ShopPING!

[Victorim]

We've planed a trip to one of if not the best nurseries in the country on tuesday, not that its a big country mind, sunny wales, so there's not that many. The place has 3 acres of poly tunnels filled. About 12140.6 meters squared google says (acres as a term in the US? Yeah must be.. you guys love the Wurzles )

So any tips for a big nursery hunt? So far i've only been hunting in chain garden centers, and as you can imagine is fairly limited. Any must have trees, that have not necessarily made the best specimens but have taught you a lot or have been a fun experience to work with?

 

[sorce]

So any tips for a big nursery hunt?

Don't buy anything till you look at everything!

Dig to find the surface roots and be careful not to damage bark when doing so.

Bring a brush.
And a poker.
And some water!

Don't buy anything grafted!

Share pics from there!

Sorce

 

[ConorDash]

Good luck, I'd also like to see plenty of pics. I'm getting used to looking in chain garden centres too, and it's really slim pickin's.. it's discouraging.

 

[Cattwooduk]

Where are you heading? Camarthenshire isn't all that far away from Bristol I guess, so if there is a really sh!t hot nursery not too far away I may have a nose around as well if you find out it's a pretty good one!

There is a really good family run Garden centre near me called Brackenwood. Has a really good selection of all kinds of trees and shrubs, they've got some weird and wonderful stuff I haven't seen anywhere else. It was the massive selection of Acers which is what drew me in originally. Unfortunately mostly grafted stock but I spoke to the tree buyer there recently and they've got a new supplier who seems to be doing more cutting and layered maples. There's always a new variety when I go which I have to resist buying, seriously running out of space for maples in my garden...

Has a pretty nice range of evergreens as well although I haven't really looked at any of them for Bonsai. I haven't actually looked into evergreens for bonsai at all yet personally - it was mostly maples that peaked my interest and got me started. Something I need to ask about really - what should I be looking for in a potential evergreen nursery stock? I don't know which ones are reliable back budders, as most of my experiences from gardening standpoint involve maintenance of larger plants or when people want them straight up removed from the garden. Generally they don't grow from old wood so I haven't bothered trying to save any of the ones I've removed so far because I doubted they would regrow.

I would guess anything with a fat trunk and decent foliage low down and close the middle of the plant would make half decent start point. After that it's the structure to look at?

 

[Woody Carverton]

Best tree species I have ever had that gave me the most experience in styling that helped with styling a lot of other conifers was Hinoki Cypress. Mainly because they were very forgiving decades back when i first started out and although i messed a lot of them up, i never had one die.

As for tips, here's my buying guide, and i go on probably a dozen huge buying trips a year.

1: Never pay full price or whats on the sticker.

2: Never let the employees "sell" you something. Even at some of the large nurseries that know better I have had employees tell me things that i know for fact to be outright wrong in attempts to make a sale. Buy what you want to on your own free will without the sales pitch. Or you will just end up being sold the species that they have the highest margin on.

3: Keep an eye out at every tree you pass for signs of disease or infestation. If you see a single sick or infested tree that is not seriously quarantined, just leave and come back in a month to see if they have it under control. (unless you have a quarantine greenhouse at home to quarantine off any new stock you pick up as to not infect your other trees)

4: Start in the discount or clearance area, 90% of the time, that's where you find the best trees for bonsai when shopping at a non-bonsai nursery.

5: Lastly, Plan on spending about 20% more money that you thought you were going to going into your trip, that way you wont feel bad when you leave having went over budget like EVERY ONE OF US has done.

Good luck shopping, and be sure to post tons of pics.

 

[Victorim]

https://farmyardnurseries.co.uk is the place. It's huge. Though we're going to go back another day. Was cold, wet and all three kids playing up. Was all a bit rushed in the end so nothing really grabed me.

Liked some of the stumps from an unlabeled pile with no prices. Payed £5.


Here's some pics of the place. Sorry there's not more.

 

[Cattwooduk]

Ooh those look like a nice pile of potential stumps. Might be worth a drive over eventually, it's about 2 and a half hour drive so not too bad.

 

[Victorim]

A beast under the soil. We'll see how it does.
.

 

[Victorim]

pfft. Even put him in a colander and no like from source

 

[Cattwooduk]

Looks like you removed an awful lot of the smaller roots there. I'm absolutely no expert but aren't all the smaller roots the ones you want to be retaining more of?

 

[Victorim]

The removed smaller roots were at the end of larger winding ones. The ones left look alot newer and came higher up. Also looking at the photo there looks alot less than there was. Will update in the future

 

[Potawatomi13]

Looks like Cherry bark and buds. What was other stump at back of pot? Could be an added free tree.

 

[Victorim]

Looks like Cherry bark and buds. What was other stump at back of pot? Could be an added free tree.

Other stump?

 

[sorce]

pfft

Lol!

That like starts and ends with the Colander!

It's my fault for not following...

Dig to find the surface roots

With....

Only buy a tree with a nice surface root spread!

And hell....if I known you had more than that cutie in the Avatar, I would have reminded you to leave the kids at home! Or, since it's unavoidable, bring duct tape to bind them to a fence while you shop! But then child services comes blah blah!

Seriously....
If you are headed back....

Those prechopped joints with the bark chips on top will probly be easy to look into, and one of those has to have a good Nebari.

Then again...
It doesn't even really matter....

I'd go back when they leaf up for ID....
And buy every one that Is half popular for bonsai.

Vigorous ones can be wire tourniquetted this year to induce a swell you can ground layer at the following year.

Weaker ones can be done next year or so.

Either way...they can all stay in the pot with their(if they are) shitty root spread, and you can fix it later....

The way I see it, they saved you some time doing the chops, allowing you for time to remake a Nebari. Some of them already have good new leaders too.

Anyway...for €5..€? Yes?

You can't go wrong!

I say Score....

Which....coincidentally.....

Has the same letters as my name!

Just in a different order!

When are you going back!?

Sorce

 

[Victorim]

Anyway...for €5..€? Yes?

£5 works out at $6.22

I say Score....

Which....coincidentally.....

Has the same letters as my name!

Just in a different order!

When are you going back!?

Sorce

Oops! Blame the beer.

Maby in a month or so. And leave the kids with granny..