Chop chop chop

[andrewiles]

So I've scavenged a few trees from the local nurseries over the winter. Goal was to find relatively cheap material for cuttings, a few standalone bonsai starters, and to stick with species that are pretty resistant to death from poor decision making.

I've never chopped anything down before so today may have been a mass slaughter. Mostly following what I've seen on this site and the vast interwebs, which never lie.

Mostly using a mix of pumice and potting soil for all these. I want them to thicken so I figured organic rich soil is fine for now.

Bald cypress
Plain species. I feel like this must have been in the poor nursery pot for ages. There was no soil left, just roots. I envy folks further south who can just go dig these up.
Part of this required a powered reciprocating saw.
This was screwed to a board and planted in a drainless mixing tub from Home Depot. Plan to grow it submerged this summer.


Dawn redwood
The "Bonsai" cultivar. Seems to be an aggressive grower like the species with a nice drooping habit. Interestingly, it doesn't appear to be grafted.
This was screwed to a board and planted in an Anderson deep propagation flat. I'll try air layering the top later.


Chinese elm
The "Seiju" cultivar. This one seems to develop bulbous inverse taper at the joints? The big bulb in the first picture had to be removed.
I heard these are pretty resilient so I cut the trunk it into 3 pieces (each with roots) to see if I can make a forest or some multi-trunks.
This was also planted in an Anderson deep propagation flat. I planted some root cuttings in another flat.

One of the 3 resulting pieces:

 

[andrewiles]

Boxleaf azara
I see these are the local nurseries every so often and they look a bit like boxwoods. Evergreen leaves are deeper green, smaller and they have nice late winter yellow flowers.
Don't seem to be common in bonsai.
This was also planted in an Anderson deep propagation flat. Just trimmed off half the roots and some of the top, but otherwise left it as-is to grow. Hopefully a twin-trunk some day.


Bald cypress #2
Plain species. This had to be physically cut out of its pot. I chopped it down a bit but haven't decided how much more to cut off the top.
This was screwed to a board and planted in a drainless mixing tub from Home Depot. Plan to grow it submerged this summer.

 

[Maiden69]

Sooo, in which nursery did you find that Seiju? Because every nursery elm that I have found is a super slender tree, with messed up ramification.

 

[andrewiles]

It was at a local nursery called "McAuliffe's", but from the tag it originally came from Iseli.

I see a description on their site at https://www.iselinursery.com/companion-plants/ulmus-parvifolia-seiju/ but unfortunately they are wholesale only.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Azara? You Zara! You Brought ra!..

wait.......

Suh-weeet!! (I have never seen o e of these! I like it!)