Ridiculous dogwood

[Woocash]

Today on the dog walk I was ferreting around in a hedgerow and found an old fire alarm. Paint peeled off and looking old and grizzled, I had to have it. I do like a bit of rusty old iron. 20 yards further down the hedge opened up a bit, wide enough to walk down the middle of, I happened on a few of our native dogwoods, Cornus Sanguniea, and so I ended up coming home with a new tree and a pot to put it in. One problem, the pot is quite a lot smaller than the tree so a fair bit of creative license was employed.

The middle one is alive, the perfect right angle is not. I‘m picturing Vitruvian bonsai. Too much dead wood? Too straight? What are people‘s thoughts? Ta.

 

[Clorgan]

Today on the dog walk I was ferreting around in a hedgerow and found an old fire alarm. Paint peeled off and looking old and grizzled, I had to have it. I do like a bit of rusty old iron. 20 yards further down the hedge opened up a bit, wide enough to walk down the middle of, I happened on a few of our native dogwoods, Cornus Sanguniea, and so I ended up coming home with a new tree and a pot to put it in. One problem, the pot is quite a lot smaller than the tree so a fair bit of creative license was employed.

The middle one is alive, the perfect right angle is not. I‘m picturing Vitruvian bonsai. Too much dead wood? Too straight? What are people‘s thoughts? Ta.
View attachment 358837

It reminds me of a piggy back

 

[Cadillactaste]

So cascading branch is alive? I've actually seen a tree with a branch jutting out similar further developed. Looked cool.

 

[leatherback]

It is a bit odd. Did the part in the pot have good roots?

 

[Shibui]

It reminds me of a piggy back

Reminds me of something else but we won't go there.

Definitely too much dead wood and far too straight but carving will reduce both the length and the apparent straightness.
Good luck with this one. I really like to give new collected trees a year or 2 in a larger pot with better moisture stability so the new roots get a chance to recover health.

 

[Clorgan]

Reminds me of something else but we won't go there.

Definitely too much dead wood and far too straight but carving will reduce both the length and the apparent straightness.
Good luck with this one. I really like to give new collected trees a year or 2 in a larger pot with better moisture stability so the new roots get a chance to recover health.

Oh I was trying to keep it clean, glad you see it too

 

[penumbra]

Oh I was trying to keep it clean, glad you see it too

I might have made that connection ... when I was 14.

 

[Woocash]

It reminds me of a piggy back

Well now I can’t see anything else, other than shibui’s not so innocent interpretation

Reminds me of something else but we won't go there.

Definitely too much dead wood and far too straight but carving will reduce both the length and the apparent straightness.
Good luck with this one. I really like to give new collected trees a year or 2 in a larger pot with better moisture stability so the new roots get a chance to recover health.

Yes I am sort of concerned with amount of dead wood, but I was thinking of trying to use it almost as a frame for the central tree maybe. I also ordinarily would want to plant it in a larger pot to start off with, but pretty much all the roots were on the bit that is in the soil so i made it a bit more organic rich to hold water for longer. We‘ll see, but I reckon it’ll survive.

 

[Woocash]

So cascading branch is alive? I've actually seen a tree with a branch jutting out similar further developed. Looked cool.

No, it was one of the surface roots, but I was loathe to cut it off because it has a nice aged texture. I don’t know if it would actually sprout from there but we’ll see.

 

[Woocash]

It is a bit odd. Did the part in the pot have good roots?

Yes, surprisingly so. The long root had next to nothing in close, but the main section has quite a lot of fine roots so we‘ll see. I know it looks a bit odd, but if i got rid of the dead stuff it would actually be about the right size pot for it. I just want to sort of see and display how little a root system it needs, if that makes sense.

 

[Gabler]

Good luck with this one. I really like to give new collected trees a year or 2 in a larger pot with better moisture stability so the new roots get a chance to recover health.

You can get a HUGE cloth growing bag for cheap on Amazon, etc. Fill it with perlite and your choice of loose organic substrate to keep it light enough to carry. I have a 100% success rate collecting trees in grow bags, even without a greenhouse, and about a 70% success rate with traditional pots using a shaded greenhouse to boost humidity without the need for excessive watering.