yamadori

I know there are a few nice escarpment live oaks in the bonsai world and I hope I can bring another nice tree into the mix. This tree is growing in a rough arid landscape with lots of juniper and red oak. These struggles have resulted in the live oaks in this area having smaller leaves...

Potential yamadori subjects. I’m after twisted trunks and I am wondering if you all think either of these trees would qualify as twisted trunks.

I live in Southern California. I was fortunate to come across an add of a person asking if anyone wanted the pine in the picture for free. I jumped on the opportunity to practice. First, does anyone know what type of pine this is? Second, please any direction on how to do this properly is...

I’m not usually one for the smaller bonsai but when I saw this small tree while out scouting I had to have it! There’s lots of small juniper out where I collected this but very few with the great deadwood and character that this one has. Combine that with the movement it possesses and I think we...

Here's a forsythia I dug up late autumn last year. It was a twin trunk but only one of them had good movement so the other was removed after the leaves fell. The roots where checked last weekend as I still had to remove one of the huge tap roots. I didn't have enough time when I initially dug...

I have the privilege of going on a collecting trip with The Bonsai Smiths this weekend and I have a few Ashe juniper to choose from. I’m posting images of a couple that I really think I want to try to collect if they are collectible. Choose your favs and help me decide which ones to go for!

Ok, I know now isn’t a good time to be digging up trees. I really wanted to get a feel for the difficulty of digging one up. And boy, did I get a feel. So like I said, I know this wasn’t a good idea for the tree’s sake, but this was more for testing exertion than gaining a healthy tree. I know...

Hey guys, just documenting and sharing another Quercus buckleyi ( Buckley’s Oak) that I collected near Abilene, Texas. I’m really excited about this one because of the really nice radial roots that it has. There’s a tiny bit of inverse taper at the moment but I’m hoping now that the lower trunk...

I’m one of those that really wants to see more oak in bonsai and I hope to eventually have some nice ones myself. Here are a few shots of an oak that I recently collected. It was a real chore getting this guy out of the ground! During the process I broke my mattock axe handle by hitting it on a...

First time collecting a bougainvillea. Requesting tips for collecting. Below is what I gathered so far in term of what to. Background: I live in southern California near Los Angeles. I think that is a zone 10. I found a bougainvillea that has fallen over. The land owner is allowing me to...

I collected this oak this weekend and was able to get some nice feeder roots out with it. I left the trunks long with the intention of maybe cutting them back shorter in the next couple of days. I’ve already shortened them to where I have the trunks blocked out in the edited picture but I’m...

Hi all, I can collect a Japanese maple from someones garden, for free (it has to go now). Never done this before and I would like to increase the chance of it to survive. How should I proceed?

I have an awesome opportunity to collect whatever I want according to the land owners...this doesn’t mean I will just try and pull everything out of the ground. I want to do it right and give the trees the best chance of survival possible so I’m looking for advice and possible hands on help to...

So I was able to get permission to potentially collect trees from a pretty large piece of property near Abilene. I scouted the land for about 30 min today and was able to find some nice trees in that short time. I understand that Ashe juniper can be fussy trees during collection so I want to do...

Last week I purchased this Scots pine. It was collected last spring in France. It's in good health, loads of buds popping up, even in the interior of the canopy. What attracted me was the nice movement in the base, deadwood and the long, elegant trunk. There are a lot of finer branches to work...

I was lucky enough to purchase this pretty cool oak prebonsai at a Dallas nursery and just had to take it home with me because I think it has potential to become something awesome in the future. From what I’ve read collecting oak is something that’s not necesarilly easy to do and it was awesome...

I was lucky enough to purchase this pretty cool oak prebonsai at a Dallas nursery and just had to take it home with me because I think it has potential to become something awesome in the future. From what I’ve read collecting oak is something that’s not necesarilly easy to do and it was awesome...

I've been trying to do research on this topic for awhile now, but I've never personally collected in the Late Summer/Fall. I have read stuff from Walter Pall, Harry Harrington (https://www.bonsai4me.com/AdvTech/ATquercus%20rootpruning%20and%20repotting.htm), and others about collecting at this...

Neighbor was going to kill them, and I said NOPE. Bother were planted in pumice and left in the shade for about a week. They are both starting to push new buds. I don't know if they'll survive the winter. First frost comes in about 4 weeks. @Leo in N E Illinois- you seem to be the resident...

Hello All! I thought this would be a fun exercise to get an all-inclusive thread going. Yamadori is a term used by the Japanese to describe trees collected from the wild. It does have some more depth to its meaning but for simplicity sake, we will just call it, trees collected from the wild...

Simple: post an interesting closeup picture of the bark of a tree you own (refined bonsai or long term project, doesn’t matter). Focus on picture quality, proper focus and lighting. If you post in this thread, you must attach a bark picture, no exception. Same rule as in the other picture...

I collected this downy birch (betula pubescens) in March from a field. I planted it in a mix of akadama, lava rock, perlite and composted cow manure (sounds weird, I know). It grew extremely well! I'm not planning on pruning it, just removed some suckers and recently also some of the larger...

So this is one of the first yamadori i have ever collected. I wasn't planning on collecting one of these Foothill/ghost/grey/digger/etc Pines; but this one caught my eye for whatever reason. It has still never been wired or anything; because it was only collected about 5 months ago. I am...

This weekend I was able to collect a nice size Cedar Elm that has a nice radial root spread and primary branching. I think I may reduce one of the two larger upper branches a bit more but I think I’ll take my time and think on it for a bit. I went straight to a bonsai pot because I didn’t want a...

Hey guys I collected a couple nice viburnum this weekend but they have some deadwood that’s rotting on it so I was wondering what are y’alls preferred methods for preserving deadwood.