AusBonsai

Hi,
First time posting here, but I’ve already learnt a lot reading through the archives. I’m on the other side of the Indian Ocean in Johannesburg, but we use a lot of Aussie species in landscape gardening and bonsai here. I have a few Port Jackson Fig truncheon cuttings I took in Spring, and I won this Bottlebrush sapling on the club raffle yesterday. It’s not really big enough to be interesting yet, so while it’s still flexible, I raffiad and wired it before bending it as far as it would go. In spring, I’ll up-pot it, fertilize and see what sort of growth I get over the next season.

peterleroux wrote:

619D18BA-44DE-4595-ACEC-375573503509.jpeg

Hi,
First time posting here, but I’ve already learnt a lot reading through the archives. I’m on the other side of the Indian Ocean in Johannesburg, but we use a lot of Aussie species in landscape gardening and bonsai here. I have a few Port Jackson Fig truncheon cuttings I took in Spring, and I won this Bottlebrush sapling on the club raffle yesterday. It’s not really big enough to be interesting yet, so while it’s still flexible, I raffiad and wired it before bending it as far as it would go. In spring, I’ll up-pot it, fertilize and see what sort of growth I get over the next season.

I saw your post on Reddit this morning. I was wondering whether you just wanted to get some shape into the trunk if if you had a specific style in mind.

Sent from my LG-H870DS using Tapatalk

Hi Peter
You need to work on your wiring. The coils are almost at 90 degrees and they will have very little holding power like that. Try to get them closer to 45 degrees in relation to the stem, or a bit less, so as to make the wiring more effective. However leave it as is on this tree, don't redo it.

quodlibet_ens wrote:

peterleroux wrote:

619D18BA-44DE-4595-ACEC-375573503509.jpeg

Hi,
First time posting here, but I’ve already learnt a lot reading through the archives. I’m on the other side of the Indian Ocean in Johannesburg, but we use a lot of Aussie species in landscape gardening and bonsai here. I have a few Port Jackson Fig truncheon cuttings I took in Spring, and I won this Bottlebrush sapling on the club raffle yesterday. It’s not really big enough to be interesting yet, so while it’s still flexible, I raffiad and wired it before bending it as far as it would go. In spring, I’ll up-pot it, fertilize and see what sort of growth I get over the next season.

I saw your post on Reddit this morning. I was wondering whether you just wanted to get some shape into the trunk if if you had a specific style in mind.

Sent from my LG-H870DS using Tapatalk

No Specific style at this point- this tree is still so thin that there is a lot to come before I start making those decisions, but putting as much shape into it as i can now give me more to work with later. There will probably be at least one trunk chop down the line as well to improve the taper

treeman wrote:Hi Peter
You need to work on your wiring. The coils are almost at 90 degrees and they will have very little holding power like that. Try to get them closer to 45 degrees in relation to the stem, or a bit less, so as to make the wiring more effective. However leave it as is on this tree, don't redo it.

You’re right Mike- this is rather sloppy. There’s a double coil on the bottom part, so it’s not _quite_ as flat as it looks at first, but it is too far from ideal, I admit I was in a bit of a hurry when putting this on.

Wiring is one of the most neglected practices in Bonsai. Which is most unfortunate. Good wiring practice is the difference between a good Bonsai and well a piece of wood.
You should always plan your wiring like all aspects of Bonsai.

Just saying PUP