Casuarina semi cascade

Hi.
I always love this species
As it resembles coniferos. And this is the only option in tropics
I liked how u style. How u do
I am never able to stlye this plant. Good . Great work

Beautiful Jun!

amanluthra688 wrote:Hi.
I always love this species
As it resembles coniferos. And this is the only option in tropics
I liked how u style. How u do
I am never able to stlye this plant. Good . Great work

Aman,
My apology for the late reply, Just reviewed my threads.

The biggest problem with Casuarina is how to plant the fresh yamadori, specially the very old ones. their strong growth in the wild seems to be their downfall too in establishing them as bonsai. but once they are establish they are very strong and tolerant. It is quite tricky and always gives a false sense of hope to many, because they appear to be very healthy few weeks even months after collection and seems to be giving away so many shoots, then suddenly it will starts to wilt and die for no apparent reason at all. My guess is that, the very active growth that we frequently saw in this new yamadoris are the "last" sigh of breath or stored energy of the the plant. and without the new roots being formed to supply the necessary nutrients and water, they will eventually dehydrate after the last food stored in its body are gone.

With regards to styling. In my case I still treat the branching as tropical trees, and with a little twist in the foliage technique, making it like pines, because like you said they really look like pines when the "needles" were refined well. and you can pluck them all year round. the more you pluck the "needles the more twigs you will get along the branches.
Thickening the branches is also easy and quick just don't rush the initial design. let them grow freely and wild for a couple of months, then guide lightly the major branches by wiring or guy wire technique (don't wire too tightly) but don't cut the tips instead direct them upwards to catch the sunlight. let it grow as thick as you want. then design the secondary branches, by then you can cut drastically the unnecessary branch lengths.

I hope this helps a bit.

regards,
jun   

Sam and Todd,

Thanks. The tree is very strong now. will finish the design in less the a year from now.


regards,
jun