AusBonsai

I watched Better Homes and Gardens from Floriade when I saw a glimpse of the redgum bonsai tree. What a fantastic sight it was. Has anyone had any success with one of these and if so what sort of conditions are they grown in?? I would imagine that they would be a bit different from your normal bonsai. Would love one of these but know nothing about them. Would love some insight into them. Many thanks

hi, For River Red Gum bonsai FlyBri is your man. I don't have a link for you but he has some great trees, try doing a search for his posts on the ausbonsai forum page.

marleey73 wrote:I watched Better Homes and Gardens from Floriade when I saw a glimpse of the redgum bonsai tree. What a fantastic sight it was. Has anyone had any success with one of these and if so what sort of conditions are they grown in?? I would imagine that they would be a bit different from your normal bonsai. Would love one of these but know nothing about them. Would love some insight into them. Many thanks

do a search in the native formus here for Redgum and yu will find a few posts from Fly withhis trees, Great sucess with Eucalyptus happening

Ken

Thanks so much. Did you see the redgum? Fantastic. I would love one. Will have a look many thanks for your help.

I think the Floriade "Red Gum" might have been the Angophora costata at the NBPCA - if you search "Ted's Angophora" on AusBonsai you should find it. A number of growers have found the large leaves of costata a problem, but Ted's is a large tree to start with (around 1.3m.), and has been pinched tightly for many years, so the growth is small. It's one of the great gum bonsai. Camaldulensis (River red, FlyBri) and scoparia (Wollangara, Steven) both have smaller leaves, nicholii (PeterH) has small leaves and coarse bark, and crenulata, cinerea and vernicosa (from Tasmania) have quite distinctive leaf shapes, colours and habits. It seems that either you treat them like junipers (gentle 1/3 root reduction in spring) or kamikaze - bare-root, slash-and-burn in the hot weather when growth has stopped (December-ish) - free-draining mix, and flood them after with lots of water. Best of luck. It's a great challenge (and one that all growers should face) - to make your gum tree bonsai look like a gum tree, and a bonsai.

Ted's Angophora has seasonal bark-peeling changes like no northern-hemisphere tree, and is always graceful. Please come and see it in Canberra - it's much better in the bark.

Gavin