Diary of a stick

[Woocash]

This is my stick. There are many like it, but this one is mine....

At a recent visit to a local nursery, I happened upon the rear yard and was greeted by a multitude of past it, has been, once shiny and beautiful trees, no longer worthy of public appearances. We all the know the sort. After much deliberation, I came away with a small blue spruce, Picea Pungens, for £4, a 9ft European olive, Olea Europaea, for £10 (I know, right?) and a potted stick, Stickus Coniferus, for free!


At first I thought it was a huge shame. The stick had a beautiful buttressing nebari, but had clearly gone the way of the dodo.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, towards what was the back of the stick at the top, I saw a tiny piece of green

Then, following the trunk down I found another, then more.

She lives! Albeit, barely, but this stick had acquired new growth and new buds. There’s hope for the old girl yet!

So, the downside is that I have a suspicion that this stick was of the Nordmann Fir, Abies Nordmanniana, a variety not commonly used for bonsai. The upside is that I have an opportunity to watch a phoenix tree arise from the brink and grow into a nice healthy tree, warts and all. I have toyed with chopping off the top where it starts with the real straight section and letting it do its thing from there, but I am not keen to shock it too much so for now, I’m going to leave it in this lovely big pot, grow it out and see what becomes of it.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Take a close look here:



You may notice there is a substantial difference in the character of the trunk and bark above and below that point. It is possibly a grafted tree and the scion has died, while the stronger root stock has survived. Check for any green growth above that point. If not, it is possible the upper half is dead and will need to go.

Not a disaster, since you are just having fun with it, but if there is a cultivar name on the pot, it will be for the scion and not the root stock. Also, when checking for good nebari you really want the roots to radiate outwards at the soil line, and not project straight down towards the bottom of the pot. Assuming your tree survives, you will want to move it as soon as practical into the exact opposite type of growing container. Instead of narrow and deep, you will want wide and shallow - forcing the roots to grow outwards instead of downwards.

 

[Woocash]

Take a close look here:

View attachment 279405

You may notice there is a substantial difference in the character of the trunk and bark above and below that point. It is possibly a grafted tree and the scion has died, while the stronger root stock has survived. Check for any green growth above that point. If not, it is possible the upper half is dead and will need to go.

Not a disaster, since you are just having fun with it, but if there is a cultivar name on the pot, it will be for the scion and not the root stock. Also, when checking for good nebari you really want the roots to radiate outwards at the soil line, and not project straight down towards the bottom of the pot. Assuming your tree survives, you will want to move it as soon as practical into the exact opposite type of growing container. Instead of narrow and deep, you will want wide and shallow - forcing the roots to grow outwards instead of downwards.

Thank you Mr Nut. I had not even considered that it could be grafted and just assumed it was an old christmas tree in a sorry state. To my untrained eye it doesn’t look grafted, but this is the point you told me to look at and there is a mark there. There are similar marks at various whorl locations on the trunk though.

Regardless, there is a tiny green shoot at the top of the tree and a few buds so I think the whole thing is still alive. I know it needs to come down at some point, but would now be too much for it?

I thought about a repot as well, but for now and in it’s condition I thought I’d leave it be and let it recuperate for a while first. Plus when I take the pot back, they’ll actually give me £3 for it on some pot recycling scheme. With that amount I can buy loads of free trees!

 

[CWTurner]

@Woocash Living on a boat?
CW

 

[Woocash]

@Woocash Living on a boat?
CW

Yes mate. Living on a 45 x 7ft narrowboat, doing up a 77 x 13ft dutch barge on the river Thames. When it’s done I’ll do a progression thread..

 

[leatherback]

Yes mate. Living on a 45 x 7ft narrowboat, doing up a 77 x 13ft dutch barge on the river Thames. When it’s done I’ll do a progression thread..

NICE!!

Is this in abingdon now then? (Used to live there and loved the canal barges there!

 

[Woocash]

NICE!!

Is this in abingdon now then? (Used to live there and loved the canal barges there!

We’re just north of Oxford. Only a long day‘s cruising really (8 miles by car ), but it’s too busy for me in Abingdon. Lovely place to have a day out on the river though, it’s just that everyone has the same idea!

What a random place to end up though. How long since you were there?

 

[leatherback]

What a random place to end up though. How long since you were there?

It has been 11 years since I moved to German.
Random.. Not really. I was working at University of Oxford at the time, but could not afford accomodation in Oxford. Abbingdon was only about 10km from Oxford, so in about 45minuts I would cycle to work, across the big hill.

 

[Shibui]

Is it likely this stick is a larch? I don't have much experience cause they don't like my climate but the bark looks right for larch. New buds sprouting in spring is right for larch. Nurseries throwing them out as dead in winter is also common.
I think the change in bark is more likely to be a yearly growth thing and the upper section is just younger bark. It looks way too high for a graft, especially on conifer.

You may already be aware that you can chop olive almost anywhere and new shoots will sprout all over the remaining stump but I'd wait until it warms up a bit before doing a chop.

 

[Woocash]

It has been 11 years since I moved to German.
Random.. Not really. I was working at University of Oxford at the time, but could not afford accomodation in Oxford. Abbingdon was only about 10km from Oxford, so in about 45minuts I would cycle to work, across the big hill.

Well, when you put it like that, not so random after all. I always just thought of Abingdon as a pokey little town famous for not a lot. There are certainly worse places to be than Oxfordshire though.

 

[Woocash]

Is it likely this stick is a larch? I don't have much experience cause they don't like my climate but the bark looks right for larch. New buds sprouting in spring is right for larch. Nurseries throwing them out as dead in winter is also common.
I think the change in bark is more likely to be a yearly growth thing and the upper section is just younger bark. It looks way too high for a graft, especially on conifer.

You may already be aware that you can chop olive almost anywhere and new shoots will sprout all over the remaining stump but I'd wait until it warms up a bit before doing a chop.

I would dearly love it to be a larch, but I doubt very much that it is, unfortunately. The nursery I got it from had no larch in stock, plus the little snippets of growth I think are last year’s. I think you’re right about the graft (or lack thereof) though. It just seems to be a section of vigour after a few more compact younger years. Both the christmas trees I bought in December have the same pattern of growth which all leads me to think this is an old christmas tree, as opposed to a nursery tree. At the moment my contenders are all firs. Nordmann fir (most likely), Fraser fir, Douglas fir or Korean fir. All of which they carry in stock so we’ll see.

Yea, cheers for the olive info. I bought it with the proviso that the uppermost section of 3 or 4 feet would be a standard style potted garden tree and anything below would be mine (muwahahahaha!) I planned to air layer the top off, though now I am possibly thinking about just lopping it off and sticking it in sand in the summertime. Then creating foot long sections from the rest in the same manner. Does that sound any good?

 

[Shibui]

Yea, cheers for the olive info. I bought it with the proviso that the uppermost section of 3 or 4 feet would be a standard style potted garden tree and anything below would be mine (muwahahahaha!) I planned to air layer the top off, though now I am possibly thinking about just lopping it off and sticking it in sand in the summertime. Then creating foot long sections from the rest in the same manner. Does that sound any good?

olive are supposed to root easily from all sorts of wood but i have not had much luck with rooting stem cuttings. I can saw all the roots off the base of the tree (flat bottom cut) and they put out new roots and continue to grow but can't yet grow stem cuttings????
I'm not sure the top section of your tree is worth the trouble of making cuttings or layering. I would just lop and toss but I do have access to plenty of olives.

 

[Woocash]

olive are supposed to root easily from all sorts of wood but i have not had much luck with rooting stem cuttings. I can saw all the roots off the base of the tree (flat bottom cut) and they put out new roots and continue to grow but can't yet grow stem cuttings????
I'm not sure the top section of your tree is worth the trouble of making cuttings or layering. I would just lop and toss but I do have access to plenty of olives.

Yea I don’t have much to choose from. Certainly not that size and that price! Plus, I do love an ugly duckling so I couldn’t bring myself to just chuck it. Ordinarily, a tree that big would be hundreds of pounds (as in currency).