AusBonsai

This little Calli viminalis I purchased as nursery stock sometime around Jan/Feb this year, it was far more of a rounded shrub than much else at the time and quite pot bound in the nursery pot so I gave it a trim and put it in a colander to recover. It sat in the pot sulking and not doing a great deal for a few months and I got paranoid with my watering and cut back which was a mistake as we headed in to summer and it must of got too dry and proceeded to brown off almost completely aside from the tips of about two leaves which stayed green. I took this as a sign of life and figured to keep the water up and hope for the best.

Well it has bounced back extremely well over summer and has plenty of new growth which I'm chuffed about.
It's not exactly a huge tree, would of been good for the shohin comp but alas it wasn't to be. My plan is to grow it out for the rest of the year for the roots to develop some and then come spring to cut back some of the unwanted trunk and branches to give it some shape, no idea if it will flower this year but that is not too important, would be nice though. I'm certainly open to any advice and such, as always it is much appreciated.

The pic isn't much and it has come along a bit more since it was taken so I could probably update it.

Lucky it is a callistemon. They can survive root pruning in winter but lots of other natives will not. Aussie natives seem to prefer to have roots pruned when the weather is warmer - late spring through summer seems to suit most and they will start growing back almost straight away.

Neil

Looks very much like a few of mine that I have on the benches
They love lots of water and a free draining mix.

Can be cut back hard and they bounce back

Ken

Hi Starfox.
Here is a really good thread on growing Callistemon as bonsai. I've been following the advise within and my tree has never missed a beat.

shibui wrote:Lucky it is a callistemon. They can survive root pruning in winter but lots of other natives will not. Aussie natives seem to prefer to have roots pruned when the weather is warmer - late spring through summer seems to suit most and they will start growing back almost straight away.

Neil

kcpoole wrote:Looks very much like a few of mine that I have on the benches
They love lots of water and a free draining mix.

Can be cut back hard and they bounce back

Ken

Waltron wrote:Hi Starfox.
Here is a really good thread on growing Callistemon as bonsai. I've been following the advise within and my tree has never missed a beat.

Thanks all for the comments.
Yeah I think I will definitely hold off until I'm sure the weather has warmed up before cutting it back even if it would be ok, we had a false start to spring and then it pretty much went straight to summer so it stalled for a while and that is when it dried out with the sudden raise in temps but at least now I have the watering worked out.

Wish I had more on my benches too Ken, think I will commandeer a couple from our next lot of purchases.

That is an excellent thread Waltron, I have been reading that before and keep coming back to it. Finally added it to my bookmarks now.