Massive Invasive Rescue

[brewmeister83]

Hi all,

So, I have this environmentally minded boss that runs a horse farm and is big on conservation grazing for her animals. The problem for her is that the farm she has now used to be a neglected bunch of corn fields that have grown wild over the past couple decades. Because of this, there's tons of invasive material in and around her fields (bittersweet, honeysuckle, barberry, etc...) that she wants to get rid of. In steps me, the farmhand who is also a novice bonsai grower, and would be more than happy to remove the invasive plants - roots and all. The only problem that exists between us is that she usually wants to get rid of these plants when I know it's not optimal collecting time, so this past weekend I spent the day collecting plants before they got hacked down. Here the are, the best five I could find:

For scale, that's a 14 in terra cotta pot, and the blue thing behind the raft is a 5 gal bucket

Here's close ups of the 3 bittersweet ( dia. of 2 in, 3 in, & 7 in )

 

[Beng]

Nice I love bittersweet, are these American or the Japanese type? Probably japanese as its more invasive. I collected 2 small ones a number of years ago and now they're some if my favorite trees. Best part they have almost no fungal problems ever.

 

[brewmeister83]

And here's the honeysuckle (I think it's L. morrowii)

The twin trunk has about a 7 in base, but the real prize of this whole affair was the raft, I had to build a 24x42 in box to plant it in. (Anyone know of a potter that can make a pot to eventually fit this!?!?)
Although I hated the idea of collecting in June when it's starting to heat up, all these plants are tenacious growers (hence why they're invasive) so I feel they'll make it no problem.

So, what do you guys think? Any potential here? Was it worth a day off to collect these or did I waste my time?

 

[Beng]

Don has some enormous pots. Gregorybeachbonsai.com

 

[brewmeister83]

Nice I love bittersweet, are these American or the Japanese type?

Yeah, they're Japanese alright, my boss would kill me if I dug up anything native. She has a couple native trees though that I'd love to get my hands on. Case and point, the bottom 4 feet of a black birch she has on her property: (sorry it's sideways, don't know how to rotate pics on my phone)

 

[mc4mc44]

That honeysuckle raft is a real score, I'm jealous! Keep us updated on these.

 

[marcosolo]

If you need large pots, inbox me....I know someone with some pretty ridiculous ones....