Tampa-area bonsai'ists- I've got a LOT of bougies and want a quasi-mature conifer (juniper/cypress, no BC), anyone open to trades?

[SU2]

I'll attach a handful of pics (apologies for just rumbling through my pic account, some of these are recent some are 6mo old, just want to give an idea what I'm working with) to show the rough type of material I've got, I live by the water in pinellas county (right beside tampa county) and am hoping to find someone who may be interested in trading - I've got the better part of a hundred trees in various stages, I only collect & propagate trees so that's led to a collection predominated by bougainvilleas, am hoping someone who's not a collector may be interested in some of my larger bougies that can be harder to come by if you're not a collector and, if so, be interested in a trade/trades!

I've got 2 bc's growing strong so wouldn't really be interested in BC stock but pines, junipers and other cypresses are what I'm most interested in (though honestly I don't even have a ficus, so am open to lots of stuff!) I'll post an assortment of pics here but if you're local enough to me please don't hesitate to get in-touch, I'm not 'looking for deals' I'd happily 'trade-down' ie trade a higher quality bougie for a younger pine, just to diversify yknow?

Thanks for reading

[and FWIW most of my trees were collected or propagated last year, and I'm very active on reddit's bonsai-subreddit forum so between that and my photos (time-stamped on Imgur.com), I'm able to show the journey/progression of any particular specimen ;D Also, since I've only been in this hobby ~1.25-1.5yrs, I'd be comfortable letting you take my material first and getting yours once you're sure it's healthy so long as you're a veteran user (or I have some other way to insure I won't get ripped off ;P )]


Pics are of: bougie (in handmade mortar pot, very ample drainage)

twin-trunk bougie, has since been put in a nice (larger) training box and the left-trunk cut back to ~1/3 height (where it now sports 2 new vigorous primaries, both lignified at least 3" up from their collars)

variety of stuff ;p

crape myrtle and bougie HW cuttings that I rooted last summer, probably never much cool to be done but they're pretty emblematic of a good portion of my collection, am not sitting on ton so of A-level material

grape-vine with really cool roots, ~1yr old just got its spring pruning

large bougainvillea collection, this one is over a year and around 13-14" wide

my 'cavernous crape', I'm not even sure if it was originally 1 or 2 crape myrtles (I suspect it was 2) but the cavern effect is very cool (the next picture is a closer-up of this!)

my 'fatty crape', he just got a hard-prune and heavy wiring session (not copper wiring of the branches but rather guy-wires that bring-down the apically-dominant shoots of this crape, its box has hooks all along the edges)
[note: to the left is a small BC, just collected in Jan but growing like a weed, and to the right is a large bougie I call 'cerberus' (for its 3 heads) or 'fallen bougie', depending on my mood ;P ]

my 'raft' bougie, this one just got a heavy 'branch setting' session (I use zip-ties for this, as-in I'll use them throughout the canopy to angle the branches, I find it's quicker and less invasive than full-on wiring and, since these are in the developmental stage wherein I'm just setting the primaries, all that really matters is the angle of the branch-collar to the trunk (and the orientation of the first few inches of the branch), so in these cases I'm prone to using zip-ties on my bougies when the shoots don't want to be as upright as I'd like, and I use guy-wires on my crapes when the branches want to be more apical than I'd like!



There's a 10 pic limit but I've got many more, though these should give an idea of the relative quality/maturity levels of my trees, if you've got any coniferous (or perhaps even broadleafs besides: bougie, crape, ilex or privet - excepting large-based privets) then I'd be all ears

Thanks for reading and happy gardening!!

 

[JoeH]

I seem to have an abundance of Youpon and a couple Parsons juniper that are just hanging around. Also a couple Wax Myrtles, Chinese Elms, a spare Indian Hawthorne. Most are ex landscape plants and have a lot of character.

 

[Bonvivant25]

Do you want to just sell any of those big bougainvilleas? Then you could buy the tree you want. I would be willing to buy.

 

[SU2]

I seem to have an abundance of Youpon and a couple Parsons juniper that are just hanging around. Also a couple Wax Myrtles, Chinese Elms, a spare Indian Hawthorne. Most are ex landscape plants and have a lot of character.

What's the rough range of girth for the junipers? Right now my ideal find is a mature juniper (mature trunk and primaries, or even half-developed primaries, really only care about the trunk ;D ) Yaupon/vomitoria's are cool (are they dwarf/schillings?), I've only got one and it's very small but am amazed at how fast they grow & their ramification pattern, and wax myrtles are new to me (are they found on the shoreline? Look very similar to something that grows naturally near me that I'd had ID'd but don't believe they were wax myrtles maybe I'm mixing-up the names though) Am interested in elms too
Do you happen to have pics of these? I can pm you my email if that facilitates things better

Do you want to just sell any of those big bougainvilleas? Then you could buy the tree you want. I would be willing to buy.

Which? And I guess I'd just have to say to make an offer because I've no clue how to price, I'd just be in another sub asking others what prices are fair...am not looking to 'get a good deal' but also definitely not looking to let go of stuff for discounts, was thinking trades made that easiest because tree-for-tree makes it simple&straight-forward (or 2 trees for 1 better tree, that's my ideal actually, finding someone who'd like a multiple mid-sized bougies for a single, larger juniper)....a big problem is I don't know what trees' values are on the market, like if I were to sell something for $50 or $200 I have no idea what that buys so ideally would find a trade but if there's a specific bougie you're interested in then I'd be open to selling at a fair/accurate price

[edited-in: are you in central FL? I can't say whether I'd be able to ship a tree, I have zero clue how simple that is nor any idea of common etiquette in terms of "dead-on-arrival"/"injured in transit" situations, would be hesitant to ship unless we could figure out something rock-solid]

For what it's worth I recently re-organized my imgur account, I think you and @JoeH (and anyone viewing this will find it useful because the first ~10 albums I made as chronological-progression albums for most of my favorite trees (should probably shoot a full-collection album for this thread, that was poor planning on my part..), anyways I take a lot of pics so these albums are pretty full and I curated them (though I do have a journal so can date anything precisely ie collections/cuttings/re-boxing's/etc), anyways here's the link: imgur albums (they should be publicly accessible, I just tried them through a different browser with my VPN on and could access them so shouldn't be a problem!)

 

[SU2]

Here's a link to a page of progression-albums for my best ~10 trees, figured it'd give the best idea of precisely what's what instead of just the images from my OP

 

[Bonvivant25]

Well, let me just say that you have a beautiful collection. I would be interested in any one of those big bougie cutings you made if they are rooted. I would also be interested in one of the mertyls. Really, I am looking for bougies to train as bonsai and also one or two to just grow. I would be willing to pay $50.00 each plus shipping. These things are pretty tough so shipping is not a real issue. However, I would be willing to work with you on whatever terms you might want for the shipping. Shoot me an email: mark@fornarolaw.com.

 

[JoeH]

Wax Myrtle is native here and by you in FLA. Junipers are 1-2 inches thick. All my ilex are schillings and some are really nice trunk wise.

 

[JoeH]

I'll get pics of the ones I want to trade.

 

[JoeH]

got two more loropetulum also

 

[SU2]

Wax Myrtle is native here and by you in FLA. Junipers are 1-2 inches thick. All my ilex are schillings and some are really nice trunk wise.

Nicce, I only have one ilex and it's not a schillings and it's trunk is a non-starter basically, just got it for the sake of it (like my juniper!) 2"+ junipers are way up on my list, am not really that caring of development in fact would much prefer to get a better trunk that's barely got primaries, than a less mature trunk w/ a couple years' worth of training, if that makes sense?

I'll get pics of the ones I want to trade.

Great stuff!! You can post here, message me or message me for my email, whatever avenue is easiest for you

got two more loropetulum also

You'll surely shake your head at this but I killed my loropetalum, it died alongside my laurel oak because I hadn't tilted the ceramic plate I had them on (which lead to standing water that I found too-late, both held on a couple weeks but it was too-late the damage was fatal....) Love loropetalums though, certainly interested!

 

[JoeH]

drip trays kill in this weather.

 

[SU2]

drip trays kill in this weather.

Oh for sure! I've never used them, this was a case of containers that were flat-bottomed and put on tiles (the containers weren't rigid enough), unfortunately I messed-up and didn't set them up right (one wasn't tilted so water couldn't drain, the other I didn't realize that the holes I'd made where 'trapped' by the outer/bottom rim of the pot, it was lower than the holes so the water just pooled under it...lesson learned!)

But yeah if you're getting rain there like I am here it's already becoming a problem (have had three specimen that had fungal issues already...), I've actually begun experimenting with the 'tampon tech' lol, putting wicking (literal tampons, seemed smart lol) in the bottom of the substrate to help the 'saturated zone' evap some of that excess water!

 

[JoeH]

only problem I am having is all my tomatoes are splitting. No problems with my trees. I just don't water them one bit.

 

[choppychoppy]

Did you pick up a nice juniper at the state convention last weekend? Tom had dozens of 2" juniper for sale.

 

[SU2]

only problem I am having is all my tomatoes are splitting. No problems with my trees. I just don't water them one bit.

Unfortunately I've got a handful of containers that have bad, un-even bottoms and got issues w/ pooling, led to rot (suspected rot at least, I must've had 4 or 5 smaller bougies start getting fungal issues in their leaves and they were the ones in these pots, a batch of DIY mortar pots I made before coming up w/ my 'beveled drainage holes' (patent pending! lol jk) idea so that water *can't* stand, I did't realize how bad a saturated zone could be til I'd re-potted some bougs into shallow/wide containers that had poorly-designed drainage, the 'tampon tech' has seemed to save 2 of them and the others I suspect will die I removed all affected foliage and was left with almost nothing (these were small, ~1yr old propagates, nothing collected/established in any real sense so far more fragile!)

Did you pick up a nice juniper at the state convention last weekend? Tom had dozens of 2" juniper for sale.

I commute by bike so don't really go to bonsai stuff (went to 1 bonsai event, to see Adam do a demonstration/workshop!), I did get another $5 walmart one though (this one's not prostrate like the blue rug it's a 'blue mountain pacific' iirc, two little tiny trees in a ~1/4gal container, will be doing a light prune and heavy re-potting to get a feel for how they respond, it's my 2nd juniper and the first was left in the container and only worked on the top, want to do one where it's just the boottom, am so new to junipers I feel like I need to kill one to see how they even look when ill, I thought my first one was starting to get 'ill' and then it burst with growth so I can't discern growth color-change from sickness yet apparently, need to correct that before I'd do anything to a 'real' ie 2"+ juniper which I'm hoping to get ASAP )
I removed like 1/2 the original foliage and wired the rest, was quite aggressive (not careless just did a lot to it) to see how it'd respond, this is it now after ~1mo post-prune/post-styling, is growing well still (and m clueless what to do next so just letting it grow!