Ficus coronata
              (Sandpaper Fig)

         Ficus rubiginosa   
              (Port Jackson Fig)

         Ficus rubiginosa
              (Port Jackson Fig)

         Ficus rubiginosa   
              (Port Jackson Fig)

         Ficus rubiginosa
              (Port Jackson Fig)  

         Ficus rubiginosa
              (Port Jackson Fig)

          Ficus rubiginosa   
              (Port Jackson Fig)

         Kunzea ericoides
              (Burgan)

         Leptospermum grandifolium
              (Mountain Tea Tree)

       Leptospermum lanigerum   
              (Woolly Tea Tree))

         Leptospermum obovatum
             (Burgan)


          

Acacia howittii
       Sticky Wattle
              3 years in training
                     Bonsai Society of Sydney

I have always loved this wattle as a bonsai ever since I saw Roger Hnatuik’s demonstration at the 2004 AABC Convention in Canberra. So the search began and I found this one in a little nursery at Anna Bay about four years ago. Two years ago I visited Cranbourne Botanic Gardens in Victoria, here I saw Sticky Wattles growing naturally down a rocky slope. Their branches seemed to leap around, as they grew across the rocks with their beautiful arched habit. In designing this bonsai I was very keen to indicate this natural habit as well as show off the lovely arching of the branches; so I keep the canopy just thin enough to let the branches be seen.

Allocasuarina littoralis
       Black She-oak
              3 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

The tree was purchased from Island Bonsai Nursery in Tasmania as a stock plant. It is approximately 7 years old and was potted into its current pot in a demonstration at the 2011 Floriade. This tree has a tendency to produce horizontal branches and is styled to complement this characteristic. While it is an Australian native, and in nature has an informal appearance, at this stage at least, I prefer to present it in the more traditional Japanese bonsai style..

Allocasuarina torulosa,
            Banksia marginata
       Sandstone Pagoda country landscape
              1 year in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

This mini landscape tries to capture the sandstone pagoda country common to the Blue Mountains and the Budawang ranges of NSW. This started as an experiment with recent additions of the Banksia and Micromyrtus having improved its ‘natural’ look. I have tried to produce a scene that I have witnessed numerous times in my travels. The cave is made from sculpted and glued HEBEL™ blocks so that the product is quite light and easy to maintain.

Backhousia myrtifolia
       Grey myrtle
              6 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

The grey myrtle, or ironwood, is a tall shrub or small tree, found near water-courses of the coastal regions of southern NSW through to central Queensland and grows to a height of 5-10 m. It has not been widely used in bonsai, but as its many virtues become known, its use is extending.  This myrtle species responds very well to pruning and if heavily pruned it will shoot from very old wood. If regularly tip pruned during the growing season, it ramifies strongly and also reduces in leaf size by 70-80%. Young leaves can be a rich, velvety, burgundy red, later becoming shiny dark green. The grey myrtle has small white to cream flower heads. As yet my tree has not flowered but I expect they would be the usual cream colour. The species can be adapted to most bonsai styles. This tree was a starter plant obtained from Cambewarra Bonsai Nursery in 2005 and I’m using clip and grow techniques to develop it in a root over rock style. The tree is potted into a shallow, round, Pat Kennedy, Mirkwood Forest Pottery bonsai pot whose grey-green glaze complements the tree.

Banksia aemula
       Wallum banksia
              1 year in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

This plant was purchased as advanced stock and chosen due to the taper of the trunk. Shaped at last year’s symposium, it shows how even very young native plants can be suitable bonsai material for display.

Banksia spinulosa cv.
      "Birthday Candles"
              3 years in training
                     Sydney City Bonsai Society

This banksia puts on a graceful show with the semi cascade styling concealing some faults and showing off the wonderful candles to perfection. ‘Birthday Candles’ is an ideal subject for bonsai because the candles are in proportion to the tree’s size and brings the glory of our native bonsai easily to hand. Whether the candles are glowing or spent they look magnificent.

Banksia integrifolia
       Coastal Banksia
             Canberra Bonsai Society

It was first potted in 1994. I acquired it in 2006 and shaped it in an informal style to imitate the weathered banksias found on the coast. It is a good example of how banksia can produce an impressive strong base with buttress roots (nebari).

Callistemon sp.
            Bottlebrush
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

This group was taken from a sandbank in a river during the drought in 2002 . The sandbank was in the river and would be underwater during normal conditions. These trees were dug out and transported home (along with their sand). They were transplanted into a large plastic platter (no drainage holes) and basically left alone except for watering and fertilizing. The trees were occasionally trimmed to keep the form compact. In December they were repotted into a slate pot. By the middle of January the trees roots had grown enough that the stabilising wire could be removed.

Callistemon sp.
       Bottlebrush
              3 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

This Callistemon was part of the Belconnen Mall (now Westfield Belconnen) plantings in 1976 and was 'rescued' in 2002 when a large planter box at Westfield Belconnen was being replaced. Several were saved for use at the AABC National Bonsai Seminar hosted by CBS in 2004. This tree was not used at the seminar and it and its sister remained with me growing on in large plastic pots. In 2009 it was transferred into a ceramic bonsai container and developed as a triple trunk tree. I have allowed the tree to grow tall, trying to emulate a sparse tree growing in difficult circumstances. Further work is aimed at creating more refined branching and better developing the third minor trunk which was shortened this year to obtain better overall scale with the other trunks. Callistemon are an easy native to grow as bonsai, on the condition of always being kept quite moist and being fertilised regularly. This tree has flowered sparsely and sporadically – small amounts by normal Callistemon varieties. The flowers are a cream colour and about 3cm long.

Callistemon viminalis
       "Captain Cook" Bottlebrush
              11 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

Callistemon ‘Captain Cook’ is a horticultural selection from a seedling of Callistemon viminalis. It is a dwarf form of the species, growing to about 2m height. The species is widespread in Qld and northern NSW.  The bonsai displayed here was acquired as nursery stock during the 1980s and spent the first ten or so years as a garden plant in a large ceramic pot with very poor drainage. Despite this, it continued to survive until 1994 when its potential as bonsai material was noticed. Then it was transferred into a polystyrene box for training. Apart from occasional pruning, no real styling was done until February 2000. It was placed into its current pot in September 2003. The tree was pruned heavily, back to bare wood, when repotted in the spring of 2011.

Eucalyptus sp.
       Gum Tree
              7.5 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

While at Mt Annan Botanic Gardens, I bought 2  ‘bonsai starters’ from the nursery. They were both about 5cm tall and I planted one in this situation and the other in a pot. This one grew much better than the other one which may be attributed to genetic variation or the rocky environment.
The shape of this tree is an attempt to remind me of the cliffs behind the NSW south coastal beaches where the salt spray produces wind shear shaping and dead branches above a certain height. The plant grows continuously and is a constant inspiration to my miniature landscaping works.

Eucalyptus sp.
       Gum Tree
              19 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

This was acquired as a large, pot bound plant of stunted growth in 1993. It has been cut back and grown-on in a bonsai pot. It requires frequent pruning and constant retraining.

Eucalyptus gunnii
         Cider Gum
              1 year in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

This plant was purchased as tube stock in 2011 and transplanted into its permanent pot in November 2011. It had some wiring and has vigorous growth.

Ficus coronata
       Sandpaper Fig
              18 months in training
                     Illawarra Bonsai Society

This tree was a wildly over-grown stock plant picked up at a bonsai show sale table. Two hours afterward there was little left of the tree and it went into good soil and growing-on mode.  Eighteen months after that, less has become more, and the tree has some lovely qualities. The rugged trunk has a hollow to the ground and removal of major branches halfway up the trunk has resulted in a nice possum hole – which happily is vacant since a suitably sized resident hasn’t been found. The handmade Mudlark Pottery pot is ideal for this bonsai, strengthening the refined and rugged bush feel of the tree.

Ficus rubiginosa
       Port Jackson Fig
              30 years in training
                     Wauchope Bonsai Club

Purchased in 2010 from a North Coast grower for whom bowling was replacing bonsaiing, and who found many of her trees too big to manage. No styling changes are planned as she did a wonderful job. Re-potting is another issue, given the shape of the pot!   It lives in a special stand to stop it toppling over.

Ficus rubiginosa
       Port Jackson Fig
              10 years in training
                     Illawarra Bonsai Society

I am a generously proportioned tree, particularly when I have shapely branches to highlight my substantial paunch. But then again, how much exercise can a fig get? I can hardly run around the forest to trim down and if my girth is a bit large for my 18 cm height then that is what bonsai is all about. In actual fact I am over 30 years old but only seriously styled in the last 18 months. If summer had been hotter earlier I would be even nicer, but I’m coming along.

Ficus rubiginosa
       Port Jackson Fig 'Berko'
              10 years in training
                     Illawarra Bonsai Society

‘Berko’ [from Berkeley Vale] spent the first 25 years embedded in sand up to his, dare I say it, arm pits. I was given the choice of any of the 5 in the pot and for some reason the upper structure appealed to me. It took two years on the bench before the bleached trunk returned to normal colour. It had the original rock with the left aerial roots making a shawl over it removed as the ‘waist’ of the tree was developing into severe ‘reverse taper’. In time the aerial roots will fill out giving the tree an extremely substantial trunk for its size.

Ficus rubiginosa
          Port Jackson Fig
             5 years in training
                   Illawarra Bonsai Society

Bonsai club sales tables prove that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. This large, ugly, spreading Port Jackson fig was a bargain when it was purchased.
Judicious use of the side cutters found the bonsai in the bush and an up and coming small tree. It is still developing and will only get better. The Erin [UK] pot suits the tree ideally.

Ficus rubiginosa
            Port Jackson Fig
              10 years in training
         Illawarra Bonsai Society and Sydney City Bonsai Society

This tree was my introduction to bonsai, a birthday present from friends and little more than a trunk with negligible branching. It was so decidedly ugly and ‘lacking potential’ that it was scorned at a workshop. With this incentive to make the ‘seal sitting up’ into a nice bonsai, my work started. The first few years produced nothing worthwhile but perseverance paid off and the Port Jackson fig has become a lovely bonsai and will only continue to improve.

Ficus rubiginosa
          Port Jackson Fig
              19 years in training
                     Shibui Nursery, Yackandanda

This tree began as part of an Albury/Wodonga bonsai club project in 1993. Each member was given a few first-year seedlings and asked to grow them as bonsai and report back each year to show the tree's progress and share cultivation techniques. This tree started as two seedlings planted together with roots entwined to produce a twin trunk tree. The seedlings were potted into a series of large pots and fed and watered heavily for a number of years to attain good trunk thickness, then branches were selected and trained. It was transferred to a bonsai pot about 2001. Medium and large leaves are regularly removed during the growing season to promote ramification and small leaf size.

Kunzea ericoides
         Burgan  
              17 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

Grown from a small seedling since 1988. After being slowly grown-on in a training pot, it was transferred to a bonsai pot in 1995. This variety of Kunzea can be found growing abundantly in ACT.

Leptospermum grandifolium
         Mountain tea tree
              9 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

Mountain tea tree has the challenging and endearing quality of producing naturally angled branch lines. It also tends to grow branches that head off at wild angles and stretch across the whole canopy, lacing the canopy into a rigid mass — perhaps to withstand strong winds. The bark is attractively coloured in soft shades of brown, greys and pinkish browns. It responds well to tip pruning during spring growth and greatly reduces it leaf size. This species is not often seen in bonsai but has great potential for a diversity of stylings.

Leptospermum lanigerum
           Woolly tea tree
              4 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

The character of this tree could be described as the ‘strong, silent type settled into comfortable maturity’. The strong, gently flared trunk and rugged branches convey strength, age and individuality. The spacing of the foliage clouds is indicative of a mature tree in the maintenance stage of its life; the clouds of fine-leaved foliage soften the overall appearance. L lanigerum responds very vigorously to being well fed and watered, which can present a challenge in maintaining the mature image.

Leptospermum obovatum
            Burgan
               1.9 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

This tree was collected a little over 2 years ago. I was attracted to the sweeping trunk with so much character and texture and have done nothing to the trunk. Collecting was difficult due to the rocky terrain and a 2 kilometre walk to where it was growing, but in the end the effort was worth it. The combination of old and gnarled trunk and thin foliage evokes the Australian bush.   In the future I will be working to improve the ‘gnarlyness’ of the branches so that they are more in style with the trunk but will retain the ‘windswept’ style. The pot is handmade by a central coast potter and I think suits the tree well. As a bonsai this species is very good to work with. The biggest drawback is that branches are very brittle once they have some wood on them. As green shoots, they are easy to bend but once the wood sets – they just snap when you bend them. The foliage is fine and delicate and in spring it can have lots of small delicate white flowers which makes a nice contrast to the old dead wood on the trunk.

Melaleuca sp.
              4 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

The trees were purchased as tube stock in 2008. They were transplanted into a 60cm plastic pot. Over the next 3 years they were allowed to grow basically unchecked. When they were about 4 feet high they were trimmed back. On 19th of September 2011, they had a massive root prune, then wired into place in a bonsai pot. By early January, the trees had produced enough root that the wire could be removed.

Melaleuca bracteata
       'Revolution Gold'
              4 years in training
                     Illawarra Bonsai Club

This is The Turnaround Tree. The original front became the back, became the front, became the back. As bonsai develop you have to change your thoughts on the tree and be prepared to alter styling to incorporate a better outlook. Whether it is swapping sides or removing apexes or branches grown too big, bonsai as a growing art always presents challenges and the opportunity to better the tree should never be missed and you shouldn’t be afraid to effect the change. In some trees, a year or two at the back of the bench is a small price to pay for improved styling.

Melaleuca bracteata
       'Revolution Gold'
          7 years in training
            Illawarra Bonsai Society and Sydney City Bonsai Society

A nursery crawl and a tall skinny plant was found with the root ball compacted in the shape of a 12 cm pot but sitting in a much larger pot with nothing around its soil. A bit of bargaining and the plant had a new owner. Over the years this bonsai has had several radical changes of angle from near horizontal to a number of stages in between. Good trees are not necessarily achieved on the first styling and this is the case with this Melaleuca. It shows what styling differences you can find in one species if you look at the little Rev Gold next to it.

Melaleuca styphelioides (trio)
       Prickly paperbark
              7 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

The lower trunk does not flow smoothly, especially around the scar, and the main branches seem at odds with each other, but I enjoy this little tree and resist the temptation to iron out its imperfections.

Nothofagus cunninghamii
       Myrtle beech
              10 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

The origin of the Nothofagus genus is Gondwanan ~70 million years ago. The splitting of Gondwana created individual groups of species endemic to each country. Australia has three - N. mooreii, N. gunnii and this one, N. cunninghamii - found in the rainforest areas of Tasmania and the south eastern coast of the mainland. They can live up to 500 years.  I obtained this plant as a small seedling 10 years ago, and I use the Penjing method of styling (clipping and pruning - no wiring). It has slowly developed to its present status - it will be interesting to see what it is like in 490 years!

Sannantha pluriflora
         Narrow leaf Baeckea - the Boomerang Tree
              8 years in training
                     Illawarra Bonsai Society

The tree was purchased ever so cheaply at a desolated nursery, cut down severely and grown-on. In the early stages when it was finally healthy but not developed, it was passed on to another enthusiast. A year or so later it was swapped for a nice gardenia and became a good show tree. Then the apex over-developed and a major cutback had it on the back bench for a year and a half before the new look filled out and the tree was once again balanced and better for the major altera-tion.

Sannantha pluriflora 'Nana'
         Twiggy heath myrtle
              10 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

The dynamic base of the trunk (like the swish of a cat’s tail) and the furrowed, stringy bark of this tree provide an interesting contrast to the delicate, ferny foliage and the small white flowers borne in summer.

 

Sannantha pluriflora
         Heath myrtle
              9 years in training
                    Bonsai Societ of Sydney

This tree was given to me as a seedling nearly ten years ago after I admired a friend’s hearth myrtle growing in his garden. Since then it has undergone a few styling changes. The first was an attempt to copy, on a small scale, how I perceived it grew naturally. However, the tree did not look happy or attractive and refused to flower. So it was back to the drawing board. To get new inspiration I studied the mother tree again and even googled “Baeckea virgata” to see if I could find pictures of the tree’s natural habit.  What I discovered was a gold mine of information about the differences in growth habits, natural variations and even a number of scientific names changes.  So it was styled accordingly. I followed and enhanced the natural curves of the tree’s trunk line, moved the main branches into a more horizontal position to let more light in and let any new growth curve gracefully up and away from the trunk.  The effort was worth it; in spring the entire tree was delicately sprinkled with tiny white flowers.

Sannantha similis
         'Howie's Feathertips'
              26 years in training
                     Canberra Bonsai Society

The scientific name of this plant has had a hard time with several changes starting with Baeckea virgata, to Babingtonia virgata, to Babingtonia similis, to finally Sannantha similis. It is the great difficulty in sorting out clear boundaries and relationships in this group of ‘micro myrts’ that makes its naming so hard.  The bonsai displayed here has also had a hard life. While it started as a nursery seedling over a quarter of a century ago, in recent years, it has suffered the ravages of the great El Niño drought of the early 21st century. Major branches, right to the ‘feathery tips’ died back. But the tenacity of these plants to hang on and regrow is as phenomenal as it is inspiring. A testament to the durability of even seemingly delicate, small creatures to adapt to wild oscillations of weather.

Syzygium sp.
         Lillypilly
              2 years in training
         Illawarra Bonsai Society and Sydney City Bonsai Society

Where do ya gettit? This lillypilly was a potted garden plant for years. The potential of the apex of the plant was suddenly sighted and an aerial layer done. Once the roots were established the new plant was put in a training pot to grow-on and has developed into a nicely shaped native that proves there are many ways to get a good bonsai.

Syzygium australe 'Tiny Trev'
         Dwarf Lillypilly
              8 years in training
                 Wauchope Bonsai Club

‘Tiny Trev’ was bought from the Cumberland Forest nursery (Sydney) in 2004. It was in a large nursery pot and about the height it is now. It gets a couple of thorough haircuts a year, which take quite a while to do as each branch needs individual treatment. A simple all-over cut would result in excellent topiary, and a poor bonsai. An easy to grow plant that is high maintenance.

Syzygium australe
           Lillypilly
              3 years in training
                 Canberra Bonsai Society

This tree was a gift in November 2008 and styling has been mainly by the clip and grow method. The only wiring done was to position the lower branches. The latest repotting was in January 2012 into a pot created by Roger Hnatiuk. Continual pruning has resulted in the tree before you.

Tristaniopsis laurina
           Water Gum
             18 years in training
                  Ray Nesci Nursery, Dural

This Water Gum was grown from seed. When it was around two years old, it was placed on the rock that you see. It has gone on to dominate the rock but still enough of the rock remains to keep the interest of the viewer. The roughly textured Pat Kennedy pot compliments the rugged sharp rock. The small leaves have been developed by regular trimming and constant removal of the larger leaves.