Alpineart's Blog

This was a blessing from the Big fella upstairs . After a storm in town several trees were damaged and the cleanup resulted in yours truly with a massive purple plum .The lovely bride spotted the devastation on her way home from work and commented on the big flowering plum that had been blown down , so i whipped out for a bit of a looky- see and sure enough the tree was down but the trunk was gone .I shot off to chat with the caretakers hoping to gain the info on the trunk .

They were very helpful , using the crane truck they slipped it into my trailer and i was off like a “brides nightie” to pot the tree . With a quick trim of the roots i slipped the trunk off the trailer and into a custom made training box and filled with 150lts of potting mix .This monster will carveup a treat with the trust Stihl mini boss . The overall measurements are 370mm x 470mm at the base 260mm trunk and stands around 1100mm high

With the tree safely home i set about making a large wooden box to cater for the root-ball .Using untreated pine i knocked up a box 750 x750 x300mm with large drain holes .I attached wheels to the back of the box for ease of moving when required .With the assistance of a couple of people we slid the tree out of the ute down a wet plank and into the box and potted up as per normal bonsai .The tree was then trimmed of all the access foliage and the terminals styled into future trainers where they will be layered off into starters with a view to the future.All up 16 layeres will be removed ranging from upright , windswept , slanting , twin trunk and raft .This is by far the best collected tree and the most rewarding one i have done .Cheers and Happy Bonsai

This is the latest edition to my collection , it will be a stock tree for a couple of years for layering purposes . I purchased the tree for $15.95 basically for the trunk ,but as i arrived to dig the mother out it was so ramified on the terminals i immediately had second thoughts and decided to remove the tree complete .An excavator on site was the ruling factor as the owner offered it to lift and load the tree .We hand dug it out as the services to the house were in front and behind the trunk ..Starting at around 1.5m around the base i worked my way int to root-mass to find that it was only around 900mm x 350mm and no tap root to speak of . With a drag chain placed around the roots ,the machine simple dragged the tree into a position where he could simply sling the base and lift it into the ute . With the tree loaded i slipped extra large plastic bags over the foliage and then wrapped the canopy with shade-cloth to prevent damage from wind burn for the 4 hour trip home . The tree in all its glory measured 2800mm high 2100mm wide and has a 165mm trunk