I received this tree as a gift from Paul Fick, a friend of my girlfriend’s family – he owned a nursery outside George called New Plant Nursery, which specialises in indigenous plants. I say owned, because while the nursery still exists, Paul passed away a few years back. He was an artist in his spare time, and used to sculpt these fantastically voluptuous, big-bellied women. I wish I had a photo to show you. Since this tree has such a shapely figure, I named it Paul’s Acacia in his memory. I’m sure he would have liked it.

This tree – Acacia galpinii, more commonly known as monkey thorn – is most certainly a South African local, and a fantastic species for bonsai. It develops wonderful pale bark that cracks and rolls up over time, complemented by those tiny leaflets – actually each ‘branch’ is one leaf, which is sub-divided to make what looks like very small leaves. My only complaint about the species is the viciously sharp, barbed thorns that insist on grabbing me every time I wire or prune the damn thing.

Spring 2011: When I dug the tree up, I found much more trunk below the soil surface, and a large taproot. I removed a lot of the taproot, as well as most of the foliage, and repotted the tree to recover.

Over the next few years, I cut back and fed the tree regularly to stimulate new growth and better branching.

Winter 2015: I made some style decisions, removed several branches and wired most of the tree. It isn’t very stable in its pot, so I used a piece of chopstick to force the branches apart rather than using guy wires. This species doesn’t ramify very easily, so I have to let the tree tell me how to style it. I’m aiming for a broad, gently rounded crown eventually – much like these trees would appear in nature on the African plain.