AusBonsai

Having a thought the other day about two of my favourite garden Melaleucas. The big Nesophilas that grow around the South West corner with their gnarled trunks and amazing canopies and the attractive little Heugliis are a constant in my garden to provide shade and something nice to look at.
Has anyone attempted to see how they would go in Bonsai form? There are lots of other Melaleucas mentioned here but I haven't seen anything about these two?

Hello Kellya,

I have seen many bonsai of M nesphila before. They presumably can tolerate bonsai life.
Funny you mention this post, I only just acquired tubestocks of both of these species a few months ago. I've been holding off until warmer weather to repot.
The heugelii looks lovely with its foliage and bark and also perked my interest.

Oh wow, that's great news! Thanks for the information and great to hear that there are others out there who appreciate these two Melaleucas as much as I do. They really do hold a magical quality for me, reminding me of the rugged coast, surf and harsh conditions of the South West. There is an awesome native nursery near me where I usually get my plants from.
I have been reading the posts on here for a few months now and always get something new each time I come back! Thanks!

I find nesophila a bit of a pain to work with. Takes a long time to develop a nice root system, they don't shoot back from leafless stems so they will take a long time to thicken because you can't cut them back hard after letting them grow unless you have some leaves. But I will persist with them because I love them.

Good tip regarding not cutting back too harshly. I am used to tip pruning in the garden to create a fuller looking tree, will obviously have to tread carefully when I decide to try a Bonsai version!
I have a few 'surplus' that have been growing for a few years in my garden. Do they go OK digging up and cutting the roots a little to pot?

I have no experience with Nesophila apart from seeing a number of examples as bonsai at exhibitions etc, so definitely have a go. I did airlayer a M. Heugelii a few years back... see this thread
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=19321
I can’t say I have yet worked it, really just been keeping it alive and gaining a new root system but it might be time this year to evaluate. Great flowers on them (at a scale that works nicely for bonsai), although mine hasn’t bloomed since the airlayer ordeal, and I find they bud back pretty well on the bits I have chopped. The bark is great too and the unusual foliage is quite fine ... I think they have potential as an interesting tree.
Good luck!

I have found nesophila to do well here in the humid summers of the brisbane climate. Has handled pot culture well. The purple pom pom flowers are a great site.

Would be awesome to have the climate you guys have up there! The South West has gone through a wet and windy winter and it looks like extending into at least the first few weeks of spring. Bring on the warmer weather!

Photos gentlemen please, both wild and potted. Also Rory,where did you get them over this side? I haven't seen them.

Gavin

GavinG wrote:Photos gentlemen

Ahem!!! Not all of us are gentlemen!! Although I do hope for all of us to be gentle!

GavinG wrote:Photos gentlemen please, both wild and potted. Also Rory,where did you get them over this side? I haven't seen them.

Gavin

Hi Gav,

There is a very small but great nursery up here on the central coast called:
The Wildflower Place, at Erina Heights.

https://m.facebook.com/TheWildflowerPlace/

I’ve got some awesome things from them over the years.
They’re not cheap but they specialize in having rare and hard to find native material.

So many different Mels, Leptos, eucs, banksia etc etc.
But a tone of so many different genus I never knew existed.

Thinking about digging up a little Huegelii today and having a crack. Tried taking a photo on my iPad but the file size was too big? Any tech wizards have ideas to shrink the size?

Hello Kellya,

AusBonsai has a limit of 1MB per image, so we all must reduce our image's size before attaching to a thread.
A good all round file size for images is around 500KB.
A simple free app for resizing images is 'Image Resizer'. Once loaded onto your phone / computer it's as simple as right clicking on the image, select Image Resizer, then select a size around 800px x 600px.
On a Windows PC i use Paint, either will work fine.

Kevin

kellya wrote:Thinking about digging up a little Huegelii today and having a crack. Tried taking a photo on my iPad but the file size was too big? Any tech wizards have ideas to shrink the size?

Hey Kellya. A couple of additional ideas - if you use the Tapatalk - just attach the photo from your iPhone and it’ll upload. Or - ‘export’ out of Photos app on your iPad to another folder on your iPad - export in jpeg format, medium quality, large size - then up load from that folder when you are on AusBonsai. Hope that helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dansai - I stand corrected! Or rather, slightly grovel. If you sign with a name, things are clearer. I was mainly targeting Rory and Treeman, whose blokeriness is undoubted.

(So, photos?)

Gavin