Texas Red Oak

Monday 3/22/2010

This was an 18 to 20 ft. red oak that I decided to dig up this yr. instead of next yr. The buds were starting break open so I chopped the top off & got the root ball out. This is what it looked like after I bare rooted it.









This is what remained after I cleaned it up, with most of the tap root intact.














This is the view from opposite side, it has a nice curve & about a 4" trunk at the base.












This is where I cut off the rest of the tap root from the bottom of the root mass.















Then I sat the tree in a tub of water to soak while I prepared a Styrofoam box to put it in.












After a few more cuts to the roots so it would fit in the box ,I filled it in with my bonsai soil mix.
So now I'll have to wait & see what develops. I will probably have to grow new branches from scratch provided it survives.
Updates on it's progress, I hope!




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Dig in Febuary 2010

Jason and I were going on a dig and I told him that two customers of mine had never been on a dig. So I invited them to join us, "B" & Jacob were raring to go!




There are some steep cliffs on this creek bed and I had tie to a tree & lower my self down to an interesting elm tree .
Notice how clear the water is in this creek.
























Jason is climbing up from the bottom very
carefully!













"B" starts to work on this huge rock below the tree.
Dangerous work standing under neath that rock; but "B"
says he's pretty nimble for a 300 pound man !












After knocking that big rock lose "B" & Ray continue to
work at the root system

























Jason,"B", & myself try to work loose
the root system from the side of the cliff.
Most of the time you have to bare root the
tree,as is the case here.















The shadow belongs to Jacob who was
taking the pictures. we are pruning the tree
before potting it up. Most of the branches are
dead so we are cutting back to the trunk & hoping for
new branches, will update on its progress.
This was only one of the trees that were dug up this day,many other trees were also dug up by "B" and Jacob & Jason , will show some of these at a later date. "B" and Jacob hope you had some Bonsai fun!!!!!


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Twisted pomegranate & Azalea

These two trees were rescued from my damaged cold frame

The first one is a twisted pomegranate that had roots growing out of the bottom of the pot & into the ground. when I moved the pot, the root continued to grow in the ground over the next 2 yrs & became this small tree. It had a deep taproot which needed to be cut off. This left it with few feeder roots.

After having cut off the tap root I potted it up in a Styrofoam box with my bonsai mix and did some preliminary pruning

The 2nd is an Azalea I had planed to plant this into one of my growing beds and let let this grow into a nice sized bonsai. Since so many of the branches are broken I decided to make it into a smaller bonsai maybe a "shohin"?

It was in a 3 gal. pot this is the root ball out of the container

This is after drastic root pruning. The only reason I'm doing this at the wrong time, is because I have a greenhouse & can control the temperature. Normally azaleas aren't re potted until after the blooms fade or if you don't care about the flowers, in early spring.

To add further insult or injury to this shrub you should not cut the roots and make major cuts to the trunk & or branches at the same time, as I have done here.
As a result the shrub has less than a 50/50 chance of survival.......but I feel lucky punk!

This Azalea had a lot of feeder roots and is reasonably healthy and its already been through a lot. I potted it in my soil mix & peat moss and I'm watering it with rain water.

So here it is in its new home I'm not going to cut on it any more just hope it recuperates......... wish me luck!

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Let it snow ,let it snow_____Bah ! humbug!

Enough with the snow already!!!!

I thought it was pretty cool two snow falls, one in December & now one in Feb. I went to bed thursday night thinking every thing was alright........wrong....this is what I woke up to Friday morning!




This snow laden branch had broken off and landed on the juniper below it & some of the
other bonsai trees around it.








This is the branch after I removed it form the nursery.

Luckily there was minimal damage done to the trees that were underneath.



Unfortunately the real damage was to the cold frame. The accumulative snowfall became to much wieght for the frame to hold up under & it collasped.





So I have my work cut out for me. My bonsai are still trapped in the cold frame 4 days because of the snow. Tomorrow I should be able to get rid of the rest of the snow and rescue them & see how much damage has been done.


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record snowfall in metroplex

I was supposed to attend the Ft.Worth Bonsai Society meeting tonight & I was on my way
until I had a flat tire. I pulled off the freeway & got stuck in the snow; I had to call a tow truck to
bring me home.

This is the second snow fall this year so I thought I'd record it, since it was a record in Feb. Here are some pictures of my nursery. The troppicals are safe & snug in the green house and some are in the cold frame; the rest are out in the cold! Read more!

White Honey suckle bush

Mid December /January/February are prime months in the Dallas/Ft Worth area for collecting suitable trees for Bonsai.

If you know someone who owns some acreage & they allow you to collect trees from their property, consider your self lucky. When the weather turns cold every bonsai enthusiast I know starts hunting for a new place to go digging!
There are certain rules : get permission from the land owner / be sure to cover any holes you've dug/& try to leave it like you were never there...no trash ect.



You are hunting for a tree that you can
turn into a respectable bonsai in 5 yrs or less.
This 30 yr. old honeysuckle happens to be on my property so I dug it up yesterday on the last day of January. The latter part of 2009 a larger tree had fallen over and broke most of the branches.

I think the mishap gives it a rugged look of survival and I've started to dig it up.
I cut most of the roots already except for the large tap root . Notice the size of the trunk











Having used the saw to cut off the sizeable tap root the honey suckle is laying on its side.








This side shows a good shot of the root ball. It will have to be thinned out quite a bit to fit it in the training container.











Here is the honey suckle potted up after some severe
pruning. It is potted in a large shallow black nursery pot containing lava rock with compost and worm castings. The gray spots you see on the tree is lac balsam used for the sealing of cuts.








This is the other side of the bush. The pictures are kind of deceiving the nursery pot is quite large and heavy it took two people to move it in to the green house.







We had a few days of sunshine & unseasonable temperatures which resulted in buds starting to swell & show you can see some in the middle right of this picture.

Buds are starting to break in the center of this picture so I'm not going to take any chances with this honey suckle, it going to stay in the green house until all chances of freezes are over; wish me luck!

I will post on its progress in the spring.

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new green house

My old green house was pretty much torn up by fall storms this year & I decided not to rebuilt it at this time instead I built a new green house.

I started with cinder blocks for the walls & 2"steel pipes for reinforcement for the walls and center posts. Then I used 2x4's for the trusses to hold up the fiberglass panels for the roof. Dirt was used to fill up the holes in the cinder blocks & to help with the insulation. The floor was cleaned up and a weed barrier installed . water was installed & also electricity was run to the green house.

Here is the almost completed green house.

The outside cinder blocks are covered for added insulation. A front door has been added and bricks have been laid on top of the weed barrier & new benches for the trees were installed.
All that remains to be done is lighting & sprinkler system installed ;along with a propane furnace for heating. At the time heat is being provided by electrical heaters,just in time for the first freeze of the year.


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