A Crataegus Story

hansvanmeer

This is a story about a Crataegus yamadori from Wales (U.K).
In februari 1999 i made the long journy to the north of England for my second yamadory trip with my close bonsai friends who live up there. The next morning we got out of bed really early to start the long drive to the north of Wales, where the story of this Howthorn begins.
These very old small servivors grow on a very steep mountenside facing the see, where they are constanty batherd by the strong winds, the hole mounten seems to be made up out of nothing more than small rocks where hardly anything seems to be able to grow on! These loose small rocks seems to be constantly on the move, and fall down the hill from the slitest touch. So those small trees were constantly cruched and coverd by rocks, and if they were finaly able to grow a inch or two, the sheep who live on those hills would make sure that they did not grow much furder! This also ment that if you want to have a closer look at the base of the tree, you had to try to move these small rocks from inbetween the tangled branches, witch was rather difficult and very painfull ! After a long surch, and two hands that looked like i had been the referee in a cat v/s porcupine wrestling match, i find the leading lary of this story! (photo 1,2,3)
The little roots she had were protected in wet spagnum moss, put in to a large binback and taped titly for the trip back to Tony's place.
Part two in a few hours!

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hansvanmeer

After a quick diner we wend in to the workshet to put our finds into trainingpots. After cutting of the long and to thick roots, i planted my tree in a diswash tub with holes drilled in to it. It was firmly tight down to the bottom and sides of the pot, so it would not move to much durig the long way home! The pot was filled up with a mix of akadama and grit, so that new roots could grow easely and with no change of staing to wet for to long. Witch is verry usefull in our climate!
There and then big dissisions were made, thick or to long branches were cut off and sealed with cutpaste.
(photo 4,5,6.).

More to come.

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kingkong

What a beauty! Keep up the good work. How about a picture of a sheep?

mgc

Nice set of pics, a nice specimen, and a job seemingly well done !

On a reflectory note.....

When I see a guy dressed up for bear, on a rocky hillside, in the middle of February, jerking a dormant, but albeit hapless plant out of the ground and bare-rooting it, presumably that day or the next .... there's no way I'm worried about fungus, shock, or stored food in roots or whatever, for having stuck a shovel in the ground a few times around each of a bunch of plants a few days ago on a mountainside in northern Pennslyvania.

I actually think I'm going to sleep nights now ... Thanks Hans!

hansvanmeer

Out of experiance i now know that it is always better to transport them wraped up safely, and put them in a trainings pot when you get home. This way there is les changes for root damage . The next photo's are shot in my garden two days later. You can see that a lot is cut off and only the necesary branches are saved for my design, this drastic pruning also promotes heavy backbudding, if you leave a strong bud near a large cut, it will not only make the wound heal quicker, but several buds wil appeare around the wound in the near future, so you more or les know where new branches are going to apear, that you need for your design! If there are no buds near the wound you have to make sure to leave a little stump, so that the brange has a little room to dry back, while the sapestream has time to recover!
If you dont do this you might loose whole branches or worse.
(Photo 7,8.)

More to come.

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hansvanmeer

Next photo's are from may 2000.
(photo 9).The tree has recoverd fine and looks healty enough for some more drastic prunning!
(photo 10). It is a bid hard to see, but i am pointing to the right side of the tree, where a heavy side branch that grows from there to the back has to go!
(photo 11). You see the branch is cut off, if you look closely you can see that i left some smal branches close to the wound so that the sapflow is maintaint, now there is no danger to the branches above the wound!

More to come.

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calliemichelle

I love it all, the story, the pics, and the tree!
Thanks for sharing.

have a happy day
Callie

taipan(deceased)

Looking good Hans! You and the tree!

Happy Growing mate
Tai

hansvanmeer

(Photo 12.)
Except for some secrafice branches, all unnecessary branches where removed. For the rest of this year she was left alone to grow!
(Photo 13.)
This was shot March 2001.
First the tree was weierd, then it was taken out of it's container.
Because of the very lose soil i used, i could allmost shake free all of the roots. There were plenty of new small roots, so i could tackle the next problem without to mutch danger! I had to saw of a very thick root on the backside of the tree, the stump was removed just to where there were small roots growing from it side. They will grow fast now because of the extra energy that will flow to them now, so that in the future the stump can be made smaller and more natural.
(Photo 14.)
The root is sawed off without any problems! see that all the heavy wounds are caped to the backside off the tree, and see all the new buds around the large wound just above the stump, because of the sucker branches i left on there sap flow kept on gowing to feed them, so there was no risk to the higher parts above this large cut because everything just kept on flowing!
More to come.

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