Progression of a newbies collection

gallina1594 said:
Yew

This was my first attempt at taking possible the most undesirable piece of material, and trying to make something out of it. The only reason I chose this plant was because it has single trunk that had decent movement and decent taper. Went a little crazy with the pruners and now we have this... Hoping it will look windswept with some work and carving.
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The yew is pushing more buds as well, looks like it's going to make it through the heavy pruning from this summer (lady bugs are out too, eat those aphids!)
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Victorim said:
Been thinking of doing a 10 months in post of everything :p

Don't get stuck with sticks in pots though mate.. Not trying to sound like a dick, just saying :)
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It is time you started looking for larger material with larger trunks with more potential. Most good bonsai are cut down into bonsai not grown up into bonsai.
 
Vance Wood said:
It is time you started looking for larger material with larger trunks with more potential. Most good bonsai are cut down into bonsai not grown up into bonsai.
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You said these very words to me. I listened, and now off to a better start. :) Cheers again Vance.
 
Vance Wood said:
It is time you started looking for larger material with larger trunks with more potential. Most good bonsai are cut down into bonsai not grown up into bonsai.
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Believe me ive been looking hard for bigger material.. I'm a college student so I'm broke af, so I've been really trying to find material to collect from people pulling shrubs out, and digging up trees for people... No luck this summer/fall... Yet... But I am planning on collecting this sango in the spring
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...and some "damaged" trees that are not interesting for usual customers may be put aside in nursery corners...
 
gallina1594 said:
I'm a college student so I'm broke af
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This speaks to me on a personal level :D Last Summer I saved some money just to buy some decent material (2 trees) from a nursery, basic tools, wire and take lessons. To my standards, it was expensive. (I still need to pay tuition...) But totally worth it! I had my first workshop today, on one of the trees that I had bought. I learned alot and got a very promising result! It was sort of a gift to myself :)
I like your collection. Mostly because of the fact that it reminds me of my own.. Maybe - in time - you can treat yourself and spend a little more money to take it to the next level :)
 
gallina1594 said:
Believe me ive been looking hard for bigger material.. I'm a college student so I'm broke af, so I've been really trying to find material to collect from people pulling shrubs out, and digging up trees for people... No luck this summer/fall... Yet... But I am planning on collecting this sango in the spring
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I don't have that much either. I have to sell trees in order to buy trees not found in the wild.
Living in Indiana you do have collectible trees suitable for bonsai.
If you don't know how to distinguish different species get a book or if you can't afford that post pictures here of various trees you think you might want to collect for identification.
In your area I would look for elms of any sort,blackberry also grows there. Hawthorne also.
A great place to start looking is along fence rows and under and along overhead powerlines.
Learn proper collecting procedures and aftercare.
You can have showable bonsai in five years from stumps out of the elms and hawthorn. Or you collect them,sell them and buy what you need or want.
Join a club so you have an outlet to sell and trade. It's what I do and it's working fine for me.
 
gallina1594 said:
Boxelder - collected 3 years ago

So this has been my experimenting tree. I learned that a boxelder is nearly impossible to kill so I figured, why not? I've transplanted this in the dead of summer. Heavy pruned in the summer, and just everything you should do to most trees, has been done to this. I've been using this tree to practice chops and branch ramification. It pushes buds a few days after chopping. Yes the wire is digging into the branch at the top. I'm cutting that branch back to the second growth, so I'm not too worried about it. It's helping me tremendously with putting a bend into the main trunk.
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Main objective was to get this into a smaller pot. Saw someone on here using oil pans as trainer pots so thanks for that! Chopped the f*** out of the roots and it didn't even flinch. Burned the foliage on this and a few others though from bringing them out into full sun too quick IMG_20180422_165420827_HDR.jpg
 
gallina1594 said:
Bale Cypress (Grafted halfway up with Weeping BC)

Torn between trying to airlayer the weeping off and have 2 trees, or just saying to heck with it and chopping it below the graft. I have big plans for this one in the spring. I've been listening to everyone talk about soaking their BCs so I will try that come spring time. I have a restaurant tub, and a back up Children's Pool if it's too small. I think I will chop somewhere around the 3rd branch, that way I have a few already ramified branches to work with.

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Repotted at an angle and pruned the roots today. And removed the ugly (dead) root!
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gallina1594 said:
So this year is my 3rd year and I've learned that next year is the year boys... I've been lurking hard this summer, reading everyone's advice, BEING PATIENT NOT TO LET MY EAGERNESS GET THE BEST OF ME AND MY PLANTS, and just generally prepping my material for each of their next stages.

My collection is a mixture of nursery , store bought, and collected native material. I know a lot of people say don't waste your time if it won't make an "awesome" bonsai some day. But I like the challenge of taking what I have, and trying to make it look the best it can. I'm a college student and college students are broke.

I want to document the progress of my collection not only for myself, but for other newbies to watch a slightly more advance noob fail and succeed with his material.

American elm
View attachment 162059
This spring I will finally get this guy into some proper soil. It's been growing in native soul for about 3 years now due to unfortunate circumstances. I want to keep these ugly surface roots to attempt a root-over-rock down the road, will chop when buds begin to push in the early spring.
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Survived the chop! Letting it grow out all year now
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gallina1594 said:
Boxelder - collected 3 years ago

So this has been my experimenting tree. I learned that a boxelder is nearly impossible to kill so I figured, why not? I've transplanted this in the dead of summer. Heavy pruned in the summer, and just everything you should do to most trees, has been done to this. I've been using this tree to practice chops and branch ramification. It pushes buds a few days after chopping. Yes the wire is digging into the branch at the top. I'm cutting that branch back to the second growth, so I'm not too worried about it. It's helping me tremendously with putting a bend into the main trunk.
View attachment 162075
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Lots of progress with the boxelder! These branches thicken pretty quick so I'm just pulling a few down into place, and letting it fatten up the rest of the yearIMG_20180705_091624828_HDR.jpg
 
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