Black cherry and azalea

[ochong]

I purchased a new home late last summer and now that it's spring and my interest in bonsai has renewed, I'm taking a look around the yard with a different eye. It's largely seen a lack of care with most of the plants left to grow unmanaged and / or pruned in poor fashion so we're figure out how to revitalize the landscaping. A number of the plants are going to take some serious work to get back in shape, but also some are just odd balls and I'm wondering if they might have potential as future bonsai.

There are some large thick branched mountain laurel that might be fun to play with (posts about them later maybe), but i'm most wondering about these two hack jobs...

First, the black cherry. It's got that terrible but interesting scaring. I'm considering trying to air layer it. The trunk is probably 5" in diameter. (Yes, that is the stump of a 90+' eastern white pine that had to go...)



The second is this deciduous azalea. Also thinking air layer, unless i were to aim for something fairly large, in which case maybe it should stay in the ground and be worked in situ? Heavily fertilize to see if the trunk could thicken?



Both of these lack trunk taper though they both have movement. They are currently ugly in the context of the yard landscaping and I'm willing to get rid of them so I figured why not turn them in to learning material...

Note, I'm a complete newbie to bonsai, though I'm fairly competent in the garden.

Any and all thoughts / input appreciated.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Welcome aboard! Looking forward to seeing your projects here!

As for the questions… Hmm…. imho, from those photos, neither of those jobs would be Bonsai appropriate without ALOT of work.

That said, they could be fun long term learning projects.

For the Cherry, I’d maybe air layer above the scarred area. For the azalea, so sorry, I can’t tell a good place from the photo to attempt an air layer.

Maybe someone else has a better feel for this?

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[atlarsenal]

I have heard a lot of people say not to waste your time with wild cherry but I have had a small one for a couple of years and I am enjoying it. If I was in your situation I would chop it much lower now, leave in the ground to grow this year and dig it next spring. At this point, what do you have to lose?

 

[ochong]

@Deep Sea Diver - I definitely agree... It would be a long road to getting anywhere near a bonsai. Really appreciate the input.

@atlarsenal - That's probably the best approach to the cherry. I'm not particularly a fan of wild black cherry, but since it's available material it seems worth while to put it to use. It might also be the best way to use the azalea, though i think i might use it as an opportunity to do some layering and make use of the more twisty upper part. Thank you for your thoughts!