TO Collect or NOT to Collect? That is my question!

TreeBay

What a wonderful trunk Marija - it looks like there is a small, green door for elves at the base of the trunk in that first photo!

Regards,

Matt

Attached Images

	greendoor.jpg (49.2 KB, 61 views)
	company-tree.jpg (10.7 KB, 32 views)

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marija hajdic

Elv
Soory, but I don't understand. I am at work, and my big english dictionary is at home....

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Regards, Marija
http://www.my-bonsai.com

Will_Heath

Elfs.

Magical little creatures that have a living bond with trees. Here in the States there is a cookie company that uses little cartoon elfs (Keebler Elfs) (not to be confused with Keppler) that live in a tree as an advertising gimmick, claiming the cookies are baked by Elfs.

I am sure your folklore contains many references to Elfs and such great books as "The Lord of the rings" have Elfs as main characters.

BTW, that was funny, Matt.


Will

Bone-sigh

Grampz,
You are VERY insightful...you got me...I really want to collect these. Hopefully I will get some pictures when/if I do. By the way, how much should I trim off the top,if any, when/if I do collect them now? They definitely need to push growth closer to the trunk for bonsai design.

Thanks to everyone for the input thus far!
Ryan

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marija hajdic

Thanks Will, I presumed something like that...
But I am not sure if Elfs were at home, while I was collecting...
Maybe thay are still searching for their home, that suddenly desapeared in January ?!
I am feeling sad now....

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http://www.my-bonsai.com

rockm

Rushing collection of any tree because you want it can make things difficult for you and the collected tree. You may want the plants, but they (and perhaps you) may not be up to it. Unfortunately, the boxwood will have final say, regardless of your desires. They will either live or you will kill them. Rushing things will push the odds toward the latter result.

Once you dig these 20 year old plants, there will be no more to dig. You have bet the entire group on collection and aftercare skills you may not have yet. If you fail at their recovery, you will have no more to work with.

Wouldn't it be better, since there is apparently no rush to get them, to take a slower approach? Dig one now, see if you can get it to live. Collect the rest gradually, perhaps over several years. Instead of having to learn proper aftercare in a few weeks, you will have alot more time to see what works and what doesn't.

You will also find that the work involved in collecting older plants can be considerable, depending on location and the plant's health. Once you've managed to get one out of the ground, you may just be too tired to get the others .

For what it's worth, I have kept boxwood bonsai for almost 10 years. The oldest plant I've collected was a century old, 10 inch diameter, 15 foot tall boxwood dug from an old pre-Revolutionary war plantation site--it was an original landscape plant for the house, so it was pretty old.

Boxwood are tough plants that can push an enormous amount of roots after drastic root reduction. However, the older they are (20 isn't really old), the more difficult it is to get a compact root system at collection. The older roots tend to push feeder roots further out from the trunk, which can mean you have to take the "semicircle" method multi-year approach to collection, dig halfway around, backfill with bonsai soil, wait a year, then collect.

I rushed collection of that old boxwood because I had to have it. I had not been collecting plants long. I decided I had to dig it up all at once. In the end, I lost it. It took two years to croak. I thought things were going well, as it even pushed new top growth during that period. I learned later that it was running on reserves generated during its long life. It had pushed not a single new root in two years. Needless to say, it was heartbreaking...

marija hajdic

It is better not to rush, and wait for dormant season to collect them. It is the main rule, and in my opinion it is fulish to brake it, and end with dead bonsai.
To save time you could now generaly trim the crown in some siutable bonsai shape, remove some branches ... and prepare them there, for digging next year. In that way you will do something, but not kill the tree!

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Regards, Marija
http://www.my-bonsai.com

Bone-sigh

*Alright, alright...please do not shout too loudly when you all read this.* I collected the plants today. Here is my reasoning: As I mentioned earlier their is a bougie growing over and through part of the hedge row. I know that boxwoods don't mind shade (sorry grampz, in an earlier post I used the wrong term when I said they were being "shaded out"). But for some reason everywhere that bougie touched/came close to the boxwood's branches they had died. The bougie was only planted last year. And here in Florida they grow like weeds. So I collected the two that were being directly affected by the vine because by the end of the season the bougie may take over completely...and well...bye bye boxwoods.

Surprisingly, they had very shallow root balls with lots of feeder roots that were close to the trunk.

Rockm,
they are older than 20...that is just how long they have been in that one location on the property. I don't know exactly how old, so I am guessing that they are closer to 30. And yeah, compared to that ancient boxwood you dug up (100 years!!!) they are young'ns. But here in metropolitan Florida 30 year old material is a very old find. It seems as though people here change their landscapes every 5-10 years. Getting rid of the old and putting in totally new and different plants. I work part time for a landscape design company, I see it all the time. And by the way, I do have experience with what it takes to collect plants just not boxwoods. So thanks for yours, and every one elses input.
I'm not even going to mess with them until I am confedent that they are going to make it. I have trimmed the foliage back(what little there is) a little and I will probably chase the foliage closer to the trunk over the next few years.
The other boxwoods that are waiting in the ground have much better trunks I'll post pictures of those next year. The ones I collected today I will post later.
Thanks,
Ryan

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jeremy_norbury

Now we're all waiting for the photos...

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