Carpinus orientalis 2010/1

Collecting season has started this year a week or two early. At the seaside we have already mild temperatures, around 8 to 10 Celsius. These are few first yamadori Carpinus orientalises of year 2010.

The first one is a wonderful little tree, 30-40cm high with nebari 10-12cm wide. Branch pattern is nicely positioned.
The tree as it was found.

This year we have new tool for digging trees. This is a sort of power lifter (or power puller) with capacity up to 1500 kg of pulling strenght. It's a fantastic tool with enormous practical effect. While digging trees, especially in this type of terrain where you can find lot of rocks and stones, in one moment you cannot reach all the roots that are positioned under the root ball. This is the critical moment where the tree has to be "broken" from the ground, teared out. Some very large trees are extremely difficult to break. Even two or three men cannot do it. At least Mario, Chajko and I, we cannot brake such a strong tree. And three of us together have almost 300kg of body mass. So in that situations, this type of 1500 kilos power puller is fantastic help. Mario named it "12", as it has strenght of 12 men. And he was right.

Sometimes, as in this particular situation, the tree growes over the rock face. "12" extracted the tree together with the rock from the ground after the initial digging around the tree and cutting the important nebari roots. Of course, you have to be careful not to break important roots or whole tree!

You can see the tree sitting on the rock.

You have to have strong tree or a rock nearby to secure distal end of pulling rope. These ropes are ropes for pulling cars. They have hooks already attached to their ends.

Little beautiful Carpinus orientalis in temporary pot.

FS :)

End of season 2009.

My dear friends...this probably closes 2009 season of collecting. It is already very cold in high mountains and the winds are sometimes severe. But, it has been enough. This season has yielded many good and a few very good starter trees for bonsai. From now on, during the winter, there will be some wireing and drilling and some very basic styling of new material that has matured for the next step. And with that, cold winter months will pass. There will be no more talk of collecting 'till February when comes the time for The King between all deciduous trees...his majesty Carpinus orientalis. Even now I can hardly wait.Than we will have more extreeme yamadori collecting trips in rocky areas where this beautiful beasts grow.
S

Metuselah potted

Well, this is Metuselah in the pot. This is my biggest tree, and, I think, it's little too big. But, what does it mean "too big"? Now it measures cca 140cm from base to the top of the green mass. It is obviously a kind of literati cascading tree. This curve on the first picture is a cascading part. Probably, in the future, there will not be any green higher than that curve. On the contrary, the tree will cascade back towards the ground and future crown can be positioned in the middle part of the trunk, or, at highest, in the upper third. That will result with the tree 80 centimeters high, or even less. Only high positioned curve will be at the highest point. The bark on the curve is fantastic and old, so that can be very interesting attention spot. Much shari on this tree is obligatory in final design because, it has already rotten core and many stubs left from cutting dead branches.
Nebari is almost 50-60 cm wide. The tree was collected with good root system and I'm not too affraid if Metu will survive.
I believe this tree is old.

Mugo "Metuselah"

Hm, another collecting trip. This was a hard one. My body is broken, so was my yamadori soul in one moment. Extremely difficult terrain, steep rock faces, dense forest, huge mugo trees...
Cold, wet and windy morning, fog on the top of the mountain lingered all day...

Huge, old and weather beaten Picea trees

Chajko in the mist.

And this is area where Mugo lives, high in the mountains on rocky slopes, in the early morning mist...

This peak is our destination for today.

Chajko with mugo trees

And, my hunt for this time was very old and rotten mugo. This one is really a bit too big, but...as It was already dug out, we have to carry it to the car. And that was extremely difficult task.

Chajko's catch

In the next two days, I will put fotos of Metuselah planted in temporary pot in my garden.

The biggest problem... transportation of heavy pieces

Some locations are not accessible by car, and some yamadori pieces are just too heavy to carry with a backpack tree carrier. But, if there is a relatively usable forest fire road, this kind of device is very helpful. It is always easier to pull or push something that is on wheels than to carry one hundred kilos on your back.
Backpack tree carrier.

Team equiped with wheelbarrows. Much easier!!!

Trees packed for transportation to the car.

Loaded with yamadori :). You cannot carry this on your back.

Pinus mugo "Broken One" and "Cascade"

Two new Pinus mugo.
These are wonderful mosses on the high mountain beech trees.

First mugo, "Cascade". This can very easily be a garden tree, a tree that can be, for example, positioned over the pond. But, as it will be grown in the pot, can be clasified as bonsai, although a bit big and wide. This tree had something magical in it's appearance, and when we saw it on the mountain, love was immediate.
The tree has natural and beautiful shari. The coils and spirals are fantastic. I like the tree very much because it is very unusual. Something like cascading literati style of bonsai. It grew on the same cliff as Prometheus.

Spirals on the Cascade.

Shari on the Cascade.

And this is "Broken One". Well, it is not broken, but it looks like it is.

The trunk is very fat. To me, that's terribly ugly. But, the main volume of the trunk will be drilled and sharied, so, this will not exist in the future.

The collecting season will intensify in the next few weeks, and it will be ended November the first. Untill then, there will be more new coniferous material.