Huge Collected Hazelnut and Lilac

[Bonsaiformeatheads]

Hello fellow nuts!

After being inspired by leatherbacks recent YouTube video I took it upon myself to find trees around me that other people want dug out of their garden. Thought I’d make a bargain getting these for free but damn it was hard labour doing this on my own.
Needless to say I was way in over my head but I managed to dig them and pot them up and I’m curious to see whether they survive.

Turns out: both trees looked significantly smaller in the images than they do now.
Sadly I couldn’t take any proper photos when I was potting them up because it was already dark by the time I got home.

Number one: This beautiful Lilac


This beauty grew in pretty muddy conditions so the majority of the roots were really big and it did not have many fine fibrous roots. I just pruned (with a saw, lol) away the really big roots so it fit in this 60cm diameter pot and planted it up as high as I dared.
It is now sitting in a mix of 2:1:1 Pumice, lava, (fired) clay based substrate.

The second one: a big Hazelnut shrub
This big boy did not fit any kind of pot I could find. It was an odd one tho: my guess is this one planted itself on a piece of “anti weed sheet” (don’t know the correct name) and started growing from there. There was hardly any soil close to the trunks itself except for fine mulch. This resulted in an extremely flat and fine fibrous root base close to the trunk - if I had a big enough shallow bonsai pot I could’ve put it in there without any trouble. The exception are the fat roots you can still see in the picture. The tree was surrounded by a clay based soil I have not seen before yet. It was completely solid and not a single root entered it which resulted in these fat roots forming and even circling around below the tree - it was absolute hell digging this one.

It is now sitting in a deep “pot” (a mortar tub) i had sitting around. Just drilled Holes in the bottom, put coarse substrate in the lowest Parts and it’s sitting in 2:1:1 p,l,c as well. I shortened all trunks significantly (up to healthy buds, with space for dieback) but have not yet removed any completely (except for some suckers) since I’m sure some won’t wake up come spring.

Since I have Never done anything like this before is there something I should do in the following months to make sure they thrive in spring?

I‘m open to any and all hints and tips since I really want them to survive - even if they will probably never be show level bonsai it was so much fun already and I look forward on working with them.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Now that’s a couple heavy lifts! Those are great projects for years to come.

Since you asked, here’s my take one these trees…

First, more cutbacks. Get a medium keyhole or similar saw and cut back …

Hazelnut

….all those side trunks on the out side of the central trunk of the hazelnut. Leave a flat 2 cm or so stub as before and seal to avoid issues. None will conceivably be in the design. Then saw off the remaining 3-5 center trunks down to varying heights (5-10cm) and properly seal the cuts. Rationale. You’ll have to do it anyways soon and doing so will concentrate the energy in the massive trunk into new growth next year.

… finally raise the media level a tad to cover the top of all the roots. Root cut back will be later once there is solid sustainable growth in the top hamper.

Lilac - sure looks like this is a good bet for a two trunk design. All the other branches are not going to be in that design. So…

… remove the smaller trunks in the center and seal stubs

… take down the heights of the larger trunks about halfway.

Or…. There is also a possible lilac single trunk design… one for each side of the tree. I actually like this design a real lot for a lilac. Better differential in the two remaining trunks…. Double the fun, less massive, easier to handle and potentially a faster end result.

...This will require pulling the lilac out of the pot

… sawing the base into two and removing one of the to two smaller trunks on each of the two new trees.

… then lowering the heights of the Mother and Daughter trunks at about a 5:1 to 7:1 ratio in heights and seal all wounds with putty.

… finally repotting in two containers

Doing all this now won’t bother either tree at all.

That’s my take on these projects at this point. Good Luck and love to see your follow up posts.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Bonsaiformeatheads]

Now that’s a couple heavy lifts! Those are great projects for years to come.

Since you asked, here’s my take one these trees…

First, more cutbacks. Get a medium keyhole or similar saw and cut back …

Hazelnut

….all those side trunks on the out side of the central trunk of the hazelnut. Leave a flat 2 cm or so stub as before and seal to avoid issues. None will conceivably be in the design. Then saw off the remaining 3-5 center trunks down to varying heights (5-10cm) and properly seal the cuts. Rationale. You’ll have to do it anyways soon and doing so will concentrate the energy in the massive trunk into new growth next year.

… finally raise the media level a tad to cover the top of all the roots. Root cut back will be later once there is solid sustainable growth in the top hamper.

Lilac - sure looks like this is a good bet for a two trunk design. All the other branches are not going to be in that design. So…

… remove the smaller trunks in the center and seal stubs

… take down the heights of the larger trunks about halfway.

Or…. There is also a possible lilac single trunk design… one for each side of the tree. I actually like this design a real lot for a lilac. Better differential in the two remaining trunks…. Double the fun, less massive, easier to handle and potentially a faster end result.

...This will require pulling the lilac out of the pot

… sawing the base into two and removing one of the to two smaller trunks on each of the two new trees.

… then lowering the heights of the Mother and Daughter trunks at about a 5:1 to 7:1 ratio in heights and seal all wounds with putty.

… finally repotting in two containers

Doing all this now won’t bother either tree at all.

That’s my take on these projects at this point. Good Luck and love to see your follow up posts.

Cheers
DSD sends

Thanks for the in-depth reply! I‘ll get to it next Week when I have a friend coming over to give me a hand. As the roots of the Lilac (Budleia) weren’t too good I don’t think I can separately pot up it without killing at least one of them - so Double Trunk it will be. I‘ll Update with some photos once I got to it.

 

[Bonsaiformeatheads]

I've got the itch and decided to sweat through it instead of waiting for help.

The Aftermath:



Cleaning out the hazelnut further proved to be quite the challenge since lots of the trunks had actually fused. I've left quite a few stumps as it's hard to get rid of them without sawing into the base.
I have no clue yet on how I'm going to actually get rid of them but I guess I'll need to get myself some Carving tools as I'm not sure knob cutters will get the job done.
I also ran out of cut paste since I had to seal so much so I decided to seal everything on the base of the trunk and disregard the suckers.

All trunks have been shortened (again) - some more significantly than others and I've raised the soil level as you suggested @Deep Sea Diver



The large vertical cut is a partly dead trunk that has fused with the big trunk which makes it a hell to get rid of. I have yet to devise a plan to do so.

After this massacre there are now 6 Trunks left for a potential clump-style - if they make it.

PS: The stub pointing directly at us in that photo was sealed afterwards, I must've missed it in the first go

While working the Lilac (Budleia) I've sadly discovered that the two trunks on the left (on this image) had also fused. Because of that there was a little pool forming between these two and the chopped trunk in the front which caused roots to grow and the outer bark was damaged because it stayed wet too long. There were even some roots forming. I cleaned it out - the aftermath can be seen here. I did not want to seal it as I figured if I did the bark would start rotting further.
All Trunks were shortened significantly and the central smaller ones removed. The two trunks on the right hand side of this photo were also fused up to a point pretty high up which is why I decided to keep them like this for now. I'm quite happy you've "challenged" me to be quite radical with both of these - I already like them a lot better. Let's see if they push coming spring!

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Well done!

The Hazelnut, as you mentioned, will likely need the outer stubs cut at least flush with the massive base. But give these a year.

Lilac is at a great starting point now. In my yard these are like iron and hard to kill off. Even one root left sprouts a bunch of foliage next spring.

Looking forward to see your follow ups over the years on these two plants.

Cheers
DSD sends