hi, I recently purchased this bonsai tree from a nearby gallery. The plant was labled as "Australian Pine". It has a somewhat smooth trunk, with the occassional scar from pruning the branches. The needles/leaves are extremely thorny, so much so, that when i try to move them around with my hand they pierce through my skin of my palms.

I tried googling "Austrlia Pine" (and pine species in general), but could not find anything that is close to this.

This is my first bonsai, that I am using as a learning tree, before I move on to a more suitable bonsai variety like juniper etc. (this was much cheaper than the juniper trees available)

Leroy

Hi, and good to see you starting. This really is not a species for great bonsai I am afraid.

Search for Auracaria instead. (australian pine for me would be Casuarina). Araucaria columnaris or Cook pine

thank you. My i know why this is not a good species to start off?

i finally found the right name... Araucaria cunninghamii. Thanks for the guidance. I know its not the best tree for a bonsai.. like i said, this is a "learning" experiment for me before i move up to some of the more interesting trees. Will try reading up more on this tree.

leroycoutts wrote:

thank you. My i know why this is not a good species to start off?

You have a plant that is not a bonsai, is planted in a pot that's not a bonsai pot and in soil that's not bonsai soil.
It's not a bonsai. It is not very suitable for bonsai either due to the way it grows. You will not be able to create a good branch structure.

If you google images for Araucaria+cunninghamii+bonsai you will not find any bonsai - all images are of common (house)plants that are not bonsai.
They are sold as 'bonsai' though as... well... that sells.

Thank you Auk. Appreciate the feedback.

Just to clarify a few definition for me. From whatever I have read this species grows 60m in the wild. Bonsai is the art of reducing down those into miniatures. How does this get defined to a house plant and not a bonsai.

With regards to the pot, I am planning to repot into a bonsai pot. But this isn’t the first bonsai I have seen in non traditional pot, many of the cascade styles have 6inch deep pots like this.

With regards to soil, the inner soil is a acadama bonsai mix, I just didn’t like the way the surface appeared which is why I covered it with baked clay soil to just give a different appearance. I plan to replace this with moss.

Not trying to argue, just curious at this point.

I removed some of the foliage, this is the current picture.

leroycoutts wrote:

Thank you Auk. Appreciate the feedback.

Just to clarify a few definition for me. From whatever I have read this species grows 60m in the wild. Bonsai is the art of reducing down those into miniatures,

That's definition is a bit limited. The miniature should be an impression of a mature tree in nature. This is not something that you will easily accomplish with this plant - and that's the reason why you will not find examples of this tree species as bonsai.

Your plant does currently not have any of the features a bonsai has. I know you would like to call it a bonsai, but it isn't.

How does this get defined to a house plant and not a bonsai.

It is no different from other plants of this species that are sold as house plants.

But this isn’t the first bonsai I have seen in non traditional pot, many of the cascade styles have 6inch deep pots like this.

No idea what cascade style has got to do with it, but it is better to stick to the rules/guidelines, if you want to learn bonsai. Once you understand the rules, you can try and break them. If you try and do that as a beginner, it's just not going to work out. Also, I would not call that pot a 'non traditional' pot...

This is known as the only example of an Araucária bonsai in the world.
It's right here in Brazil, but...
Even being admirable, I don't like the results.

excellent thanks all... seems doable afterall... weather or not end product is desirable, is a different matter all togehter.

leroycoutts wrote:

excellent thanks all... seems doable afterall... weather or not end product is desirable, is a different matter all togehter.

Well.. this is a bonsai forum. If you really are interested in bonsai, you should take the advice - and yes, the end product does matter if you are trying to grow a bonsai.