

Nice dig out mate!! I look forward to see what you do with them

VelvetSicklid wrote:Looks like great material Alpine I need to invest in some tea trees, very appealing native.

Hi VS , Gotta start catching those W.A blokes or at the least chasing the local material . This is the first time i have come across chop topped Tea Tree .

Cheers Alpine

Matthew wrote:Alpine looks very simular to some of mine and my neigbours garden tee trees?

Hi Mathew , mate i think its a different subspecies to your garden tree , from memory they have soft foliage . Its hard to get a positive I.D until they begin to bud up and flower , this i think has a 5 petal white flower but so does the Silky Tea Tree . It would be the same species as on that Mountain in front of your place .

Cheers Alpine

Barry1 wrote:Nice dig out mate!! I look forward to see what you do with them

Hi Barry1 , mate i ripped into a few of them today , all this spare time at the expense of the reno' , cook not happy , but she loves the literati . More browny points required to finish both jobs .

Cheers Alpine

I hope they live diggin natives in that cold , Rippas if they do !!!

anttal63 wrote:I hope they live diggin natives in that cold , Rippas if they do !!!

Hi anttal63 , mate i have had no luck with natives , but these are noxious weeds and i grow weeds real well . I have had plenty to do with tea tree , rip them out and throw them in water and they grow . If only other natives were that easy . I have searched high and low for decent trunks but most up this way are very ordinary , these are very nice and some of them are Bonsai to be had as the skidders and sky cranes /flying foxes are moving across the plantations , clear felling again , then the dozers move in with mulcher / crushers ready to plant again so all will be destroyed .More chance of survival here i hope .

Cheers Alpine

looking good man. cant wait to see what you do with them.

Hi Fiveoffive , best looking trunks i have collected in a long time and easy at that . I will post a couple up tomorrow , already hacked a few back, oops trimmed and styled them .

Cheers Alpine

i thought as much Alpine ! then you do what ya gotta do and may the bonsai gods be with ya !!!

Sorry Alpinart, I've heard others have trouble gathering wild leptospermum and I've killed one - what's with the "rip them out and throw them in water"?? They seem to be bare rooted - how long do they stay in the water, and are you "flooding" them when they get into potting mix, until they establish? Let us in on the witchcraft.

Gavin

GavinG wrote:Sorry Alpinart, I've heard others have trouble gathering wild leptospermum and I've killed one - what's with the "rip them out and throw them in water"?? They seem to be bare rooted - how long do they stay in the water, and are you "flooding" them when they get into potting mix, until they establish? Let us in on the witchcraft.

Gavin

Hi GavinG, mate i don't pussy foot around when i collect anything . I've heard a lot in my time 50 % of it is bull shari but you never never know if you don't give it a go . Mate i bare root pines when collecting , how many guru's would cringe at the thought . These were basically ripped out of the ground in less that 10 seconds . the big ones are pushed around to see where the stay roots are , 4 hits with the axe to severe the shallow stay roots push them over and the tap root snaps and lift them out . The smaller ones are just pulled out . Bare rooted all the way home ,then drop into water as in the blue sand shells or a wheel barrow .

They stay there until i find time to pot them up . Then they will go back into water for a few days out of the water for a couple and back into it again . i have 5 collected 2 weeks ago still sitting in water not seasol or the likes . just water . If i get the time i will pot them up in a week or two . No witch craft just common sense they are tea tree and water lovers , the thrive in swamps and river beds and banks .These are very shallow rooted plants the tap root can be snapped by pushing the plant to about 45 degree's , the roots are about 20-50mm down searching for small amounts of water not deep seeking like a gum tree. If they droop in the first couple of days then they are bound to have major die back of drop dead .

All these trunks to less than 15 minutes to collect and carry to the ute . No pussy footing around when it comes to collecting . Cheers Alpineart