Clump roadside mulberry

Joe Dupre'

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Went out this morning about a mile down the road and collected this clump/double trunk mulberry. I'm not really sure of the variety since it has leaves (spotted it in summer) which have much more pronounced lobes. I'm thinking paper mulberry. When I say "roadside" , I mean watching your backside when working on that side of the tree. :) The roots are very unusual , being yellow to yellow orange and they actually have a pleasing scent to them. I became aware that most all of my roadside/mowed over trees have a pronounced lean to them. :D

I love roadside trees because you get ramification , character and dead wood right at collection. I have hopes that this tree will be well on it's way by the end of this summer.

I really do like the kitty litter buckets. They are just about the right sized grow pot for many sizes of new bonsai and can be cut down to any height to fit the situation. When painted flat brown, they make a decent looking addition to the benches.

Oh, and there's the goat again.

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Crawforde

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Nice mulberry!
most of my plants come from the brush-hog pre-bonsai training grounds too. Looking Under the big transmission power lines can be productive too.
 

Joe Dupre'

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There's a thread going on this forum about collecting from the roadside. It may not be technically legal, but I figure , the road crews tried to cut this non-native thing down multiple times, so I'm just helping them out. :) I figure it's about as grave a sin as driving 60 in a 55 mph zone. Of course, NO ONE does that , do they? Or maybe the $200 you won on the poker machine that did not get put on your tax return.

I would never go on someone's land or in a state park to dig a tree, though.
 

GGB

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Far as i can tell youre saving native flora, one invasive parasite at a time. plus .. hella stump
 

Joe Dupre'

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In Louisiana, the Red Mulberry is a native tree. This is either the White or the Black Mulberry (?)...........both are introduced species, so digging one up is a slight help in that department. There are 3 or 4 more in the same area and at least one is possibly better than this. I had to stop because of the the rain but I think I'll go back and see what's left.

So, let's see. You take most any old straight trunked tree, run over it with a bush hog, wait a couple years and do it again, wait a couple more years and , Presto! , you have a candidate for nice bonsai. :D
 

WesB

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Legality..

I did some ditch digging years back. I called city hall and gave them the whole collecting small stumps for bonsai but I don’t want to get in trouble story, I then was transferred to the parks dept, gave them the same story blah blah blah small elm trees and the guy just laughed took down my info and said “fill in the holes when you’re done and if there’s any problems just have them call us” .

For other places like national/state parks and forest property etc etc you can obtain permits through their offices.
 

Forsoothe!

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They hybridize a lot, so wild trees are hard to ID. They all are suitable for bonsai, the leaves reduce well and the smaller they get, the more elaborate, deeply-cut and wavy the leaf edges become. If you're lucky enough to have a mulberry within a mile, the birds will routinely bring you seedlings. That covers almost all of us...
 

Joe Dupre'

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Update after a bit over 3 months. The tree exploded with new growth. I cut some of the branches back that I had saved at collection and just watered and fertilized it. I did trim back some long shoots and some shoots that I knew were in the wrong place. It did produce 5 mulberries but only one made it to maturity. Only one, but it tasted SWEET! Looking back, I should have cut back that center,long straight branch, but I'll do that next spring. The leaves are reducing nicely and the tree seems really healthy.

Only 3 months from collection and I'm proud to have it on my bench.
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Joe Dupre'

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I had thought about cutting it now, too. Plenty of time for it to sprout again. Thanks for the suggestion.
I'm gradually coming to the realization that you really have to chop a deciduous tree back hard right from the time of collection. I also realize that, unless you have some really well placed branches of the right size , it's probably better to cut back to the trunk on a deciduous tree.
 
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