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Stephen Cullum's Bonsai Foundations

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25.01.2022 One of today's trees is this Melaleuca leucadendron. It has a natural weeping habit. They are used widely in SEQ as Street and island trees. Invariably they have multiple trunks and then weeping laterals that go up and then out and down. That's the model I'm working to miniaturise and you can see a little if that in the pre prune picture. Here it is before and after pruning. My first cut of the roots is generally a 50% cut with the tomahawk and then a concave cut in the base and only then a tease out lightly around the edges. I let it run last season to build some bulk and reinforce the core structure. This season it's about ramification and turning it into a bonsai.

25.01.2022 Has anyone experienced or diagnosed this fat branch syndrome on Chinese Elms? I have always put it down to high ambient temperatures in Brisbane in autumn. Trees that have been in full sun at that time of the year seem to be more prone to it than those in more shaded locations.

23.01.2022 Here's a better picture out of the sun.

23.01.2022 Talking about techniques to fatten up a trunk or fix reverse taper here's another one. This is not one you'd really want to use but it is an interesting experiment and instructive of a tree's repair response. Cut a ring of bark off and remove it intact, having marked beforehand where the vertical cut is made. Then just put it back and bind with grafting tape.

20.01.2022 The fruit on my Ficus Benjamina 'Baby Ben' have ripened further to a nice bright red.This is about as good as its going to get. I'd be short ods to win people's choice in a show with this one right now.

18.01.2022 Further shots of pots for sale.

17.01.2022 Swamp Cypress all set for root pruning in August. The twin trunk pair (an old fusion job) provided the cuttings which were the start of the other two trees. You can see the stock tree origin of the twin trunk trees where as with cuttings you can get better early trunk movement.

17.01.2022 This little Melaleuca nodosa has suffered a basal reverse taper for quite a while. To take advantage of the autumn swelling of branches and trunks; a few weeks ago I made a series of small vertical cuts in the base on the trunk where it contracted. Now just a short time later it is almost corrected. You can see the red colour of the callus repair in the cuts and how the cuts have latticed open. Over time the scars will just contribute to the patina of age. I have used this technique successfully on a wide variety of a species.

16.01.2022 Identified as Ficus obliqua at the Gladstone Tondoon Botanic Gardens, and collected in the local region, the leaf on this plant is smaller and more lanceolate than the leaves we would normally associate with the (Queensland) Small Leaved Fig. Obliqua has a distribution throughout the southern Asia Pacific and northern Australia and so it wouldn't be a surprise to find a regional variation in leaf size or habit. Most species with wide distribution have a number of subspecies showing such differences. This one looks like a terrific bonsai prospect for those of us looking for something with a naturally smaller leaf to start with.

16.01.2022 When the days are short you have to work fast.

15.01.2022 Here's some more growing on a ceramic tile. With a thirsty bee having a drink. Strong light and moisture makes for happy moss.

14.01.2022 My 30+ year old Baby Ben in fruit again. It always fruits up well. From green to yellow and then they go quite red.

12.01.2022 Seasonal pruning for a developing 3-4 year old Melaleuca bracteata. Aiming to build ramification and semi final profile this season with another 3 grow and prune cycles. I prepared about 10 of these today in the same way.

11.01.2022 How to extract a nursery plant from its organic nursery potting mix: Take the plant out of the pot. Don't mechanically rake or pull the roots, just juggle in a bucket of water. Jiggle vigorously or at least jiggle the plant vigorously. All the mix should fall away. For this one I then cut of a big plug of roots off the bottom, still leaving plenty behind. Then position in a new pot and add dry bonsai mix, vibrating the pot to shake the mix into the roots. Water and the plant will not look back. No need to harshly prune.

10.01.2022 Swampy looking good after little tidy up.

08.01.2022 Here are some more of my developing M bracteata that I root and top pruned yesterday. I've been developing these for show sales in Nov but that path doesn't look clear at the moment. Some of these have sacrificial branches on them, often the strange looking branch in the background.

07.01.2022 Celtis sinensis, defoliated and trimmed for the next iteration of this growing season. I collected the tree as shown, in July 2013. The 'eyes' formed from the removal of all the branches/verticals.

06.01.2022 I have 6 small bonsai pots for sale. They are all handmade in stoneware ceramic. Full details including dimensions and price can be found in my Facebook SHOP page https://www.facebook.com/bonsaifoundations/shop/ Prices are ex delivery. If you are interested please message me.

06.01.2022 This is a little Leptospermum madidum, (weeping tea tree) a very tropical species from far north Qld, WA and NT. They are readily available in Brisbane and thrive here. It is definitely on my top 15 list of (other than ficus) native species for bonsai. Very comfortable with bonsai cultivation practices, nice flaky bark and a natural weeping habit. Highly recommended.

05.01.2022 I think I might have posted this one previously but a flower shot is too good to pass up, even if the flowers are sooooo small. Acalypha Dan Dan from a small spot west of Gladstone. This was a cutting from a Tondoon plant, thanks Tondoon. It usually grows as a multi stem clump although this one hasn't attempted to deviate from the more tree like path I've taken it along. It might take longer to build trunk bulk but growing a tree from something small offers unlimited design scope. I'm very happy to start from cuttings or seeds or tube-stock and always think about the year 5 potential.

02.01.2022 This is Acalypha sp Dan Dan which comes from an area inland from Gladstone. It's a curious plant that grows naturally as a small twiggy domed shrub with tiny leaves. Left alone they grow into a defensive tight twiggy ball with multiple trunks, typical of many species from environments with prolonged hot dry periods. Thats a sacrificial branch on the older one and the younger one is a cutting from the first. I'm just working on building the core structure of these at this stage; informal and tree like, contrary to their natural habit. Sometimes you just have to. They are just coming into flower, if you can see them!

01.01.2022 Our Gardens Manager Barry and the Tondoon Friends of Bonsai Volunteer group has been working behind the scenes with Stephen Cullum ag...ain to enhance and grow our Bonsai collection. Workshops on trees took place from Wednesday to Sunday last week, with a total of 45 trees being pruned, wired and repotted, while Tondoon also purchased two mature bonsai and two young bonsai trees along with pots from Stephen to grow our collection. See more

01.01.2022 More inspiration from nature. This one also from the Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-tha. The structure of the ficus aerial roots where they go down into water would be interesting feature to simulate in a landscape bonsai.