AusBonsai

Hi Jamie a couple of days ago I promised you some pics of my figs. I have been growing these two for as long as anything in my collection and they have as most of my trees suffered from periods of neglect. When I first started growing bonsai there was not a huge amount of information out there and no internet. A lot of the information we had was bad. How things have changed. I reckon it took me about 10 years to really catch on as to how to grow and style these things. Things are certainly easier these days with sites like this and a seemingly endless supply of good information.
Craig

two very nice trees there mate


i like where both are going to how much of a growth season did you say you got? 3 months or so? for only having that much of a growth season you have done well to get the ramification you got on these, being ficus do you have a hot house for the colder months? or they just battle it out?
your temps would drop down pretty low in winter too wouldnt they, have you encountered some die back from the cooler times?

cheers for doing that mate


jamie

Great figs craig!!!

Hi Jamie,
We get about 3 months growing a year and yeah it gets cold. We usually get one good dump of snow a year and the temp can be in single digits for days. I have an unheated poly tunnel I over winter the figs in there. I find that cold is ok so long as they are really dry. What they hate is cold and wet. I have lived here for 10 years before that was in Melb. Glad you like my trees if I paid them more attention they cold be a whole lot better.
With thanks from Craig

lol, if you send them up here they will get plenty of attention in all seriousness though you have done well considering your climate and all that

if you were interested in a swap let me know i dont know what i would have that would be of interest to you though


jamie

Nice Figs Craig. It seems we both do the same things as i also experience minus temperatures. They certainly dont grow as fast down here do they?

Hi Bodhi,
I have just been checking out your coprosma, Seems you are keen on making work for yourself hey.i know these things take a lot of foliage work to get the leaf size down. You sure have a lovely tree on your hands. Don't you love making bonsai from shocking weeds I know I do gives me a real kick to turns pests in to art works.Yep I reckon you and I would have the same battles with low temps and tropical trees I think we may get a bit more rain and yo a bit more frost.
Craig

craigw60 wrote:Hi Bodhi,
I have just been checking out your coprosma, Seems you are keen on making work for yourself hey.i know these things take a lot of foliage work to get the leaf size down. You sure have a lovely tree on your hands. Don't you love making bonsai from shocking weeds I know I do gives me a real kick to turns pests in to art works.Yep I reckon you and I would have the same battles with low temps and tropical trees I think we may get a bit more rain and yo a bit more frost.
Craig

Yeah i am a glutton for punishment. It is interesting with Figs that they can actually come back from a full frost once they are a little more mature. I have experimented with this and found they can become much more frost tolerant with exposure.

First to Jamie,
I am kind of fond of my figs they have been with me for half my life but if I did want to get rid of them I can think of no better place for them to be so will keep that in mind, but in the mean time they will have to suffer cold winters,
Bodhi,
as I said earlier I keep them dry to point of wilting in winter and they seem to handle the cold ok never had any die back. They get a few black spots on the leaves but that goes with there annual defoliate. We don't keep savage frost here as we are right on top of a ridge just solid periods of cold temps mist and rain.
Craig

Figs in Sydney's temperate winter climate get black spots on the leaves mid-end winter. It is a joy when you get a fig that won't do it. As you say, defoliating removes them and we are off for another year's fun with figs.

Hi Mel,
I find the black spots are mainly caused by cold and wet, If you keep your trees dry over winter you may be able to avoid that problem.
Craig

very nice.