Hide and Seek

[Smoke]

Sometimes things get lost in a back yard full of crap. Colanders everywhere, trees, bedding plants, piles of garden bark that the sun degraded the bag into thousands of little plastic shards all mixed in with the bark....you know.

Well several years ago I planted a small button fern which I bough to make an accent plant out of. It was in a four inch pot, and was never used. My wife told me to plant the damn thing before I killed it. I did, right at the end of a bench near a 4x4 post. Over the years the fern grew, and grew and GREW. It took over a couple of displays that I had on the end of the bench and a California Juniper that is still there. I cut into the fern today and was able to get at what was in there.

I forgot what was in there, but always watered the giant crown of the fern so that whatever was in there might live. Just lazy for not getting in there sooner, but man I had big tridents to tend to and they were more fun.

So here is the planting with the button fern all cut away from the ground part of the plant and still inmeshed in whatever plant is in there. I do know it was a land water penjing that was done at least five years ago.

 

[Smoke]

It took me about an hour to get all the fern cut out of the plant. Once I had it all cut away I could see it was a threesome of contorted elms. I blew away all the leaves and exposed the rocks. They were still adheared to the marble tray. All the moss had since died away but the akadama was still there and provided a good clay mass full of roots. Probably what kept it alive.

 

[Smoke]

I was able to just peel the entire composition from the marble slab and began the task of trying to get the roots apart. The entire planting was now totally root connected and many larger roots that had grown past one another had grafted together. I took a jet sprayer and dislodged as much of the clay as I could.
I pruned the root pad back as far as I could to encourage new roots beyond the matt of roots.

At this point I felt it should be grown on in a pot. I have moved on from the marble tray compositions and wish to have only pots. I found a suitable pot, to plant it in.

 

[Smoke]

So now the elms reside in a signature Yamafusa pot. They will stay there untill next year when I get a better root system and find out how much of the three trees are actually alive. I pruned back the canopy some, but still retained some wild feel to it. There is a mass at the top of the tree that needs thinning really bad but I will wait for a few weeks to make sure I keep what is living and prune away dead, or stuff I really don't want.

I think tomorrow I will spend a little time looking around the yard for overgrown ferns.

 

[sean f]

Nice find!

 

[Cadillactaste]

That is simply amazing! Who would have thought a bonsai in that tumbleweed of mess...I bet your glad you gave it some of your time. Because it looks amazing!

 

[ghues]

A great story Al, thanks for sharing.......I look forward to its progression.
I'll take the marble slab off your hands....lol.
Cheers Graham

 

[GrimLore]

You have officially provided yourself with Yamadori Great find and work as usual!

Grimmy

 

[JudyB]

This is a living example of what can happen when you just LET IT GROW. Too often I think we (me included) don't just give the tree a chance to grow unimpeded. And I think that causes missed opportunities.