peterbone
Mame
That's true. Mine does have a little foliage but I ended up cutting off more than I'd hoped to keep in order to get buds low down on the trunk in Spring.
Wild trees for bonsai 2019 (UK)
- Thread starter peterbone
- Start date
Sn0W
Shohin
You're right, that's exactly what he says. He also says the trees do better with protection over winter.
@peterbone read this: http://bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/AT Collecting Deciduous Trees In Autumn Fall.html
Cattwooduk
Shohin
Just came across this English oak surrounded by pyracantha on the egde of the marshy fields/woodlands I walk frequently. Hadn't noticed it before but its got some nice low branching and a curvy trunk with options. Plenty of deer and muntjack in these woods to keep stuff stunted.
Might try collecting in the next couple of weeks and save half the height when bringing it home. Its about 7'tall.
Picture doesn't want to upload from my phone so I'll post some up later
Might try collecting in the next couple of weeks and save half the height when bringing it home. Its about 7'tall.
Picture doesn't want to upload from my phone so I'll post some up later
Cattwooduk
Shohin
Didn't have any tools with me to have a preliminary scratch around to look at the base. Will go back and check that out before doing any digging!
I think I can get quite a good S-curve out of it at first glance.
I think I can get quite a good S-curve out of it at first glance.
Woocash
Omono
Nice. Certainly beats the bamboo straight ones I’ve been able to find so far.
Cattwooduk
Shohin
This field keeps turning up little treats! This one was completely surrounded by tall grass, noted it's location but may try collect in the next couple of weeks rather than in spring depending on available time. Might be better to collect in spring now though having lost all its leaves?
Given that there are so many potential bits of material around I've got my eye on I'm thinking I may get some young but tall replacements to plant around for the stuff I remove - mostly native stuff for the edges of the field which is higher elevation but also thinking about a few bald cypress to go nearer the area which is currently flooded/marsh area. The field is a bowl shape which is flooded half the year.
Given that there are so many potential bits of material around I've got my eye on I'm thinking I may get some young but tall replacements to plant around for the stuff I remove - mostly native stuff for the edges of the field which is higher elevation but also thinking about a few bald cypress to go nearer the area which is currently flooded/marsh area. The field is a bowl shape which is flooded half the year.
BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
Good stuff. you're lucky to have this stuff around locally. if it was me i would be going for it and digging stuff up all year round, during the winter months i would be trying to dig with as much root as possible. in spring i would be a bit more aggressive. but thats just me, if i had the opportunity. in South London i would probably get away with it if i donned a high vis jacket, then maybe i could say im working for the council or something
walk into the park with a spade and loppers around here, you'll probably be reported and arrested
Cattwooduk
Shohin
Good stuff. you're lucky to have this stuff around locally. if it was me i would be going for it and digging stuff up all year round, during the winter months i would be trying to dig with as much root as possible. in spring i would be a bit more aggressive. but thats just me, if i had the opportunity. in South London i would probably get away with it if i donned a high vis jacket, then maybe i could say im working for the council or something
walk into the park with a spade and loppers around here, you'll probably be reported and arrested
No one questions a high-vis jacket! This particular place is real quiet, see the occasional dog walker and there was a couple of rough sleepers at one point living in the woods but they moved on leaving a huge mess I slowly cleared up, but apart from that it's nice and peaceful... mostly foxes and deer.I was collecting a lot more last couple of years before the kids came along - I could probably be grabbing a bit more than I am at the moment but since moving house I whittled down quite a few of the things I had started and now like to think I have a more selective eye. Even some of the stuff in these woods/field I had my eye on for later collection I've decided against for now. Trying to avoid having more material than I have any hope of working on!
Currently looking at 2 small oaks like the one above, the large one I previously posted (which I'm considering just cutting back and leaving in the field to shape there for now), a yew and 2 Hawthorn which have loads of deadwood up the trunk for some potential carving/hollow. Going to leave the yew and hawthorn until spring for sure after losing that huge Hawthorn I collected last year, still gutted that one didn't make it! I haven't done any autumn collecting really so might try one of the small oaks for now and see how it goes. It's small enough to take the whole top and all the roots, will mostly bare root it but not wash them with water. The soil is pretty loamy and light so should be easy enough.
Cattwooduk
Shohin
So it turns out the field might be a little more cursed than I thought. I've dug stuff from in the woods around the field and the roots tend to be more shallow and radial. The field has such light loose soil, and the meadow grass on top sucking up the moisture even on an area probe to flooding, combined with Oaks natural tendency to throw down one crazy tap root... The roots are baaaadddd on these!
I dug 4 as they were so damn easy to lift, literally 5-10 minutes each. All of them basically one tap root with next to no fibrous roots. I've shortened one of them but the other 3 just took the lot.
Put them in a deep trug for now complete root ball not washed off. Priority is going to be getting them to survive, almost all the work for next few years will be regrowing better roots and developing radial growth. In the early spring I will definitely be using the sweating technique which is why all 4 went in the same container so I can bag the whole thing.
If they get some good growth and recovery next year I may try to ground layer one and see how well that works with Oak as I can't find much comment on them.
I'm thinking 3 of them might end up planted together eventually.
Excuse the lighting I didn't get time to sort them up until after the kids were in bed! Next job is to rig up some lighting in the greenhouse.
I dug 4 as they were so damn easy to lift, literally 5-10 minutes each. All of them basically one tap root with next to no fibrous roots. I've shortened one of them but the other 3 just took the lot.
Put them in a deep trug for now complete root ball not washed off. Priority is going to be getting them to survive, almost all the work for next few years will be regrowing better roots and developing radial growth. In the early spring I will definitely be using the sweating technique which is why all 4 went in the same container so I can bag the whole thing.
If they get some good growth and recovery next year I may try to ground layer one and see how well that works with Oak as I can't find much comment on them.
I'm thinking 3 of them might end up planted together eventually.
Excuse the lighting I didn't get time to sort them up until after the kids were in bed! Next job is to rig up some lighting in the greenhouse.
BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
with that little root you could of tried planting them up tight as a clump/triple trunk,
hope they work out
hope they work out
Cattwooduk
Shohin
Yeah I had thought that when I remembered you posted the Heron's video the other week with two necked up against each other. I figure for now I'll just nurse them and give them a little more space hoping they'll actually push some new growth in the Spring and then start playing with them the following year maybe.
I'm now thinking with the big oak I found in the same field it might be a bit of a battle assuming the roots have developed the same as these little ones. I figure I'll leave it for now, try and ground layer one of these small ones and then make a decision from the results of that.
I'm now thinking with the big oak I found in the same field it might be a bit of a battle assuming the roots have developed the same as these little ones. I figure I'll leave it for now, try and ground layer one of these small ones and then make a decision from the results of that.
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BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
Oak in my local park, has some potential
Cattwooduk
Shohin
I collected these 2 Hawthorn stumps towards the end of winter last year, the root spread isn't too bad on one, a little one sided on the other. You can't see it in the picture as I buried them both pretty deep.
I used the bag-sweating technique and keep them wrapped in a black bag right through until July, then cut a bit of a hole in the top to start letting more light in and kept them super humid. Unlike the massive trunk/stump I had last year and didn't sweat which caused it to die, these 2 stayed in leaf right through to November. I'm really hopeful they will push fresh growth again this spring, and I may bag them up again to keep the humidity up as they didn't put on loads of growth... hopefully enough that there is some new roots.
One is more interesting that the other obviously, but the more chunky one has a pretty nice base to it so might eventually make a nice standard kinda broom.
The taller one has been nibbled by deer a lot at some point and has lots of dead wood patches for possible carving in future. I couldn't decide quite what to do with that weird arm sticking up to the side so I left it when I collected it, can decide later but figured I'd leave it for growth for now anyway until it's had another year or two to recover.
I used the bag-sweating technique and keep them wrapped in a black bag right through until July, then cut a bit of a hole in the top to start letting more light in and kept them super humid. Unlike the massive trunk/stump I had last year and didn't sweat which caused it to die, these 2 stayed in leaf right through to November. I'm really hopeful they will push fresh growth again this spring, and I may bag them up again to keep the humidity up as they didn't put on loads of growth... hopefully enough that there is some new roots.
One is more interesting that the other obviously, but the more chunky one has a pretty nice base to it so might eventually make a nice standard kinda broom.
The taller one has been nibbled by deer a lot at some point and has lots of dead wood patches for possible carving in future. I couldn't decide quite what to do with that weird arm sticking up to the side so I left it when I collected it, can decide later but figured I'd leave it for growth for now anyway until it's had another year or two to recover.
