brewmeister83
Chumono
When I started Bonsai, one of the plant's that I wanted right from the get-go was a privet. A nice, big, old privet that I could carve and abuse and it would still keep growing. Like many I was inspired By Harry Harrington's website and Graham Potter's vids showing what you could actually do to these resilient little hedge plants, and being a beginner I thought these would be the perfect plants for me to start on... Problem was, there were no mature privet hedges around that I could collect from in my area, and the only ones I could find were planted within the last 15 years and had trunks no bigger than an inch across... So I gave up on privets and bought or collected other species to use for bonsai material. But good things come to those who wait, and luckily I only had to wait a year...
Early Spring 2014: I was working on cleaning up a treeline along a stone wall at a farm where I used to work.
I was clearing back some brush when I happened to spy something through an opening in the trees:
It was a shrub/small tree that I had probably looked at a million times but had never "seen" until then. What struck my was how green it seemed against the drab background of the still sleeping woods, like it was telling me to look at it. Hazarding a "talking to" by my boss, I jumped the fence to get a closer look:
I couldn't believe it! I literally did a double-take when I looked at the twigging and found that unmistakable herringbone pattern of growth and small dark drupes left over from last season. I had found my giant privet! Getting permission to dig it was easy-peasy too... My boss wanted all invasive plants gone off her property, so I made a deal to not cut it down right away, and to let me come back on my day off later that week and dig it up roots and all and cart it away!
Fast Forward to that weekend:
I arrived with all my collecting kit in the morning and wasted no time getting to business. I had studied the many photos I had taken days before to choose a main trunk line, so after all the unnecessary branching was removed, I was left with this:
With the easy part done, now came the chore of digging up the beast, and any surprises that lay beneath...
For the most part, I lucked out with some fairly easy digging - no major tree roots or rocks to contend with and soft, humus rich soil. The few rocks that I did run into were directly under the privet, which were what probably caused the roots to travel more horizontally over the years giving this plant such a pronounced flare above the soil line. So after two hours of careful digging, probing, and major root cutting, it was time to lever the beast out of it's hole.
Notice the lack of major tap roots and plenty of fine roots still near the trunk, jackpot!
After another two hours of wrestling this thing out of the woods and up the 300 yards of hillside pasture back to my car, I was finally on my way home with the massive plant I had always wanted... But now I had to pot it!
As luck would have it, there were frequent showers all afternoon and into the evening that day, so I just left the tree outside in a trash bag in the rain to stay wet while I built the box to house it. Final dimensions: 40x40x8"
Washed Roots
Nebari
Refreshment For Scale
I then tented the whole box and plant with clear plastic to create a mini-greenhouse to help with the plant's recovery. My thought was even though it's privet it just went through a hell of an ordeal, and I didn't want to let an entire day of work go to waste. It seems that my fears were unfounded because, in true privet fashion, I was greeted to a plethora of new green buds about a month later.
Me And My Tree, May 2014
With careful watering and fertilizing the tree absolutely exploded! And by July, a lot of the trunk was covered up by a plume of bright green growth. I couldn't believe how strongly it grew! Some of the branches approached 3/8" thickness by the end of the season. I am truly glad that this plant made it.
Right now it's leaf-bare and under more than a foot of snow, but spring will come. And until then my job is to figure out how to begin turning my massive privet into a massive bonsai
Early Spring 2014: I was working on cleaning up a treeline along a stone wall at a farm where I used to work.
I was clearing back some brush when I happened to spy something through an opening in the trees:
It was a shrub/small tree that I had probably looked at a million times but had never "seen" until then. What struck my was how green it seemed against the drab background of the still sleeping woods, like it was telling me to look at it. Hazarding a "talking to" by my boss, I jumped the fence to get a closer look:
I couldn't believe it! I literally did a double-take when I looked at the twigging and found that unmistakable herringbone pattern of growth and small dark drupes left over from last season. I had found my giant privet! Getting permission to dig it was easy-peasy too... My boss wanted all invasive plants gone off her property, so I made a deal to not cut it down right away, and to let me come back on my day off later that week and dig it up roots and all and cart it away!
Fast Forward to that weekend:
I arrived with all my collecting kit in the morning and wasted no time getting to business. I had studied the many photos I had taken days before to choose a main trunk line, so after all the unnecessary branching was removed, I was left with this:
With the easy part done, now came the chore of digging up the beast, and any surprises that lay beneath...
For the most part, I lucked out with some fairly easy digging - no major tree roots or rocks to contend with and soft, humus rich soil. The few rocks that I did run into were directly under the privet, which were what probably caused the roots to travel more horizontally over the years giving this plant such a pronounced flare above the soil line. So after two hours of careful digging, probing, and major root cutting, it was time to lever the beast out of it's hole.
Notice the lack of major tap roots and plenty of fine roots still near the trunk, jackpot!
After another two hours of wrestling this thing out of the woods and up the 300 yards of hillside pasture back to my car, I was finally on my way home with the massive plant I had always wanted... But now I had to pot it!
As luck would have it, there were frequent showers all afternoon and into the evening that day, so I just left the tree outside in a trash bag in the rain to stay wet while I built the box to house it. Final dimensions: 40x40x8"
Washed Roots
Nebari
Refreshment For Scale
I then tented the whole box and plant with clear plastic to create a mini-greenhouse to help with the plant's recovery. My thought was even though it's privet it just went through a hell of an ordeal, and I didn't want to let an entire day of work go to waste. It seems that my fears were unfounded because, in true privet fashion, I was greeted to a plethora of new green buds about a month later.
Me And My Tree, May 2014
With careful watering and fertilizing the tree absolutely exploded! And by July, a lot of the trunk was covered up by a plume of bright green growth. I couldn't believe how strongly it grew! Some of the branches approached 3/8" thickness by the end of the season. I am truly glad that this plant made it.
Right now it's leaf-bare and under more than a foot of snow, but spring will come. And until then my job is to figure out how to begin turning my massive privet into a massive bonsai
So everything from digging to potting to placing in my yard was only done with my own two hands. Granted, once it was potted up it took a hand truck and a couple of packing straps to wheel it around, but it was still only me
