I posted it elsewhere, but here is the same retusa potted up. Just goes to show you how certain stock, marketed for bonsai, can make the transition from growing container to bonsai pot with little effort (species specific).

John

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potted retusa 2.JPG (37.8 KB, 70 views)

This last weekend I had the ultimate honor of accompanying Vance Wood on a trip to a nursery here in Michigan. To say Vance is experienced at nursery crawling is an understatement; most of what I know about nursery collecting I learned from posts made by Vance on another forum, long ago before I met him.

After arriving late because I was looking for his street off of the wrong road, Vance and I headed out to the nursery where we found some great deals and I got to watch this man evaluate Mughos and other species first hand. The most valuable lesson I learned from Vance is to forget the foliage, in fact he doesn’t even consider it when selecting a tree. Foliage can be trained, shaped, removed, and replaced, it’s the trunk and roots that make or break stock.

In nurseries the problem is that the trunks and roots are often buried under dirt, needles and other debris and if you want to see what’s under there you have to “see” with your fingers. This is not a sport for the neat freaks, you will get dirty and you’ll spend hours removing the dirt from under your nails. On the plus side, you’ll find some great deals and some excellent stock.

Pictures one and two are of a typical nursery Mugho Pine in which seeing the trunk and roots with the eye is impossible. You can either guess and take a chance or get down and dirty.

Pictures three, four, and five are of my hand digging in and “seeing” the trunks and roots below the dirt and debris. Vance and I went though many Mughos that day and passed on 80% of them judging by what we could feel alone.

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	can not see 1.jpg (63.9 KB, 49 views)
	can not see 2.jpg (55.0 KB, 36 views)
	hand in 1.jpg (52.2 KB, 34 views)
	hand in 2.jpg (46.1 KB, 112 views)
	dirty hand.jpg (51.0 KB, 35 views)

Here is one of the two mughos I picked up.

These will not be transplanted until next year but I always take a few steps to get them ready.

I cut down the nursery pot, exposing the hidden trunk and roots, but I leave the few roots that will be nebari slightly buried. I then remove just enough unwanted branches to allow sunlight to penetrate the interior. This helps the existing inner buds to grow, I'll need these when I style in the future.

Below are pictures of these steps and a couple pis of the nice stock that was buried. Vance's "Seeing eye hands" method is truly worth it's weight in gold.

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	mugho before.jpg (54.0 KB, 128 views)
	after cut.jpg (61.1 KB, 32 views)
	mugho 1.jpg (59.6 KB, 141 views)
	mugho 2.jpg (59.0 KB, 177 views)
	backbudding 1.jpg (58.1 KB, 40 views)

Using this technique I also picked up a couple nice Junipers as well.

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	J 1 A.jpg (42.8 KB, 34 views)
	J 1 B.jpg (46.3 KB, 40 views)
	J 1 C.jpg (41.8 KB, 65 views)
	J 2 A.jpg (47.3 KB, 21 views)
	J 2 B.jpg (47.0 KB, 52 views)
	J 2 C.jpg (40.9 KB, 58 views)

One Yew, two Mughos, four Junipers, and a better understanding of the fine art of nursery collecting...all for a price you wouldn't believe anyhow.

Vance was an excellent instructor and showed me things I couldn't have learned without hands on experience. We were two smiling lunatics with a truck jammed full of trees on the way home. The bed and the back seat was full of trees, we couldn't have taken another tree home if they were free.


Will

I'll post pics of my other finds as soon as I can.

Will (and Vance)

What a great time you had.

Some terrific stock there.
Be sure to keep us updated on the progress of these beauties.

Regards,
Ian.

Good stuff Will, I hope some others will learn form this. If you look at these trees straight on you pass them by, if you dig around and learn to see what you feel you can find some wonderful material. You learned quickly, its good to see the results of our labors.

You are right Vance, I would have passed up most of these without close inspection.

This is the time of year to start shopping the local nurseries, end of season sales are already starting here.


Will

Well,
I was field collecting last week, you know tagging trees for the dig in February- field with 4-500 pines- we did exactly the same thing- seems like a natural way to go with raw material. John