Yamadori trip organization? Mid-east coast

wade

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I've lurked and followed posts for a long while on multiple forums and have yet to see much in the way of organized yamadori collection. I realize that the local "club" is the best avenue, but I find very few interested parties locally (and I personally have a very hard time making meetings regularly).

I thought it would be nice to begin thinking about/organizing a collecting trip (to a legit location, all done properly) with the help of some of the senior folks on the boards. Ideal times are only 2-3 months away in this area...

Any thoughts? Anyone want to organize?

I am in N. VA, MD, DC area.

Thoughts for locations: powerline right of ways, eroding river/stream banks (lots of those nearer the coast), highway/DOT right of ways, private lands? It wouldn't be too difficult to get permission from some of those sources.
 

digger714

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Hello, in mooresville NC here, and would love to do some collecting trips. I have been up to the NC mountains. I collected some pines mainly. Its about 5 hours to DC from here. Let me know what you find.
 

Tachigi

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Wade, contact Jim Sullivan or Barry Bifgard with the Baltimore Bonsai Club they collect regularly and are always eager to bring a new yamadori type collector into the fold. They also stage at least one Suiseki trip a year on the upper Susquehanna if your into that. They usually start collecting late January so better hurry.
 

wade

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Excellent, thanks for the heads-up! This winter has been harsh, so the collection period might be a little longer this year. I actually am only an hour from Baltimore so collecting with that group would be awesome. Thanks again for the contacts.

Wade
 

rockm

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There are almost a dozen clubs in the metro area:
http://www.potomacbonsai.com/potomacBonsai/pages/clubs.htm
Many of these organize collecting trips. However, collecting yamadori in the east is alot of slogging in old nurseries/landscapes/old home sites, as well as dumps, tips, abandon fields, railroad sidings and suburban wastelands. Trips to pristine mountaintops are rare and mostly unnecessary. There's better stuff in a 200 year old plantation's forgotten sideyard.
 

Smoke

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There are almost a dozen clubs in the metro area:
http://www.potomacbonsai.com/potomacBonsai/pages/clubs.htm
Many of these organize collecting trips. However, collecting yamadori in the east is alot of slogging in old nurseries/landscapes/old home sites, as well as dumps, tips, abandon fields, railroad sidings and suburban wastelands. Trips to pristine mountaintops are rare and mostly unnecessary. There's better stuff in a 200 year old plantation's forgotten sideyard.

200 year old plantation...what's that?;)
 

wade

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Many of these organize collecting trips. However, collecting yamadori in the east is alot of slogging in old nurseries/landscapes/old home sites, as well as dumps, tips, abandon fields, railroad sidings and suburban wastelands. Trips to pristine mountaintops are rare and mostly unnecessary. There's better stuff in a 200 year old plantation's forgotten sideyard.

Those sound like most excellent locations! I'm all about slogging through anywhere interesting.

Yeah, I've been to the No Va club, although no one seemed to have any plans to collect. I am trying to get in touch with folks at the Baltimore club and hope they have some input.

If anyone else is local to the greater DC area and has collected before or has plans to do so this year, please speak up!
 

rockm

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Wade,

There is no easy answer for finding collecting sites. Anyone who has been collecting for some time isn't really going to want to tell you where the best spots are, or how they got permission to dig there.;)

The thing I have found in collecting is just ask a landowner who has some trees on his/her land/lot/etc. This can a mutually beneficial agreement--if a homeowner has an old maple/wisteria/honeysuckle/whatever that is past its prime in the landscape, you can offer to remove it for them "for free." You can find some excellent material this way sometimes.

Finding a site, however, is one of the last steps in collecting--aside from the actual digging.

Your first trip should be with someone who knows how to do it and HAS DONE IT SUCCESSFULLY (book learning doesn't count--collecting is nothing like it is depicted in most bonsai books--follow directions in those and you will bring home a mostly dead tree.)

You also might check out the Rappahannock Bonsai Club. It is headquartered down past Fredericksburg in Ladysmith, but is run by the owners of Gardens Unlimited, an excellent bonsai nursery.
 

wade

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Yeah, agreed on finding sites, especially in an area as old and established as that around DC. Its more open out here in farm country (40 miles west) and there is plenty of private land to have a look around, but it takes a great deal of time to do that.

I am hoping to get in touch with some of the folks in Baltimore soon.

Is anyone in the NVBS talking about doing some collecting soon?
 

rockm

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It can be easier than you think in the Metro area. All you have to do is ask --and be polite and considerate of other people and property owners.

The DC area is packed with older neighborhoods built from the late 30's into the 70's (not to mention a sprinkling of homes and estates that go back to pre-Revolutionary War). There are some pretty fantastic old ornamental plants in those places --some are being torn out and replaced with "fresher" plants. If you see landscape work going on in a neighborhood, it's worth stopping and asking whoever is doing the work for unearthed plants, or inquire about the fate of in-ground plants. You never know what you will come up with.
 

wade

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I will be attending the Baltimore society meeting this coming weekend. I am hoping to convince some of the experienced folks to organize a trip of some sort - even a small one.

The snow is finally beginning to melt off (although the ground is about 15F colder than normal right now) so it would be a good time to go looking before things start to wake up.
 

rockm

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Schedule your trip for Mid-March, or even later. It's still too early to collect much until late March.

--you have to think about where you're going to put newly collected trees. Anything dug up now would have to be protected from freezing and frosts--which kills off new roots and exhaust the tree before it can even get started.

Looking, of course, is fine and winter is the time to scope out deciduous candidates...
 

Nomiyama

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Barry told me a few weeks ago he was planning a trip at the end of Febuary. I emailed him yesterday to see if it was still on and he said because of all the snow he has postponed it. So I don't know when or if anything is going to happen this spring. I would be intrested in going collecting if anyone has any prospects either in Md, Va, D.C, Pa, or De.
 

Tachigi

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Barry told me a few weeks ago he was planning a trip at the end of Febuary. I emailed him yesterday to see if it was still on and he said because of all the snow he has postponed it. So I don't know when or if anything is going to happen this spring. I would be intrested in going collecting if anyone has any prospects either in Md, Va, D.C, Pa, or De.

I can tell you that Barry will collect this year he is a true die hard, it maybe later than sooner.....Though I am surprised he postponed as I have collected with him in late January with snow on the ground and temps in the 20s ... age must be catching up with him, or he is running out of space for trees:D
 
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