Dogwood question

[sfeagan]

I found this dogwood along with a couple more in the woods behind my house. This one really stood out when I saw the base. It will be pretty easy to dig it up. I'm still pretty new at the whole bonsai thing. I'm wondering if this is even worthy of digging? If so, how close to the base should I chop?

 

[Perrywinkle]

I love dogwood (cornus florida) and would love to see one as bonsai, but every time I've read about someone attempting one their ends up dying. Rocky Mountain Bonsai had good one but it apparently died in 2019 for unknown reasons. As a fellow beginner, I would recommend you wait some years and get some experience on taking care of bonsai and transplanting before attempting to lift a dogwood. You can always come back and dig it up down the line, it'll only get a better trunk.

You have a good eye in that this dogwood has awesome roots and a good base. If you were to collect it, I personally would chop it around here. Normally you would chop lower, but I actually like the natural taper on this tree already. I

 

[bwaynef]

Those roots would need to be corrected at some point, adding a lot of time to this tree's creation. I've also had the experience where dogwoods seem to resent collection. If you really want this one, I'd suggest working the roots back to make it more collectable and collect in a few years. (Trench & backfill.)

 

[sfeagan]

Those roots would need to be corrected at some point, adding a lot of time to this tree's creation. I've also had the experience where dogwoods seem to resent collection. If you really want this one, I'd suggest working the roots back to make it more collectable and collect in a few years. (Trench & backfill.)

Thanks! There's a couple more smaller ones that would probably be less risky to dig.