Thanks for your reply.. Unfortunately, no clubs here. The closest bonsai grower is +/-200km away. Although I have heard of one or two guys in town that dabbled in it years ago. I might get in contact with them, but for the most part - it is me and the internet. I have spent hours, no......... days researching and learned quite a lot. I always keep my eyes peeled for anything interesting - flower or fruit baring but never came across the species you mentioned.
I have looked them up on wiki and would like to add them to my collection. Sandroos looks like something that I would like to add to my collection as well..I have a
Woestynroos though.
I have a few Vachellia karroo
or sweet thorn that I managed to propagate from cuttings - acasia species. Spekboom I have quite a lot of myself. They propagate flippen easy, also dwarf or wild pomegranate.
Say, would you be interested in trade. I can offer
the following. I strictly want to trade one-for-one. Maybe some might grow in your area. We can make use of
Pargo. I have only recently discovered them. What a good service. I ordered some things almost from the other side of the country and received it in three days! So if we wrap cuttings in moist papertowels.. If you are interested send me a list of what you can offer and we can get the ball rolling..
That sounds like a plan. There's a pick up not too far off from me.
We've just had our first rains here this evening, so if the weather clears up tomorrow I'll make a round in the yard and see if I'm missing anything, but off the top of my head, with cuttings in mind:
Natal plum itches like hell when the thorns scratch you, I'm considering letting them just grow into a hedge on my boundary, this seems to like a slightly wetter medium than a lot of the others when propagating.
Serissa tree of 1000 stars variety
Serissa strike really easy on any type of medium I use.
Japanese honeysuckle
Dwarf honeysuckle
Cape honeysuckle
All three apparently strike really easily, but from my experience, cape honeysuckle really hates a water retentive medium. River sand seems to work best for it. Might be because cape honeysuckle isn't really a honeysuckle.
Japanese maple I've yet to get this right, although it's supposedly easy
Rosemary officianalis you've got to try it, it makes amazing shohin bonsai, summer's really well ANY medium.
Westringia also known as coastal rosemary, but not actually related to rosemary, very unconventional training needed, you'll probably have to break almost every bonsai styling rule to get it to look like a bonsai. Its throws out elongated shoots which twist and turn every which way. It's natural growth is very bushy and tangled, but if you keep the lower trunk clean, its it's well worth it from what I've seen
Australian Brush Cherry very popular as a hedge or pom pom in the front garden. Leaves reduce a lot when in bonsai training, but wire branches at your own risk. I had some wire on for less than 3 months on the epex and it almost grew around it. I considered cutting it off, but I reasoned that it grows so quickly that it will hopefully disappear soon. I've seen amazing stuff at my club by Jan Naude (40+ years of experience, he's got some of the most amazing celtis and eugenia/syzigiums I've ever seen)
Wild Olive Roots quickly in river sand. I've seen great specimens, although I'm not the biggest fan of the species.
Sandroos I've just recently bought 2 of these for R30 each. They're about 2cm thick at the base, so I'm definitely grounding them as soon as I can to fatten them up. Had them for about a month, but they've been throwing out a lot of growth. Word on the streets is that they love container life
All of these are relatively quick growing, and produce either rough, textured bark, or flaky bark within a year or two, depending where you grow them (ground, training pot, bag, small pot).
Slower to propagate are my juniper procumbens nanas, thuja and a Chinese cedar that I can't remember the full name of.
I've also got 4 different type of ficus which root like weeds (I've rooted Natal fig from a single leaf every time I tried) Fever trees, monkey thorn and black monkey thorns, but I've had absolutely no luck propagating them. Members at my club say the same, so for you to root an acacia cutting is really something special man.
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