AusBonsai

On 29th March 08, The Central Coast Bonsai Club hosted a workshop on planting out a native bush scene. The demonstrator was Dennis McDermott. I hope you can download it. Photos to follow.
Penny.

Photos of the workshop.
Penny.

After the workshop and lunch, several members brought in their trees for advice and help (and maybe wish they hadn't).

Another victim.

Thanks Penny!

Do you know what species of eucalypt that is?

JayC

Yet another victim.

Hi Jayc. I thought it was a Sideroxylon (which has a different name now) Dennis wasn't sure. You could ask him?
Penny.

If, after reading about the workshop, you want a Sandpaper Fig, Daley's Rare Fruit Nursery has tubestock ($3). I'm not sure if they have larger sizes in this one.
Penny.

This workshop was at my home. The tree was identified as a Euc. sideroxylon rosea

Hi Ash. I've been wondering how to contact you. I enjoyed your demo at the Gosford exhibition but you were too fast for photos. Would you consider doing a demo for the Newcastle club? For those of you who didn't see this demo, Ash showed us how to do a Root-Over-Rock style of a eucalyptus and it was very impressive.
Penny.

mudlarkpottery wrote:Ash showed us how to do a Root-Over-Rock style of a eucalyptus and it was very impressive.

I didn't see it yet I am very impressed. Does anyone have a picture of this Euc over rock?

S.

i'de very much like to see it too

It was a great demo. Ash had a couple of trees which, he said, he neglected so they would go into a dormant state. The leaves looked dry and crispy. One of the trees had been washed completely free of soil - this is the one he worked on. Ash then cut it back to a stick (no foliage) and arranged the roots over the rock and potted it up. I didn't take in much after the decapitation of the tree - I was still getting over the shock of seeing the bare roots. From what I did take in, Ash explained that you send the tree into a state of dormancy, then you can do almost anything to it. After the work is finished, you give it the proper care which brings it out of the dormant state and it sends out new shoots again. He also said that the leaf size reduces very easily.
Penny.

These were not the first eucalypt trees to get this treatment. I performed this at the Gosford show to highlight we can do anything with a native that you can with say an azalea.

Both trees are performing as expected. The one that got the "hammering" in the demo has, as of last week, backshot right near the base and is now growing rather quickly. I have no photos of the tree being bare rooted and root pruned but as Penny stated it was choped back to only a couple of inch and at leat 80% of roots were removed (Ive seen our Gums commercially propagated by cuttings in the States so why not?)

I will post a photo of new growth as soon as i buy some batteries for my camera.
Im going to leave it buried with the rock till next spring and then ill be interested in commissioning a unique slab with Pennys interesting lichen finish to display it.
Always glad to do demos (Contact ashleyhbrown@hotmail.com)

Somebody should have given you batteries for Christmas. I can't wait to see progress photos of that tree especially after seeing you massacre it at the show.
I'd be happy to make a pot for it. In the next couple of weeks, I'll be making some large freeform moulds to make bigger pots with interesting textures. You might like these ones better.
Penny.