Rivka
Shohin
Started this a while back, but finally getting around to starting its thread.
When this contest started up, I had a sad neglected vine maple languishing in a huge tub off to the side at my house, it had been given to me with a few others from a gal who has a large old tree in her yard and always potted up its volunteer seedlings to hand out. I have had it for about 5 years and forgot, scorched, and knocked it over a ridiculous number of times. Yet, despite regularly loosing all its leaves at inopportune times and just generally hating me, it has decided to live, so in turn I decided to torture it a bit more...
So here is my entry, a Acer circinatum aka Vine Maple. They are common sights around the Pacific NorthWest of the USA, loving the shade below the towering Douglas Fir forests. They tend to be multi-trunked and sprawling, though I believe that I may make this one look more like its actual parent which had been coaxed into a specimen tree and had a broad dome shape and sat upon a grassy knoll.
Before: (Nov '20 its tucked in the grey tub, the only shot i have before i pulled it to work on)
First Chop: March 2, 2021 (i was still debating using it as a larger scale or even landscape tree at this point)
Second Chop: March 11, 2021
and it finally got into a proper Anderson deep flat.
3rd Chop: April 30, 2021 and finally trimmed some of its more errant exposed roots a few weeks later.
it had been dumped out of its pot a few times in the years i have had it, subiquently being plopped back in higher and higher, so many of the top roots have been exposed for years and hardened off. I'm keeping a fast draining dome of media in the raised cone of roots, more for looks than anything, the active roots are farther down. I think im going to shift over to a "mossy knoll" tucked in there next time i repot. I'm growing a few flats of various grass like moss for things like this.
When this contest started up, I had a sad neglected vine maple languishing in a huge tub off to the side at my house, it had been given to me with a few others from a gal who has a large old tree in her yard and always potted up its volunteer seedlings to hand out. I have had it for about 5 years and forgot, scorched, and knocked it over a ridiculous number of times. Yet, despite regularly loosing all its leaves at inopportune times and just generally hating me, it has decided to live, so in turn I decided to torture it a bit more...
So here is my entry, a Acer circinatum aka Vine Maple. They are common sights around the Pacific NorthWest of the USA, loving the shade below the towering Douglas Fir forests. They tend to be multi-trunked and sprawling, though I believe that I may make this one look more like its actual parent which had been coaxed into a specimen tree and had a broad dome shape and sat upon a grassy knoll.
Before: (Nov '20 its tucked in the grey tub, the only shot i have before i pulled it to work on)
First Chop: March 2, 2021 (i was still debating using it as a larger scale or even landscape tree at this point)
Second Chop: March 11, 2021
and it finally got into a proper Anderson deep flat.
3rd Chop: April 30, 2021 and finally trimmed some of its more errant exposed roots a few weeks later.
it had been dumped out of its pot a few times in the years i have had it, subiquently being plopped back in higher and higher, so many of the top roots have been exposed for years and hardened off. I'm keeping a fast draining dome of media in the raised cone of roots, more for looks than anything, the active roots are farther down. I think im going to shift over to a "mossy knoll" tucked in there next time i repot. I'm growing a few flats of various grass like moss for things like this.
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Personally, I like it much better with the roots snaking down the mound 
Plug some moss in there and I'm really liking this tree!!
But I see some creeping thyme...maybe a variety with yellow flowers to look like a field of daisies...growing around the base of the hill. It would need to be one of the tighter growing species though to keep the flowers low. That might push towards a little deeper pot to help with competition for resources.
