A few Australian Natives...

[Ryceman3]

It's a pretty good time of year down here to be working on quite a few of our native trees in Australia. I have been doing just that and thought I would post a few pictures here of some of them that I have been shaping over the last 5 years or so. Most (all I think) started out as tiny seedlings when I got them so you can see, depending on species obviously, they are capable of developing at a pretty quick pace.
Hope you enjoy looking at something maybe a little different!


First up ... Leptospermum Continentale (Prickly Tea Tree)


... and a trunk detail of above ...


Next is another Lepto, although the exact kind is up for debate ... maybe L. Lanigerum but not convinced.


... and a trunk detail of above tree. I got some bends in pretty early on this one when it was VERY thin ...


Here's a Black SheOak (Allocasuarina Littoralis) that is probably only 3.5 years or so from seed I think ...

I'm turning it into some kind of baby Bunjin/Literati/whatever ... I think the "aerial" shot below does a better job of showing the trunk contours ...


And lastly (for now) another Black SheOak which is a bit older and in need of a pot to elevate it up a few notches...


A foliage/jin detail shot of the tree above ...

 

[leatherback]

Cool!

Casuarina is one of the craziest trees I have seen grown as bonsai. The vigor, backbudding and sprouting from buds.. Responding to all things like elms and zelkova's but looking like a pine. Crazy stuff!

 

[Starfox]

I like these, very nice!

 

[Ryceman3]

Cool!

Casuarina is one of the craziest trees I have seen grown as bonsai. The vigor, backbudding and sprouting from buds.. Responding to all things like elms and zelkova's but looking like a pine. Crazy stuff!

Yep. It’s true, they are capable of all that ... and then there is the bark development on quite young trees... but that’s a different story!
Lucky for me they are natives!

 

[leatherback]

Lucky for me they are natives!

One day.. One day I will try to grow one.
But they are not frost hardy I would think?

 

[Ryceman3]

One day.. One day I will try to grow one.
But they are not frost hardy I would think?

Mmm... I honestly can’t say. I don’t suffer a lot of frost.... but I think if you can find them, Allocasuarina Littoralis might be worth a try. Super strong in a variety of conditions, so why not frost!

 

[Shibui]

There's a guy in Sweden growing one for a year or so indoors. Casuarina may just be more adaptable than we realize.

 

[Colorado]

Really cool to see these species. The bark on the bunjin is crazy for 3 years!

 

[Ryceman3]

Here’s another one... Melaleuca Linariifolia... a pretty popular species for bonsai here.

... and below is the same tree in Feb 2019, just over 2 years ago...

... they develop pretty quickly!

 

[Ryceman3]

Another SheOak (Allocasuarina Littoralis) that got some wire early in its life. This tree seems to be bit polarising, people love it or hate it! This pic is from a month or more ago after a decent prune...

 

[Sno]

I love the ‘Prickly’ R3 , it’s interesting to see a cascade style . I wasn’t sure how this species would cope with growth under the horizontal ,it obviously has no issues .

 

[Ryceman3]

I love the ‘Prickly’ R3 , it’s interesting to see a cascade style . I wasn’t sure how this species would cope with growth under the horizontal ,it obviously has no issues .

Yeah, it's a cool little thing and so far, so good in terms of vigour and growth - no issues to speak of even growing as cascade.
That's one of the interesting things about growing natives, anybody and everybody can reserach/get info and advice from seasoned professionals on how to grow species like JBP as a bonsai, but a lot of the native species are untried or in their infancy in terms of use as bonsai ... you've got to pioneer a way in many instances and that can be satisfying when you hit the mark!
Having said all that - early days for all these trees... plenty of time left to cock it all up.

 

[andrewiles]

@Ryceman3 anyone in your neck of the woods growing adenanthos sericea? Just saw one at a nursery here and I really like the soft needle-like foliage. Not much about it being used for bonsai on the interwebs.

 

[Ryceman3]

@Ryceman3 anyone in your neck of the woods growing adenanthos sericea? Just saw one at a nursery here and I really like the soft needle-like foliage. Not much about it being used for bonsai on the interwebs.

Yeah, these are also known as "Woolly Bush". Not unheard of as bonsai down here but I don't have one so can't comment on how easy they take to bonsai life (or not) from first hand experience. I do know they grow pretty well in regular pot culture (as opposed to bonsai specifically) and seem to tolerate being chopped back OK. I know that Hugh Grant (treemakers) has a pretty nice example I remember seeing. I think they could be worth having a crack if you are keen.

EDIT : Found a pic of the treemakers one ... see below.

 

[PA_Penjing]

These are wild. I don't know anything about trees from the southern hemisphere but they all look sci-fi to me haha. Heard the Aussie bonsai scene is blasting off, people in Europe and America speak highly of what you guys are doing down there. don't see photos often though

 

[Ryceman3]

A new pot I got today put to good use ... and the first time in a proper pot for this Littoralis... you can see it before in the first post in this thread.
I had been hesitant to go with a crescent for this, but I think this one works pretty nicely.
I love the transformation from plastic to clay.

 

[Ruddigger]

I wonder what the deal is with the name “she oak.”

 

[Starfox]

I wonder what the deal is with the name “she oak.”

I like this reasoning.

SHE OAK, OR CASUARINA.
"Curious" wishes to know the origin of
the name she oak, and why it was
given to a tree so utterly unlike the
real oak
Professor Morris, in his work "Austral
English, a Dictionary of Australian Words,"
quotes from the journal of Captain Cook in
1770, who said of this tree: "Another sort
grows tall and straight, something like
pines. The wood of this is hard and pon-
derous, and something of the nature of
American live oak."
R. Pickersgill, "Journal of the Endea-
vour," May 5, 1770, wrote:— ''We saw a
wood which has a grain like oak, and
would be very durable if used for building;
the leaves are like a pine leaf."
Numerous other quotations are given to
show that from the earliest days, the name
oak was given to this tree, the correct
name of which is Casuarina. With respect
to the prefix "she," he says:— "The prefix
"she" is used in Australia to indicate an
inferiority of timber in texture, colour, or
other character, e.g., she-beech, she-pine.
The names swamp oak, bull oak, were
invented to represent variations of the
Casuarina. He goes on to say that this
simple explanation was too simple for some
people and other spellings, e.g., "shea-oak"
and shiak were introduced to suggest a dif-
ferent etymology. Shiak seems to claim
an aboriginal origin ; but no such aborigi-
nal word is found in the vocabularies. He
states that there is no doubt about the
Fix this textorigin of the name.
The late George Fletcher Moore, who
published one of if not the first vocabulary
of the native language of the aborigines of
the Swan River district, about 1836, uses
the word she oak as though it were then
well known, and gives the native equiva-
lent as "gulli "

lol, oops.

SHE OAK. OR CASUARINA. - Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954) - 10 Jul 1914

"Curious" wishes to know the origin of the name she oak, and wiry it was given to a tree so utterly unlike the real oak ...

trove.nla.gov.au

Makes more sense than the other links I can find.

 

[Ryceman3]

Here’s the Mel from post #9 after a bit of a trim today… first day of Spring!!
(Gotta celebrate the small stuff when you’re in lockdown… again…!)

… and below is a pic from above!

 

[Colorado]

Here’s the Mel from post #9 after a bit of a trim today… first day of Spring!!
(Gotta celebrate the small stuff when you’re in lockdown… again…!)
View attachment 395251
… and below is a pic from above!
View attachment 395252

Looks great, can’t believe how fast that developed!