Prunus Yamadori, Vendors?

[Dan W.]

Do any of you know if there are vendors here in the states with high quality prunus yamadori? Tony Tickle hase very nice trees but he's in Europe. Anyone on this continent..?...lol

 

[milehigh_7]

Do any of you know if there are any vendors here in the states with high quality prunus yamadori? Tony Tickle hase very nice trees but he's in Europe. Anyon on this continent..?...lol

Which species of the genus are you looking for?

 

[Dan W.]

Almost anything, I really like the dark textured bark contrast with flowers. They are really cool in the literati form. The old umes in japanese books always catch my eye, and the Europeans are coming up with some very nice collected trees. I just havn't seen too much done with our natives yet.

There are a couple species out here in WY that I'm going to try collecting if I find any with descent character.

 

[wireme]

I recently found a very sweet literati style yamadori chokecherry. I hope to collect it within the next week, if all goes well I'll post a pic up here.

 

[yenling83]

Unfortunatly, I don't think you'll find any good vendors for Prunus collected from the mountains in the U.S. We don't have those natives that they do in Europe. I've seen those tree Tony Tickle has and they are very beautiful! I have not seen any one in the U.S. collecting lots of flowering trees from the wild. However, it would be excited if somone proved me wrong and showed some awesome US flowering yamadori.

I'm currently on the hunt for a good Prunus Subcordata-Sierra Plum which would be Yamadori. These trees flower before the leaves. However, I also have a small plant that I plan to grow out and airlayer branches to create some long term projects. Have you looked up the native Prunus varieties that grow in the rocky mountains? There might be something that has old looking bark and flowers before the leaves in the rocky mountains, you should do some research. Keep us updated on your search with your blog!

 

[Dan W.]

Thanks wireme, I'd love to see pics. God luck colecting!

Yenling, I'll be sure to keep you posted. Some that we have in the Rocky Mountains are:
P. pensylvanica -- Pin Cherry
P. virginiana var. melanocarpa -- Western Chokecherry
P. pumila ssp. besseyi -- Sand Cherry
P. americana -- Wild Plum
-- These are listed in one of my books with RM natives.

I have seen some that flower before leaves while I've been out, but havn't iedntified them yet.

 

[Dan W.]

Another list shows these in Wyoming:

Prunus americana --- American plum
Prunus emarginata --- bitter cherry
Prunus emarginata var. emarginata --- bitter cherry
Prunus pensylvanica --- pin cherry
Prunus pensylvanica var. pensylvanica --- pin cherry
Prunus pensylvanica var. saximontana --- pin cherry
Prunus pumila --- sandcherry
Prunus pumila var. besseyi --- western sandcherry
Prunus virginiana --- chokecherry
Prunus virginiana var. melanocarpa --- black chokecherry

I don't know if all of these are native to WY or the Rockies.

 

[milehigh_7]

Here is a thread on a native prunus

Beautiful trees and I will have one one day:

http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?4736-Prunus-angustifolia

 

[milehigh_7]

Here is a pretty good list of species:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/ClassificationServlet?source=profile&symbol=PRUNU&display=63

 

[jk_lewis]

The problem with Prunus yamadoriu in NA is borers. In the wild they can cope with them; in pots, they can't.

Few NA Prunus match the Asian or European ones for picturesqueness, but in the SE US I'd recommend a close look at the Chickasaw plum, P. angistifolia.

 

[Paradox]

Seeing the beautiful cherry blossoms and the picture of a cherry bonsai at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has got me also thinking about trying to find one as well. There is definately a lack of available trees from bonsai sources. I might go to some local landscape nurseries to see if I can find something suitable that I can chop.

 

[wireme]

Here you go Dan, prunus somethingorotherus... locally usually called a chokecherry by most, called pin cherry by those who know a bit more about local trees.

This was growing amongst rmjs, ponderosas and doug firs in classic yamadori country similar to photos you show on your blog. I see interesting looking prunus often but generally they have just on long taproot vanishing into the rock, uncollectible. This is the first I have found to have a captive root pad near the surface. As it turned out the root pad was smaller than I'd hoped and there was still a single massive taproot to be cut. Hopefully it's enough root, it's my first time with this species so we'll have to wait and see, the pad did come out very intact even though its small. I envision using only the first branch to create a literati form. The lower trunk is a bit long and straight but there is some subtle movement there hard to see in the pics.

 

[wireme]

Here's the base on one side, majority of the rootpad is behind the large lower trunk.

 

[wireme]

The other side of the base, showing the rootpad a bit better. I put a screw through a board under a pond basket directly into the sawn taproot. Because the root is attached directly to the bottom of the pot I removed a ring of bark to raise the level at which new roots will hopefully grow. I probably should have gone higher..

 

[wireme]

The tree in it's new home from the other side and a deadwood shot. Pretty good deadwood for a decid. tree, like a narwal horn. Already soft and decaying though.

 

[Dan W.]

Thanks wireme. That looks like a fun one to play with I imagine you could use that gnarled base above the soil line to add some character down the road?