Finally got my maple

[aml1014]

I went and snagged a couple little ones this morning (acer negundo).

The first has about a 1.5" trunk and has some decent movement. It's also starting to get bark which tells me it's not to young.
Here's a shot of a nice uro, there's one on the other side as well that's very similar, I just didn't take a picture.
Here's the next one, it was a root sucker from a large maple. These naturally spread through root sucker so I'm hoping it'll budd on the root I kept so I can have a raft one day. The large root is buried for now until it's established in its pot, then I will slowly expose it.
Sorry, no backdrop today, we're having our typical 40mpg spring winds that actually stole 2 panels off my coldhouse . Gotta love the high desert!

As always, let me know what you think.

Aaron

 

[aml1014]

I wanted to show this to everyone here. It's a women in my clubs acer negundo that's 20 yrs in training from a collected saplings that was much younger then the trees I've dug so it gives me some confidence. I did a full restyling of this tree this morning but unfortunately forgot to grab an after pic as I am very busy today, I will grab one next month at the club meeting. I really enjoy this tree, I hope you guys do to.


Here's shot of the trunk and bark. (Notice the moss, she's the only one in NM that can grow it!)
And a shot of the fresh spring leaves

Now who can say these make poor bonsai?

Aaron

 

[aml1014]

So today I was looking at the original big negundo and realized it's only bidding on one side. After a little investigation I had noticed that on the lower portion of the trunk had an area where the bark was miscolored so I grabbed my shears and poked it, we'll just say about .5" of my shears disappeared into the trunk . So after a few minutes of poking away I had a large dead portion of the trunk that's has been dead for a long time considering it's condition. I saw this as the rear of the tree anyway, but was thinking after a few years of recovery I'll chop it (as I was already planning) and think about connecting the chop to the current dead portion of the trunk and hollow it out. I guess I'll just have to see what this tree wants to be.

Aaron

 

[aml1014]

The little bigtooth maple is waking up.

Aaron

 

[YukiShiro]

nice, my fiance is also trying a boxelder

 

[aml1014]

The curvy bigtooth maple is starting to bud!

Aaron

 

[aml1014]

Same curvy bigtooth today, looks like the new leaves are gonna be crimson red!

Aaron

 

[armetisius]

If be aiming to cut it round here next year.....and use that crazy Dav4 branch for a continuation of something different. Sorce

Opinion? That trunk is just downright sick;
if it had one more curve it would be porn.

 

[Borg]

Just a heads up, box elder maples are like cockroaches... I see them daily at work, I've seen a couple which had 12+ inch diameters at chest height, except they had one life line about an inch wide going 12 ft up the tree... Quite a bit had been rotted away. They are pretty crazy trees.

 

[aml1014]

Just a heads up, box elder maples are like cockroaches... I see them daily at work, I've seen a couple which had 12+ inch diameters at chest height, except they had one life line about an inch wide going 12 ft up the tree... Quite a bit had been rotted away. They are pretty crazy trees.

Oh I know this, notice my avatar is the roots of an old one.

Aaron

 

[sorce]

I just went thru a patch of woods yesterday with a bunch...

They sure do grow like mad.

Sorce

 

[aml1014]

I've got roots coming out of the drain holes on all of the younger negundo and they are growing like hell, so I figured I'd get a little bit if work done on a couple.

First up is the naturally ground layered branch with bad inverse taper at the top. This one is kind of just a tree to mess with, it'll never be great but that's fine I enjoy it.

Next up is the nice curvy one. I removed the original branch coming off the right since I have a new branch where I need it there, and trimmed the top shots to encourage some budds to pop for a new leader lower down. Here's the front
And the back
I'm already starting to like the negundo for bonsai. I've noticed on my slanting one that I give do sum ask day as an experiment has fiery red new growth which is cool, I'll have to take a pic soon before the real sunlight gets here and I have to set up shade cloth so my trees don't torch. My teacher Connie uttered something funny last week, she said "most of this country gets daylight, we actually get sunlight here" lol I thought that was funny.

Aaron

 

[sorce]

You can't have the apex move to follow the rest?

I like it.

Sorce

 

[aml1014]

You can't have the apex move to follow the rest?

I like it.

Sorce

Not sure if I understand what you're saying, which is about half the time lol.

Aaron

 

[sorce]

The new leader I mean.....

Bend it right and use that first bud later for the next left part.


It wiggles so nice....then goes straight so long....

Sorce

 

[aml1014]

The new leader I mean.....

Bend it right and use that first bud later for the next left part.
View attachment 104548

It wiggles so nice....then goes straight so long....

Sorce

I like that idea, I was gonna wait for a budd to pop and take the top off but your idea is a good one. I think I'm gonna do that today.


Man I love being on vacation!

Aaron

 

[aml1014]

Alright @sorce I went for it. I had to break out the good Ole 5.5mm wire for it and even still it was very brittle and started to compress the bark on the inside of the bend so I stopped before I snapped it totally. I also noticed buds at the top so I trimmed the long shoot on top off to get some budding mid way on the new trunkline.


And before you ask, YES that is a shop towel instead of raffia. Use what you got!

Aaron

 

[aml1014]

This negundo has really taken off the last 2 weeks I had to wire the new branches before they got to thick and brittle. Boy does it look silly at the moment.



Aaron

 

[aml1014]

These guys are really taking off now. I've got roots crawling out of the drain holes so I'm pretty confident in their survival.
I did hard prune the one on the far left about a week ago and it's already bidding like crazy again.
Aaron

 

[Vin]

Opinion? That trunk is just downright sick;
if it had one more curve it would be porn.

It would be hard to top that assessment!