New to bonsai. I think I have a problem...

[Forsoothe!]

Remember, the Black Fly is the state bird. And mosquitoes... There's a lot to be said for living in the plain ol' temperate zone.

 

[berzerkules]

Well, I guess it's safe to say that my 2021 outdoor growing season has officially come to an end.

Can't say I didn't see it coming, just wish I had more tropicals to keep myself busy for the next 6 months.


there's about 100 little trees down there somewhere.

 

[andrewiles]

Yeah, town can look like any other place sometimes but it's easy to get away and forget it's all there. I went on a little walk the other day searching for larch to collect next spring and found a nice little muskeg bog filled with hundreds of larch and some black spruce. It's <100 yards from a main road running through town and like 10-15 minute walk from my front door.
View attachment 398496

Larches are one of my favorites. You have access to great material there. I seriously need to go collecting up the coast and figure out how to bring a bunch of trees down on a barge to Seattle If anyone's done something crazy like this I'd love to hear...

Around here we have wester and subalpine larches. Here's some of the latter a few weeks ago. Just starting to turn:

 

[berzerkules]

Larches are one of my favorites. You have access to great material there. I seriously need to go collecting up the coast and figure out how to bring a bunch of trees down on a barge to Seattle If anyone's done something crazy like this I'd love to hear...

Around here we have wester and subalpine larches. Here's some of the latter a few weeks ago. Just starting to turn:
View attachment 402126

Send that barge up here with some trees and we can collect more on the way down.

I'll be collecting some larch next year. I'm not sure when though. I find them in bogs that are only "easily" accessible in summer. Normal collecting season is In spring but spots like that pic I posted will most likely be under water at that time. Gonna be some sloppy wet diggin. Not many larch catch my eye either, when I find them there are a bunch but most are like 10-15 foot Christmas trees. They aren't in places that I normally find gnarly abused trees like up on hills exposed to weather or around humans that repeated beat them down year after year. I'll find some good ones eventually and take what I can get until then.

 

[BeepBeepBonsaiSheep]

Damn, you really went full bore!

I’ve done the same thing. I started in March and have 40 plants. Not included in that number are 20 seedlings

You don’t have a problem. Everyone else does

 

[berzerkules]

Damn, you really went full bore!

I’ve done the same thing. I started in March and have 40 plants. Not included in that number are 20 seedlings

You don’t have a problem. Everyone else does

In my defense I had a very high success rate on cuttings. I also have a bunch of little stuff from the side of the road that that that gets mowed down year after year with cool trunks that are only a couple inches tall.

More than half of what I have is in small 4×4 pots.

 

[BeepBeepBonsaiSheep]

In my defense I had a very high success rate on cuttings. I also have a bunch of little stuff from the side of the road that that that gets mowed down year after year with cool trunks that are only a couple inches tall.

More than half of what I have is in small 4×4 pots.

You should post a few of the mowed over ones

 

[berzerkules]

You should post a few of the mowed over ones

Hard to get decent pics when they are buried in snow.

 

[A. Gorilla]

Hard to get decent pics when they are buried in snow.

Pwnt

 

[BeepBeepBonsaiSheep]

Hard to get decent pics when they are buried in snow.

Make a note to do so in July, haha

 

[berzerkules]

So, I learned a thing recently, always check the forecast before you start repotting. We had 2 good weeks where we were up into the 50s and night temps weren't below 40. Buds were swelling about to pop and I was itching to get back into playing with some little trees. Anyways, I got about a dozen trees repotted and called it a day and when I woke up it cold and rainy, next day it was snowing. Well, to late to do anything about it now. The joys of living in Alaska.

Guess I'll throw up some pics of a few little collected birch trees mid repot on this thread to avoid making another.


I have no idea what to do with this thing. Cool little clump I found by the train tracks. It's kind of boring though, straight pencil thick trunks, but it's all one tree. I'm thinking I might just let it go crazy for a couple few years then chop it all down and start from scratch. Who knows.



I like this little one, at least the bottom of it. I was probably close to 3 feet tall with no lower branches when I collected it. I couldn't do anything with that. So, part way through last year after it leafed out good and then slowed down, I decided to just go for it and chop it. I was hoping for dormant buds to pop around where little branches had broken off. Got lucky. Planning on trying to do the same thing again and half the height, but might just let it go this year. I'd also like to try and get some roots a little higher up. One step at a time I guess.



Found this one with a dead tree laying on it, natural ground layer. There was only that one long straight root on the knuckle when I collected it, so i scored the bark and put rooting hormone on it when I potted it up. Trying to get two root masses. and it worked, kinda. I wanted roots on the outside of that knuckle but I got them on the inside.

The branches are uninteresting, straight and unbendable, I'd like to chop them off and start over eventually. It's a neat little tree though. I'll stare at it a lot in the next few months and try to come up with a plan.

Ugh I so ready for summer.

 

[Godschick]

I lived in Alaska for a few years and wish I would have been into bonsai at the time. Thinking back now I can certainly understand your (good) dilemma with the mass selection of wild trees, yamadori!! The winters are certainly a challenge for winterizing but ah the summers! It’s a short grow season but with all the extended daylight, I was in heaven! Things that I normally grew in the lower 48 just exploded and were way more fabulous in AK. I’m a little jealous

 

[NMbonsai]

So, I've been lurking the forum for a while now and figured I should finally make a post so, here goes something.

I had no idea growing trees in pots would become so addictive. This spring I started plucking little trees out of parking lots and off the side of the road. I quickly moved on to taking cuttings of everything I could. Air layering seemed like the next logical step so, I went all in on that too. I now have close to 150 trees potted in anything I could scrounge up that slightly resembled a pot. My spare time is spent wandering around the woods looking for trees to collect next spring.

I see no end in sight. This isn't going to stop. My only regret is I didn't start sooner.

Anyways, I guess it's sharing time so here are a few little trees I've collected.

View attachment 391295
This Amur chokecherry was growing up against a curb and had been stumped.

View attachment 391289
This abused Alder was growing into the road and had been hit by more cars than I have (For the record I've only been hit by 1 car).

View attachment 391290
Another abused alder from the side of a logging road.

View attachment 391291
Scooped this guy off a sand bar on a camping trip.

View attachment 391292
Who knew little beat up birch trees liked to hang out around train tracks.

View attachment 391293

Don't try to airlayer trees near a homeless camp unless you like kindly asking hobos to stop tearing apart your airlayer.

Really? Why would those folks be tearing apart your air layer? Do they think there might be drugs or spare change inside? And please, I believe the preferred term for these unfortunate souls these days is 'unhoused'. These aren't people who ride the rails. 'Hobos' sounds so 1930s and we all have to work hard to be current and 'PC'; lest we be castigated by those who choose to be highly offended by such terminology. But seriously, welcome aboard the Bonsai Train. You are in for a long, strange trip; learning things about trees and horticulture you couldn't imagine.

 

[JPH]

Another Northerner! Fantastic! Seeing the photos from your walks reminds me of where I live! (James Bay area, Quebec) I'm hoping to grab a few Alders once the ground thaws a bit in a week or so. I know what you mean about wishing you had started earlier, but life works that way sometimes, and now I'm a bit more patient and a little wiser. So who knows if I would have stuck with it back then. I think the far north is an untapped resource in terms of bonsai! And I'm really looking forward to seeing more of your trees and how your environment influences your approach to the art! Keep it up! Never stop!

A few photos from a walk I took the other day... As of today though the snow is more or less gone. Hoping to go collecting soon!

 

[HorseloverFat]

OOOF!

I think you're the coldest!!!

 

[sorce]

Another Northerner! Fantastic

OOOF

Aye eh!?

Another? Bro....
Even though dude could "see Russia from his house"...

This mfkr is bringing wrongly delivered mail around the block to freaking elves, stepping in peppermint flavored reindeer shits on the way!

HF!

Sorce

 

[berzerkules]

Another Northerner! Fantastic! Seeing the photos from your walks reminds me of where I live! (James Bay area, Quebec) I'm hoping to grab a few Alders once the ground thaws a bit in a week or so. I know what you mean about wishing you had started earlier, but life works that way sometimes, and now I'm a bit more patient and a little wiser. So who knows if I would have stuck with it back then. I think the far north is an untapped resource in terms of bonsai! And I'm really looking forward to seeing more of your trees and how your environment influences your approach to the art! Keep it up! Never stop!

A few photos from a walk I took the other day... As of today though the snow is more or less gone. Hoping to go collecting soon!
View attachment 435481View attachment 435482

That second picture you posted looks like home, could be anywhere Alaska.
I love collecting Alder, they don't seem to mind being dug up. I'm looking forward to developing some, I bet the would look pretty good in a pot with those little cones. Who knows how long that will take though. Keeping trees wasn't really an option for me for most of the last decade, I was always away working all summer. Now that I have the opportunity to stay home a little more I've kind of went all in on this tree thing. Agreed on that untapped bonsai potential up north. There are trees everywhere up here. Not a lot of variety but what grows here thrives. I should probably learn to be more selective when I collect. It's hard to pass up free trees though. I dug up so many trees last year, lots of little stuff. Wanted to learn how to collect and care for stuff before go after trees I'd feel bad about killing. Wish the growing season was a little longer, but it would be no fun if it was easy.

 

[berzerkules]

I lived in Alaska for a few years and wish I would have been into bonsai at the time. Thinking back now I can certainly understand your (good) dilemma with the mass selection of wild trees, yamadori!! The winters are certainly a challenge for winterizing but ah the summers! It’s a short grow season but with all the extended daylight, I was in heaven! Things that I normally grew in the lower 48 just exploded and were way more fabulous in AK. I’m a little jealous

Where in Alaska were you?
It's too easy to just go out and dig up trees, I need to learn some restraint. I didn't really do much to over winter my trees since almost everything I have is collected from around here. Tried not to over think it, little trees get buried under leaves in fall then it snows. Just try and recreate what would happen in nature. I'm still waiting for my trees to wake up, buds are swelling and starting to pop but not much happening yet. There is about to be an explosion of green up here real soon though.

 

[JPH]

This mfkr is bringing wrongly delivered mail around the block to freaking elves, stepping in peppermint flavored reindeer shits on the way!

We call em' caribou up here buddy!

 

[Godschick]

Where in Alaska were you?
It's too easy to just go out and dig up trees, I need to learn some restraint. I didn't really do much to over winter my trees since almost everything I have is collected from around here. Tried not to over think it, little trees get buried under leaves in fall then it snows. Just try and recreate what would happen in nature. I'm still waiting for my trees to wake up, buds are swelling and starting to pop but not much happening yet. There is about to be an explosion of green up here real soon though.

I bet you can take a hike, heck even walk down the street and collect like 100 trees That would be super hard for me to have restraint too. When I first moved there I lived beside the Bering Sea in Nome. It was during the month of November and it was so cold it hurt my face to be outside lol Then I moved inland to Wasilla. I did travel around a bit on weekends for work to Valdese, Bethel, Homer and Talkeetna. Whereabouts are you? Oh yeah I forgot the leaves/snow pack being awesome insulation. And you can tell in the one picture it was Midsummer from the Fireweed Trees for days….