I acquired silky oak seeds and have one coming up to a year old. Probably standing about 15cm tall, trunk is getting some strength to it. I can’t find any info on growing them from seed. Do you have any tips on what to do next?
I have a few, they develop huge taproots from the time they are very young so you pretty much have to start them as seedlings. On top of that they don’t take well to repotting. Every time I collect ten seedlings, two survive at most.
@@jahmes_404 thanks for the reply. It's unfortunate to hear that they're so tricky as bonsai, they're such beautiful trees. I'd love to see somebody make a bonsai out of a rainbow eucalyptus
@@JennyBesserit That would be nice yes. They don’t grow here in Australia though, they’re native to many of the islands north of us. It’s actually very common for characteristically Australian plants and animals to also be native to Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Timor Leste as all four were connected by land bridges in the past.
They do. I mean I have in the past. They can work pretty well if you get the right variety and know what you're doing. You gotta cut the tap root and all obviously to develop the roots. There's bit of a trick to growing them and alot of Australian natives and understanding how they grow. Very different and back to front to northern hemisphere trees and most classic bonsai species. (Like everything in Australia abit back to front. :) Unlike in America where trees will typically have one main trunk and branches will radiate out horizontally from it (think your classic Christmas tree) Australian trees like eucalyptus will often have one trunk that separates into multiple trunks and thr branches will grow much more upwards an angle from them than horizontal. The branches also have a tendency of growing out long than dying back abit along the branch and breaking off. Hence why in the bush you can find firewood or whatever easily around the trees from the branches dying back and falling. It's important to take this phenomenon into account with trees like that, and can make it a pain in shaping and styling and ramification of them if don't understand and take this into account. But indeed they can work really well and I used to have a really nice one til I asked my dear sister to take care of my plants for a couple weeks once with careful emphasis on watering and how not to get lazy and skip a few days. :)) Not much more representative of Australia in bonsai than a big old gum tree in miniature. :) There's lots of new, interested and yet undiscovered natives to try in Australia for bonsai though unlike the North hemisphere so as it gains popularity there you may discover something special. Personally I love big old gnarled twisted collected she oaks (cassurina) like river she oak especially, with gnarled and well ramified branches and needles in the classic pine style. They have all the great characteristics of the classic species, can be found around rivers and such everywhere and easily collected, often growing out of cracks in rocks and stuff around rivers with an excellent shallow ramified root system and nebari and twisted, gnarled, tapered, interesting and beautiful trunks ready to go. Or the straighter ones work great in the classic formal upright pine style too and even easier to find material for. Very hard and take great to pruning and cutting back and needle ramification. Indeed you can collect them with small tight root system and chop them down right back to bare trunks easily and it'll not only survive but shoot back with a proliferation of new shoots all along the trunk and you can then pick the best in the positions you want to grow into the perfect branch structure and rub off all the excess. A nice change from so many trees that drive you nuts trying to get em to shoot in the right spot in that big gap in the trunk where you need a branch. This characteristic also makes it a joy to ramify them and get those nice floating clouds or pillows of foliage in the traditional pine style. They're very hardy, live long and get beautiful trunks and foliage. And can be carved and jinned and everything pretty well. Indeed I would say these in terms of beauty and grace and suitability for bonsai in all styles and collectibility and everything can easily match the classic Japanese black pine in every way. And beat it out in many. And though most would think of doing gums and wattles and bottle brush and such when trying Australian bonsai I think they could and should become the best and most important and treasured and ideal native for bonsai in Australia. If try them though remember to keep some original soil immediately around the trunk and root ball you collect as like pines they need those nitrogen producing bacteria in the soil and root ball to survive and grow well. Best don't disturb the soil of all the fine feeder roots you'll get all around the base of the trunk and the you can slowly rake them out and replace it with bonsai medium over the years. Including abit of the original soil through the growing medium you choose can help too to develop those essential microbes in the pot. The one big problem and enemy of the grower I've found is those damned stinking little demons called BORERS! Oh I hated them haha. They're actually this little wasp that can come sting the trunk if the she oak and lay its eggs in it and the larva will bore tiny holes through the trunk and eventually pop out and become a wasp and fly off to murder more treasured she oaks! 😢 Thats not a strictly scientific description of them fyi. 😅 But seriously they can devastate your whole collection easily out of nowhere and you probably wouldn't even notice if didn't know and your trees will suddenly get sick and start dying back and not stop til dead and you'd be scratching your head as to why. You've got to inspect the trunk when you get them for tiny little bore holes and if you see them don't take it back home. Then watch out for them carefully in the preceding months after collection. The other trick is not to stress them out too much and give them good care when collecting and establishing them (or at any time really but especially then) as a stressed specimen is much more vulnerable to them when in a weakened state and can resist them much better when healthy. You can also put them in a frame or greenhouse or something with glass or very fine netting material covering it that the little wasps can get at the tree through. They are very small though so has to be fine netting. And if they're already in the trunk when collecting them and you put them in a greenhouse with your other she oaks youve just brought in a trojan horse from hell than can and probably will wipe out your entire collection. They can resist them alot better once healthy and thriving, and handle a few getting in without completely dying too better. But not much and it's always a big threat and can be extremely frustrating after years working on a tree then.... Even letting one get too dry a few days can weaken them enough to invite the demon wasps to feast. Anyway I didn't mean to write a whole book on it lol. But idk maybe some grower out there will see it and try them and be glad they did. And avoid some of the potential very costly mistakes and problems, especially horrible horrible BORERS!
@@iamshredder3587 wow! Thank you for the in depth info! I live in Canada and the eucalyptus trees you get down there seem very exotic to us and we often wonder about them. This answered a lot of questions I didn't even know I had! 😃
Great to see Aussie stuff on your channel. 🍻🍻
Loved this - great window into the world that Bonsai En discuss in their podcasts 🤓
I grow Port Jackson and Moreton Bay figs from seed in Melbourne :)
Beautiful work
oh wow i was just looking at your show - and oh gee i can't believe it - you bonsaid a banksia. i am very happy
Beautiful bonsai
Nice, very interesting ...
Best regards from Bali, Indonesia...
Very interesting👍👍👍
Very interesting, well shaped collections
Wow amazing bonsai👍👍
Love the sheoak
Amazing bonsai good jobs
Im in Australia and have a few native growing, they are great...
hey very impressive thanks heaps very nice indeed
Semoga sehat dan sukses selalu , hadir mengikuti 🙏🙏
Nice one...
Cheers Russell Crowe's bonsai bro!
I acquired silky oak seeds and have one coming up to a year old. Probably standing about 15cm tall, trunk is getting some strength to it. I can’t find any info on growing them from seed. Do you have any tips on what to do next?
how do you think a peppermint tree (Agonis flexuosa) because there is a variety that has nearly black leaves.
Australia willow is it just trapical bonsai ?
Awesome ❤️
Please make a Indian 🇮🇳 series
is moreton bay fig ok to use as a bonsai?
Yes
❤️❤️❤️👍 🙏 Indonesia👍🙏
How come people don't really do eucalyptus bonsai? Does the foliage not get small enough?
I have a few, they develop huge taproots from the time they are very young so you pretty much have to start them as seedlings. On top of that they don’t take well to repotting. Every time I collect ten seedlings, two survive at most.
@@jahmes_404 thanks for the reply. It's unfortunate to hear that they're so tricky as bonsai, they're such beautiful trees. I'd love to see somebody make a bonsai out of a rainbow eucalyptus
@@JennyBesserit That would be nice yes. They don’t grow here in Australia though, they’re native to many of the islands north of us. It’s actually very common for characteristically Australian plants and animals to also be native to Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Timor Leste as all four were connected by land bridges in the past.
They do. I mean I have in the past. They can work pretty well if you get the right variety and know what you're doing. You gotta cut the tap root and all obviously to develop the roots. There's bit of a trick to growing them and alot of Australian natives and understanding how they grow. Very different and back to front to northern hemisphere trees and most classic bonsai species. (Like everything in Australia abit back to front. :)
Unlike in America where trees will typically have one main trunk and branches will radiate out horizontally from it (think your classic Christmas tree) Australian trees like eucalyptus will often have one trunk that separates into multiple trunks and thr branches will grow much more upwards an angle from them than horizontal.
The branches also have a tendency of growing out long than dying back abit along the branch and breaking off. Hence why in the bush you can find firewood or whatever easily around the trees from the branches dying back and falling. It's important to take this phenomenon into account with trees like that, and can make it a pain in shaping and styling and ramification of them if don't understand and take this into account.
But indeed they can work really well and I used to have a really nice one til I asked my dear sister to take care of my plants for a couple weeks once with careful emphasis on watering and how not to get lazy and skip a few days. :))
Not much more representative of Australia in bonsai than a big old gum tree in miniature. :)
There's lots of new, interested and yet undiscovered natives to try in Australia for bonsai though unlike the North hemisphere so as it gains popularity there you may discover something special.
Personally I love big old gnarled twisted collected she oaks (cassurina) like river she oak especially, with gnarled and well ramified branches and needles in the classic pine style. They have all the great characteristics of the classic species, can be found around rivers and such everywhere and easily collected, often growing out of cracks in rocks and stuff around rivers with an excellent shallow ramified root system and nebari and twisted, gnarled, tapered, interesting and beautiful trunks ready to go. Or the straighter ones work great in the classic formal upright pine style too and even easier to find material for. Very hard and take great to pruning and cutting back and needle ramification.
Indeed you can collect them with small tight root system and chop them down right back to bare trunks easily and it'll not only survive but shoot back with a proliferation of new shoots all along the trunk and you can then pick the best in the positions you want to grow into the perfect branch structure and rub off all the excess. A nice change from so many trees that drive you nuts trying to get em to shoot in the right spot in that big gap in the trunk where you need a branch.
This characteristic also makes it a joy to ramify them and get those nice floating clouds or pillows of foliage in the traditional pine style.
They're very hardy, live long and get beautiful trunks and foliage. And can be carved and jinned and everything pretty well.
Indeed I would say these in terms of beauty and grace and suitability for bonsai in all styles and collectibility and everything can easily match the classic Japanese black pine in every way. And beat it out in many.
And though most would think of doing gums and wattles and bottle brush and such when trying Australian bonsai I think they could and should become the best and most important and treasured and ideal native for bonsai in Australia.
If try them though remember to keep some original soil immediately around the trunk and root ball you collect as like pines they need those nitrogen producing bacteria in the soil and root ball to survive and grow well. Best don't disturb the soil of all the fine feeder roots you'll get all around the base of the trunk and the you can slowly rake them out and replace it with bonsai medium over the years. Including abit of the original soil through the growing medium you choose can help too to develop those essential microbes in the pot.
The one big problem and enemy of the grower I've found is those damned stinking little demons called BORERS!
Oh I hated them haha. They're actually this little wasp that can come sting the trunk if the she oak and lay its eggs in it and the larva will bore tiny holes through the trunk and eventually pop out and become a wasp and fly off to murder more treasured she oaks! 😢 Thats not a strictly scientific description of them fyi. 😅
But seriously they can devastate your whole collection easily out of nowhere and you probably wouldn't even notice if didn't know and your trees will suddenly get sick and start dying back and not stop til dead and you'd be scratching your head as to why.
You've got to inspect the trunk when you get them for tiny little bore holes and if you see them don't take it back home. Then watch out for them carefully in the preceding months after collection. The other trick is not to stress them out too much and give them good care when collecting and establishing them (or at any time really but especially then) as a stressed specimen is much more vulnerable to them when in a weakened state and can resist them much better when healthy. You can also put them in a frame or greenhouse or something with glass or very fine netting material covering it that the little wasps can get at the tree through. They are very small though so has to be fine netting. And if they're already in the trunk when collecting them and you put them in a greenhouse with your other she oaks youve just brought in a trojan horse from hell than can and probably will wipe out your entire collection.
They can resist them alot better once healthy and thriving, and handle a few getting in without completely dying too better. But not much and it's always a big threat and can be extremely frustrating after years working on a tree then....
Even letting one get too dry a few days can weaken them enough to invite the demon wasps to feast.
Anyway I didn't mean to write a whole book on it lol. But idk maybe some grower out there will see it and try them and be glad they did. And avoid some of the potential very costly mistakes and problems, especially horrible horrible BORERS!
@@iamshredder3587 wow! Thank you for the in depth info! I live in Canada and the eucalyptus trees you get down there seem very exotic to us and we often wonder about them. This answered a lot of questions I didn't even know I had! 😃
Hj
Very nice 😍💋 💝💖♥️❤️