The 2025 Yamadori/Collecting Thread

[The Barber]

Another elm i dug the other day. Hard to find them with movement, there are a ton of them in the area, mostly ramrod straight, and generally they have a horrible root system compared to the hornbeams. This one had great roots to boot.

 

[Joe Dupre']

I dug a green hawthorn to replace the one that died this past summer. It had a couple of bigger roots but no real tap root. Lots of feeder roots close to the trunk. I went pretty short with the chop. Going for a short, chunky tree.

 

[The Barber]

Vine strangled hornbeam that has healed over...been contemplating an air layer on this.

Some photos from my tree collecting trips.

Couple beaver pruned trees



This hornbeam is extra muscular.

Some of this years collections so far. I'd say I've collected at least 35 trees so far.



I'd been looking for a large hornbeam with a great looking nebari to carve into a hollow trunk tree.

Delved into the swamp on the property to see what was there hoping to find a nice river birch but came out with this rather huge black willow. At least our swamps don't have gators in them @Cajunrider
Hole it came out of.

Big toe for size comparison

 

[Cajunrider]

Vine strangled hornbeam that has healed over...been contemplating an air layer on this.
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Some photos from my tree collecting trips.

Couple beaver pruned trees
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This hornbeam is extra muscular.
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Some of this years collections so far. I'd say I've collected at least 35 trees so far.
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View attachment 583102
View attachment 583103
I'd been looking for a large hornbeam with a great looking nebari to carve into a hollow trunk tree.
View attachment 583099
Delved into the swamp on the property to see what was there hoping to find a nice river birch but came out with this rather huge black willow. At least our swamps don't have gators in them @Cajunrider
Hole it came out of.
View attachment 583097
Big toe for size comparison
View attachment 583091

Beautiful haul!

 

[DaveZ]

A Callistemon (Bottlebrush) that I dug a few weeks ago. It'll probably get cut back further yet. Hasn't skipped a beat, straight into full regrowth mode.

Came across this awesome twin trunk Leptospermum (Tea Tree) in an old council gravel yard on the side of the road. Has some beautiful bark on it, just hope it survives the collection process now. Some of these Aussie natives can be a bit touch and go but I'm hopeful for this one.

 

[Cruiser]

A mangled fir. Run over, most of its trunk torn off. A few years ago I thought it was a goner, but it has recovered nicely.

 

[Joe Dupre']

A mangled fir. Run over, most of its trunk torn off. A few years ago I thought it was a goner, but it has recovered nicely.
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Yeah, she's been through the ringer, alright. It occurred to me that she might be a great candidate for a tanuki on the lower half of the trunk to accentuate the nice bark of the upper trunk.

 

[Cruiser]

Yeah, she's been through the ringer, alright. It occurred to me that she might be a great candidate for a tanuki on the lower half of the trunk to accentuate the nice bark of the upper trunk.

Hadn’t considered that. Do you mean grafting another fir on to the deadwood section?

 

[Joe Dupre']

Hadn’t considered that. Do you mean grafting another fir on to the deadwood section?

Not grafting but attaching a character laden piece of driftwood to the lower trunk to mimic a larger, older trunk. Tanuki is also referred to as a phoenix graft.

 

[Cruiser]

Not grafting but attaching a character laden piece of driftwood to the lower trunk to mimic a larger, older trunk. Tanuki is also referred to as a phoenix graft.

I see. I’ll take that into consideration as things progress.

 

[Baron von Smoogle]

I dug two beeches and a Chestnut Oak today. The big straight beech had what I thought were some pretty good surface roots. For size reference, the square pots are 14X10X4 and the round pot with the Chestnut Oak is 10 inches in diameter.

 

[The Barber]

Supposed to be in the 50's tomorrow and 60's on Wednesday...gonna go live in the woods with my sawzall, and shovel for a couple of days. Nice relief from this awful winter we've had here.

 

[The Barber]

Out here digging...hornbeam.

 

[Cajunrider]

Out here digging...hornbeam.
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Beautiful base.

 

[The Barber]

Beavers do some amazing work I must say. Ended up digging 3 trees, will share once I pot them up. Here's some photos i took at the beaver area.

Sweet gum

I don't know what the species is on this one, very coarse branching though sadly. Shows the bonsai beaver talent though .

Hornbeam, going to leave it for a year or so, nice potential.

Either elm or sweet gum, didn't have enough branches thanks to the beavers to tell.

 

[The Barber]

Here's the natural kabudachi privet I collected.

 

[Oddly_Aude]

I like privets.

I'd say I took great care in collecting these, but I mostly just yoinked them out of the earth with my bare hands.

There's so many privets in my yard, I figure with these guys I can play a game called "trial by fire".

The rules are simple.

1. Life comes at you fast.
2. Some of may you die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.
3. Ooooh, look, more free privets!

XD

Seriously though, these things grow like weeds around here!

I also found a ton of skinny maple saplings while weeding my bed. They're not invasive, but they're far worse than the privets in terms of annoyance. At least the privets stay in their little patch! The maple helicopters whirl into every available spot available including flower beds, between driveway cracks, and flower pots!

So I yoinked those too. I'm going to try some trunk fusing experiments with them. Not like I won't have a million more next year!

I'll see if I can't get a picture when the sun is up it's no longer 4 am!

 

[Oddly_Aude]

I found a nice euonymus fortunei invading my yard. Time to pot him up!

 

[Cajunrider]

Mayhaws raft. Main trunk is buried for now.

 

[Joe Dupre']

And yet another southern red cedar. This one was a straight, boring, run-of-the-mil 2" diameter specimen. Last summer I chopped it at about 3 ft., made a horizontal cut at about 18" and split the trunk. I pruned the top third pretty severely then just let it recuperate. It repaid me with more branches down low. Nothing special------just ANOTHER 5 year project. People hate on them, but they ARE junipers and respond to many juniper techniques.