Late summer collecting trip

[PiñonJ]

I went collecting up in the mountains last weekend in a new spot for me. I returned with four nice trees, one of them mame sized. I had intended to get enough aspens for a forest planting, but they proved to have not many surface roots - not too surprising, since they propagate themselves largely from the roots of other individuals. So I collected a tiny sapling as an experiment. I was thrilled to get a Southwestern White Pine (Pinus strobiformis), which I haven’t encountered elsewhere. Then I got a nice little Engelmann Spruce and a Rocky Mountain variety of Common Juniper (J. communis).
Here’s the Aspen (Populus tremuloides):

And the White Pine - I found it on a steepish bank, so I was dubious about it’s collectibility, but the soil was moist, and as I explored I was delighted to find that it had roots close to the trunk:


Here’s the Engelmann (Picea engelmannii):

And the Juniperus communis - I love the needles on these:
It’s small, but it comes already with a shari.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I haven't been able to keep collected communis junipers alive, I wish you the best of luck with it!

 

[PiñonJ]

This little guy let its leaves die and set buds for next year, then decided to push some new leaves.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Go back and get some Aspen. Just chop them out of the ground and plant them. I had the same reservations a couple years ago, but gathered a forest-full anyway because I'm too stupid to recognize a waste of time. I did it in September and all but one tree made it. No roots to speak of, -just the sucker root. In repotting I could see that only the upstream sucker grew roots, the downstream side just shriveled.

 

[PiñonJ]

Go back and get some Aspen. Just chop them out of the ground and plant them. I had the same reservations a couple years ago, but gathered a forest-full anyway because I'm too stupid to recognize a waste of time. I did it in September and all but one tree made it. No roots to speak of, -just the sucker root. In repotting I could see that only the upstream sucker grew roots, the downstream side just shriveled.

Thanks for the info! What caliper were the trunks?

 

[Forsoothe!]

All smaller than 3/4" I'm too old to chop out the bigger ones. I wanted a forest, anyway. That block of lots has been cleared this year for construction, I presume, and I went back a got two more forests. By next summer it'll be an office building.

 

[Colorado]

Love to see someone working with aspen. I haven’t tried yet but I think there is some unexplored potential there.