Backyard Collecting
By Thomas J.
When it comes to collecting material for use as bonsai,
many enthusiasts, myself included,
have literally no where to go. Especially if you live
in the flatlands like I do. All we're really
left with is to go to nurseries, be they bonsai nurseries,
or regular garden type nurseries.
And then of course we're limited to stock on hand,
or whatever is available at the time.
It really limits our pursuit to advance in the art
of bonsai, when you don't have new material to
work on.
Bonsai is all about being creative, and not just in
styling. You sometimes have to explore
your options. Another option to collecting other than
going to the mountains, or on club digs,
is to do some backyard collecting. At least that's
what I call it. This isn't something new, as
I'm sure there are many enthusiasts who at one time
or another, have dug up material either
at a friend or relatives property. Some have even approached
construction site supervisors
and asked for permission to dig before the bulldozers
move in. If you see potential material
and have the permission to dig, by all means have at
it. Collecting is by whatever means you
can to get the material right? But again, make sure
you have the permission first. I've heard some
real horror stories of enthusiasts going to city parks
to dig up material. Some how, spending time
in the city slammer for bonsai material that might
not even survive the dig, doesn't seem all that worth
it.
For me, my recent collecting came from my sons back
yard. After purchasing a new home in an
established neighborhood, the former owner had two
junipers planted right in the middle of the
yard where a nice shade tree should have gone. My son,
not sharing the same interests as his
old dad in bonsai, told me to either take them, or
the bushhog would consume them.
Now these we're some pretty good size junipers, and
I wasn't looking forward to that much work,
so I looked them over and decided that one would be
all I would take.
Looking at the picture below, I think you can see
what I mean. After being overgrown for sometime,
I wasn't even sure that I had material with any real
potential. But if I may brag a little, I usually have
a good eye for finding something in just about every
juniper I ever worked on.
After getting it home I immediately put it into a
large tub like mica container with the correct draining
soil
that I use with all my bonsai. I then began to clean
it up just a bit in order to see what I had to work
with. Being that it was mid February, I didn't worry
too much about the type of work I was doing with
the tree because the stress factor would certainly
still be there, but wouldn't be as high if it were
much
warmer. I did keep the work to a minimum though, just
to be safe. The picture below shows what it was
I had to work with finally.
Just before we got into the heat of Spring, I had
the tree pretty much broken down to what I thought
I might be able to use for a final specimen. No more
work would be done now until next winter.
In early December I finally eliminated all the branches
that would not work for my final design. A few
of the thicker ones down low were stripped of their
foliage and and used for jin. A small Dremel tool
was used for the carving, and lime sulphur would be
applied at a later date when the stripped wood
would be dried out some.
The carving was fun, as I was able to be just as creative
with it as I am with styling my trees.
The winter of 2006 was a very strange one even here
in North Texas. The winter months were almost
as warm as early Spring, and for that reason I decided
to lift the tree from it's pot after only eleven months
from the initial dig. I really couldn't believe the
root mass that had grown in less than a years time.
The soil
combined with the a good fertilization program, and
just allowing the tree to grow throughout the summer,
in full sun, with the pot covered on very excessive
hot days, showed a very healthy tree, not only on top,
but underneath as well.
I saw no reason at this time why I wouldn't be able
to transplant it into a suitable bonsai pot, and begin
work on
the ramification of the branches.
At this writing, the tree is puttting out really nice
new Spring buds, and will continue to spend it's time
in full sun,
just like it did sitting out in the open yard before
it became a bonsai.
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