Hello,

I live in Florida and my son and daughter-in-law live in Western Australia (she is Australian). Their first anniversary is coming up and since paper is the traditional gift for the first anniversary I was thinking about purchasing a melaleuca bonsai from a nursery that is close to where they live. They love to garden and had a bonsai tree at one time before they were married but with moving around I think it was gifted to a friend.

Melaleucas trees were brought to Florida from Australia in the early 1900’s to ‘dry up’ the marshes and even the Everglades to help the citrus industry and land developers. Of course that wasn’t the best of ideas and the melaleuca is now considered an invasive plant species here in Florida. I grew up just calling them ‘paper trees’ not knowing the history of the trees.

Anyway because of the connection between Florida and Australia I thought a melaleuca bonsai would be a cool gift.

The bonsai nursery I contacted has a fairly large melaleuca (129cm tall) that he sent me a photo of and I like the look of it even though it seems large for a bonsai tree I think? I don’t know much about growing/cultivating bonsai trees.

My question is - what would be a fair price for a melaleuca bonsai of that size?

As I said I don’t know much about bonsai trees so I don’t know what someone would normally pay for them.

Thank you in advance for any information or advice.

It is impossible to answer without a picture. A fair price is first hand up to the seller and purshaser to settle. What increases demand on bonsai is not so much species and hight, but age, trunk size, design and the pot.

If it is a 129 cm well balanced tree ready for show it could be 10000 or more.

Here are some photos of the tree that he sent. I have asked what species of melaleuca it is but haven't heard back yet. Looking online I thought it looked like one of these: preissiana, rhaphiophylla or cuticularis? I think these are all native to Western Australia?

Since I'm not familiar with bonsai gardening I don't know if this is either a good specimen on its own or does it have potential to work with?

Thanks again for any advice!

Hard to tell. Malaleuca is not available here, so no idea how often you encounter them.

But.. Something to consider.. Would you buy someone who likes pets a dog? Or would you want the person to be able to find their own dog? Similar with bonsai. Assuming they have bonsai, know how to care for them and are interested in having a malaleuca bonsai, even then they might prefer one or the other.