Peter's Bonsai Blog
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Developing bonsai from collected shrub material. This page is about a couple of collected cotoneasters. I got them from a demolition site where a number of 40 year old industrial buildings had been demolished. These plants has been located in the landscaped borders around the units and the demolition machinery had simply run over them. They were first collected on 2009 but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of them at that time. |
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The first tree is of an upright variety and was about 12 foot tall when collected. I was only interested in the bottom section of the trunk and tried to get enough fine root to allow that section to survive. The first picture shows the tree in Oct 2013.
The second is a photo shop image showing what I hoped it would be like in a few years time........ |
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After a few years of development and a nice pot, the tree was exhibited at Gardening Scotland in June 2015......
The second plant was a horizontal spreading variety. It was about 15- 20 foot across when I found it. A vehicle had run over the centre part of the trunk and split it open, creating a lot of interesting dead wood. This was the bit I was interested in. Here are a couple of images in 2012......... |
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The image below shows the natural deadwood and my attempt at carving a stump left after reducing the length of a branch. I think its quite effective............ |
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One of the problems associated with the design of this tree is the fact that when viewed from the side the trunk is actually quite narrow. The problem is compounded by the fact that there is an ugly bulge, a bit like a Buddha's belly, just above the soil line. One of the "tricks " used in creating this tree was to plant it beside a piece of oasis. The same stuff used by the flower arrangers. I simply cut it to shape and located it closely to the back of the tree. The idea being to make it look like the tree was growing over a rock. By the time a bit of moss had grown over the oasis and the birds had pecked a bit of it, I felt the outcome was quite effective. The pictures below show the problem and my solution. |
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See below ...........By June 2014 the foliage was developing well.
However there wa trouble in store...... I discovered that the upper part of the tree was dying off. I concluded that the roots were to dry. I think the fake rock made from "Oasis" was absorbing all the moisture and the roots on that side had dried out. I had to remove the top part of the tree and repot it and allow it to recover. By December 2018 the main truck had been rmoved and carved. It was now sufficiently recovered to permit repotting. All I need now is the right pot.......
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