A Cascade Tea Tree Bonsai

My bonsai knowledges and skills are mostly self-taught thru

books. My first book was Practical Bonsai For Beginners by Kenji

Murata. The books I learned most are Bonsai Techniques I and

II by the late John Yoshi Naka. I still considered them to be the

best bonsai books ever written. It has depth and is full of

illustrations. The author knew and experienced what he wrote.

The same cannot be said of many other books including those

covering other subjects. At times I wondered whether the authors

knew what they have written.

In one of the chapters on bonsai styles, John Naka wrote about

the different types of cascade. Most books mentioned about

semi and full cascade. In John's book, he broadened the scope of

cascade bonsai to include strings cascade, waterfall cascade, vertical

cascade, cliff cascade and multiple trunks cascade.

I have not seen any strings cascade and there was no illustrations

in John Naka's book. This tea tree bonsai represents my

interpretation of a string cascade. It was trained from ordinary

nursery stock over the last 8 - 9 years. It is a medium size

bonsai. This variety of Leptospermun Scoparium is called

Civic Pride. The flowers have a mixure of white and purplish-

pink with carbage petals.

A Mame Wild Olive

In Nov 2001, the BSWA organised an olive dig at an olive
plantation in Rolleystone. It was my lucky day. I stumbled
over an area that was mowed over the years by the
plantation owner. So I ended up with quite a number of this
tiny but old little trees. This is one of them. The first picture
shows the tree after about 2 years. The second picture was
taken last year. It is only 9.5cm tall. There are many types
of wild olive trees. The ones with tiny leave are the best for
bonsai. Olive trees are drought tolerant. A few years ago
when I was on a bonsai tour of Japan, three of my bonsai
dried up. They looked dead. One of them is an azalea, another
a melaleuca and the last an olive bonsai. I applied some of
the tricks I knew in an effort to revive them. Of the three,
only the wild olive bonsai came back. The wild olive tree
with small leave is highly recommended for bonsai. They
are hardy, grow very well in the climate of Perth and
tolerate bare-rooting. The are very greedy and if well fed
will grow fast.

A Shohin Tea Tree

Generally Shohin Bonsai is classified as those not exceeding 25 cm.
Some will want to stick to the stricter tradition of 20 cm. This
Leptospermun Scoparium Pink Cascade is 19.5 cm. It was developed
from an ordinary nursery stock over the last 7 -8 years. The good
things I like about small bonsai are that they are less taxing on the
back (the older you get the small your bonsai become), consume less
resources and take up less space. However in the dry hot summer
of Perth, WA, it is a challenge keeping them healthy. So more care
and attention are needed.

A Baeckea Bonsai

In October 09, I put this up for show at the Bonsai Society of

Western Australia Exhibition in Freemantle Town Hall. A few

members of the public told me that this tree reminded them of

some of our gum trees linning the roads up to Geralton. I have

not been to Geralton and so was curious. Perhaps, I should drive

up to that part of WA to have a look. Anyway this bonsai was

trained from ordinary nursery stock which cost me A$1 ( no

mistake one dollar) over the last 8-9 years. I have put in some

extra efforts on the refinement of this bonsai and like the result.

The efforts were worth it. Even though it is only 29cm tall, it

does look like one of our old gum tree growing wild. This, in my

view, is the essence of bonsai. The creation of an illusion that

you have somehow magically shrunk a fullgrown tree to grow in

a pot. The scientific name used to be Baeckea Virgata but has

now been renamed as Babingtonia Virgata. This specie has nice

bark, fine foliages and tiny white flowers. However the matured

wood is brittle and the foliages need constant maintenance to

stay in shape. It is quiet hardy and do tolerate drastic root

prunning. Will bud back.

A bottlebrush bonsai

Well, beside making bonsai from tea tree, I also played around
a fair bit with other Australian natives. Today, let me show you
one of my bottlebrush bonsai. I have been training it for the last
9 years. What I like about this specie are the distinctive attractive
barks and the consistent flowering in early Spring. If they are
well look after, they will reward you with a second flowering
season immediately after the first.