My Essay Tips On Urban Bonsai Collecting

LivingArt

My tips for serious urban bonsai collecting from personal experience in urban environments.

This is like collecting in the mountains but you are in a city. You want to get good material that is old and otherwise not available to you. This means NO young material.

Tools And Equipment You Will Need

medium size shovel and small hand shovel
small hand saw and large hand saw
pruning shears
knife
100% organic soil mix
fabric or burlap sack
water (as many as you think you will need)
metal file
plants for trading
note pad and pencil
string or twine

Prepare all your tools before you go hunting. The metal file is for sharpening your shovel head so that it can chop roots. Do not use bonsai tools because collecting often is a dirty and rough job. Use generic tools from a local garden center.

Now that you have all your things ready it is time to plan an urban collecting trip.
Make sure it is the best time of year to collect in your area and for the plants you are hunting for.

Here Are Some Places

Business Buildings (outside)
Apartment complexes
Banks
Shopping Malls

You have to get permission to take plants. Ask someone if you may have the plant. If they are not in a position to give you the right to take it then they should be able to point you to someone who can. It is best to do this on a day when business for this place is relatively slow. For apartment complexes you will need to go to the main office and for malls you should talk to the service desk.

If the person with authority to grant you permission to take this plant seem hesitant tell them you will replace it with a new plant of the same kind. This is where the "plants for trading" on my list comes in.
Make sure you let them know you want this plant because it IS "old" AND "ugly" and that you are going to use it for a bonsai.

Now you have found the plant and confirmed the trade or grab. Now, what to do help this urban tree survive.

Get out your note pad and write down information about this plant, its surroundings, and living conditions. See where the sun rises and falls around the building. Also, see if it is close to the doors of a building that would let out cool AC air onto it. If a tree is in the shade of a building and or receives a lot of AC air you will want to keep it in the shade when you collect it and get it home.

Now you have taken notes, it's time to dig it up. If it is a big plant you might want to have a helper or two. Start by making a perimeter with your shovel around the plant as far away from its base as possible. Junipers will often have thick connection underground to other Junipers so you will need to saw these connections to remove the plant.

Try to save as many fine roots as possible when collecting. To do this, try taking the plant out in one big good clump of dirt. Once out, quickly wrap the root ball or roots in a wet fabric or wet sack and drench with water. Place in a container that will give the plant support and keep the water from getting all in your car.

When you get it home unwrap the roots and place it in a container with drainage holes. Water again and let rest. You will need to learn what this plant species that you have collected likes and does not like along with the information you collected. Do not fertilize right away. Wait 2-3 months or until the roots become firmly established. Fertilizing a collected tree to soon can burn new roots and roots that have been injured in the collecting process.

So remember,
take notes
take your time
be courteous and friendly
never steal
only collect MATURE OLD material
have fun!

LA

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dbz12fan

You forgot the most important thing. Money. Money talks, plain and simple. After a no to replacing it with a different plant just offer them a 50 and usually that works.

__________________
"Success demands understanding"-Andy Rutledge

Charles Bevan
Vero Beach, Fl

LivingArt

hmmmm, i never had to try that but i'll take a mental note of it.
LA

treenut

You don't have to go to the country to find wild Bonsai thats for sure, here's a couple of chinese elms I lifted from the side of the road within one mile of the CBD.
I've got my eye on some Junipers too in a vacant parking lot, they've been hit with the lawn mower, whipper snippered, stepped on and driven over, and now resemble something you would only find on the top of a mountain somewhere, they're perfect!
I know for sure when that when the next lot of owners set up shop they will take one look at these plants and think they're ghastly and rip them up and put some nice flowers in or something, they're the type of plants only a Bonsai enthusiast could love.

Attached Images

ch elms.jpg (66.6 KB, 223 views)

BrianBay9

I'd like to point out the value of volunteering to get access to urban trees. I collected one (Thuja) while volunteering to rebuild a low-income daycare center. It was in the way of a concrete slab project. A second (live oak) I got by volunteering to work on landscaping at my kid's high school. It was growing into a fence line. By volunteering, you get to point out the "problem" tree, and suggest a solution that people jump at.

Here's the live oak. The picture doesn't do it justice. It has a nice, graceful series of subtle curves to the trunk. Bas is about 5 inches wide.

Brian

Attached Images

cnv0016.jpg (45.2 KB, 182 views)

BrianBay9

I've posted this Thuja elsewhere, but it was acquired by volunteering for a weekend's work rebuilding a daycare center.

Brian

Attached Images

thuja export.jpg (30.7 KB, 187 views)