Like many bonsai people I have too many trees, some in bonsai pots, and some awaiting to be put in bonsai pots. So the question is, should an opportunity arise to dig a tree, or a number of trees, should we dig? More importantly, should I dig?

You may of course end up with an absolute treasure, or it could be another tree that will sit up the back and probably never become anything of significance. Some of the questions that go through my mind are:

• How would I know how it will end up unless I take the opportunity
• What will I do with it if I don’t like or need it after I dig it
• Could I sell it
• Do I have sufficient “potting supplies” – potting medium, pots etc
• Do I have the space and capacity to keep it (or them)
• And the list goes on

This very question arose this week and I was torn between knowing I already have too many, and the chance that this may result in a champion. The location was a garden so these aren’t yamadori, but they did look like there might be possibilities.

The first tree was a plum – prunus ? It had been cut down quite a number of times so it didn’t “stick out” above plantings of seaside daisies. So it was short, it had a thick base, and it had just a little bit of movement. I did think to myself that this might be good in a few years.

 Part way through the process, with the crow bar in the background. After I started digging I discovered that there was a large block of concrete under the plum. This was good as the majority of the root system was located on the concrete, but it also meant that I needed to break the concrete on either side of the tree.

The crowbar breaking up the concrete strip.

A few larger roots did escape but the majority of finer roots were sitting on the concrete which was just fantastic.

The end product potted. After some time to recover and grow, a bit of cutting, a bit of carving, and a new planting angle and this should be a good medium size bonsai – fingers crossed.

Only a few metres away was a hawthorne that was given the same treatment, regular trimming to keep it within (or under) the daisy hedge. This tree was probably the result of bird droppings, but what I discovered was that it had some very unusual and interesting movement.

 This photo does not show the movement to its best advantage, but it does go in all directions.

Here is the potted product, the base is not a wide as I had hoped but that is one of the unexplainable questions of digging trees – you are not quite sure what the final product will be like. This tree was not growing on the concrete edgeing and as such had just a few quite thick roots so it will probably need a bit more recovery time before any work can be commenced

From the same yard was another tree, however I am not as yet sure what it is. It is definitely from the prunus family, and at first I thought it was another plum, but now I think it might be an apricot so I need to wait for the leaves to appear before I can be sure.

This tree is now about 250mm high with a reasonable base width. There are no photos of it before it was dug but it was growing in very poor soil. This has the makings of a very nice shohin in the coming years. The beer is there just for size comparison.

So, should I have taken the opportunity to dig these trees – at this stage I think yes!