Hi all.
This is a Norway maple (not a Sycamore as I previously thought) which had an identity crisis, in that it was growing up in the middle of a privet hedge in the front yard. My mum wanted it removed and so I dug it up in the middle of summer last year. I managed to get about 6 inches of taproot and maybe 2 or 3 tiny fine feeder roots.
I wasn't hopeful at all, bearing in mind the weather and apparent lack of rootmass but, I decided all the same to give it a shot at survival. I planted the tree in pea gravel, watered and put in the shade. It stood about 5ft tall and about 2" diameter at the base.
For a few days the leaves were limp and I was just waiting for them to brown, fall off and have another stick for the bonfire. Remarkably, it didn't shed a single one. Within a few weeks I noticed buds popping out all over the place and a sneaky peek below the gravel revealed a flurry of new roots from the trunk.
By late summer and purely because the thing was growing like a weed, I decided to do a trunk chop. The tree responded very well and pushed out maybe 8 - 10 new buds in the immediate area below the chop. I was spoilt for choice for a change. After that I left the tree alone. Since then it attained about 3ft in length.
Not wanting to push my luck, I'd decided against chopping the tree back as far as I had originally wanted. Today I cut the tree back further and after applying raffia to the side branch, initally to protect the bark as I sawed off the upper part of the trunk, I then bent the side branch up into its new position and added a bit of movement too.
I have been very impressed though with the speed at which this species has recovered and pushed out new growth. I would never normally be so brutal and put a tree through so much stress in such a short amount of time, but it was almost tapping its watch and telling me to get a shuffle on.
I've found it back buds extremely well and is very flexible. Had I attempted to bend an Acer Palmatum branch of the same thickness, I would have heard a snap within moments. It also throws out roots like there is no tomorrow, so I'm hoping to develop some decent nebari within the next few years. I'm looking forward to styling this one in the future and am interested to see by how much the foliage reduces once the tree is in a bonsai pot and rootmass cut back.
Anyhoo, here's a few pictures as of today. I'll keep y'all posted.
Any comments, suggestions or questions welcomed.
All the best,
Aaron