Post 125 Bottle trees

Here in Queensland we have a native species which develops a large water storing trunk like a boab. It is Brachychiton rupestris or Bottle tree. They get to be very large and make a very attractive street and park tree.
We have a few other Brachychitons here in Australia. The most showy is the Brachychiton acerifolius otherwise known as the Illawarra flame tree. It is mostly deciduous and then flowers on the bare tree with a profusion of red flowers. B populneus is the Kurrajong, another very attractive tree. Hybridisation of these three has been done to produce a variety of ornamental trees.
The picture above is on a street in my neighbourhood, a really good sign that they'll survive and thrive in my garden.

This is a picture of a 45 year old B. ruprestris that has recently come under my stewardship. It has some great movement in the trunk and was at some time in the past chopped at the point of the branching. Since then it's been in a small pot and not developed much. After 45 years in the ground it could have been between 1 and 2 meters in diameter, so there has been a bit of a lost opportunity. I'd like to take it a little further, fatten it up and so have given it a bit more space. The plan is to restore some vigour and then cut those long leaders right back to force some multiple branching and develop a more natural canopy branching off a central trunk or perhaps twin trunk.

Having my interest sparked I found them for sale at the local garden centre and so couldn't resist could I. It was fairly advanced and arrow straight but a little twist will get it pointing in the right direction. Keeping it there long enough is the trick.

In Australia we also have a boab or boabab which is endemic to the north of Western Australia. It is Adansonia gregorii and is very closely related to the African boabab. It also has very famous relatives in Madagasgar. I've recently acquired seeds of all these and am keenly awaiting germination.