wireme
Masterpiece
Has anyone tried bitterbrush before? its an extremely common and prolific plant here in drier exposed sites. An important winter grazing food source plant i believe. It's possible to find these plants with all the same characteristics of good junipers, great twisting lifelines, deadwood etc. as a bonus they get covered in small attractive yellow flowers each spring. It is however very difficult to find collectible plants. It's a bit like trying to find a collectible common juniper or collecting a ponderosa in deep sandy soils. Long taproots with no feeders seems to be the norm even when found in Rock pockets. I think so anyways, I've only tried to dig one so far but so it seems. Another challenge is the fact that these bushes are beginning to push growth while I still have a good two feet of snow in my yard.
Anyways I attempted one this year, it appeared to be more collectible than others I have seen. It was growing atop a large mound of old woody debris and was pretty easy to get a large undisturbed ball of soil under the trunk. Disappointingly most of the soil fell away anyways leaving the typical long tapering taproot with very few feeders. I didn't expect much but it has been growing very slowly since. It
Looks like it will make it through this summer fine, the test will be next spring when ill find out if it was able to store enough energy for another growth flush next summer. Fingers crossed, it is quite a nice bit of material. If anyone else has tried this species I'd love to hear how you did with them.
Anyways I attempted one this year, it appeared to be more collectible than others I have seen. It was growing atop a large mound of old woody debris and was pretty easy to get a large undisturbed ball of soil under the trunk. Disappointingly most of the soil fell away anyways leaving the typical long tapering taproot with very few feeders. I didn't expect much but it has been growing very slowly since. It
Looks like it will make it through this summer fine, the test will be next spring when ill find out if it was able to store enough energy for another growth flush next summer. Fingers crossed, it is quite a nice bit of material. If anyone else has tried this species I'd love to hear how you did with them.