Ginkgo comes home

[TimS]

Back in 2016 a family friend said she had a Ginkgo in the nature strip she wanted to remove that had been there for 20 odd years, and asked if i would want to use it for Bonsai. Of course the answer to that question was resounding YES! I drove around and it was certainly manageable; it was a little less than 6ft in height after she had chopped the top off it with the idea of removing the whole thing eventually. This actually helped me greatly as it had prompted dormant buds further down to start shooting. I was a little disappointed at the lack of taper in the tree, but beggars can't be choosers and it was a free 20 year old ginkgo after all.

I waited until winter of 2017 to go around and have a look at digging it up, and after some slight excavation i discovered it actually didn't have a lot of roots for a tree planted in the ground for so long. What it did have one one very thick root running off under the pavement, so in my inexperience i decided to err on the side of cutting that one big root, and then leaving it for a year in the ground to recover from that. The family friend obligingly agreed to having it one more year in the nature strip and i went away and put it out of my mind.

I got a call again in autumn of 2018 to say would i mind awfully coming and getting the Ginkgo, as the council were about to come and pull out a whole bunch of trees including this ginkgo. She had asked them if it was okay for me to take the Ginkgo, and they were happy for that to happen, so I chucked a spade and some newspaper in the boot to wrap the roots in and raced around. The tree lifted very easily, and i got it home to inspect it. I washed the soil away and found that under the ground the base had swelled dramatically. It was by no means beautiful, but it was more interesting than the taper-less trunk. I found some nice strong shoots lower on the trunk, cut it down to about 2ft tall and chucked it in a polystyrene box.

Come spring it shot away to my relief, and once it gained some strength i fertilised it well but not excessively heavily. I noted a couple of buds on the trunk had appeared, but they didn't shoot. In winter of 2019 i went back in and cut away the last of the big root that had now died off, and put it back into the box again. Now as i look at it, those buds on the trunk now shooting and there are new dormant buds taking off from the swollen base too.

Not only is it great fortune to have been offered this tree for free, and also managed to dig before the council put it through a wood chipper; but it turns out that my family friend purchased it originally from the plant stall at my school fete in 1996. Who was it who grew all the plants for that stall, including seed growing a bunch of Ginkgo? My father.

So this tree, started by my father, left my family 23 years ago. Now it returns for a whole new direction in for life. Needless to say this stump is very special to me now, and i hope to take it onward in good health in the next 20 years+. Updates will follow from here.




The stump the spring after i collected it in 2018

ginkgo.jpg

The stump today, a year on

gink19a.jpg

Size of the base that was submerged below the soil line (hand for comparison)

gink19b.jpg

Some of the dormant buds starting to shoot:

gink19c.jpg

gink19d.jpg

Bark texture coming through

gink19e.jpg

[Watto]

Love a tree that has a history or story. Not a bad looking base either.

[Keep Calm and Ramify]

Old family member returns good job!

[Raging Bull]

Great! What a fantastic bit of good fortune. And well woth the effort by the look of it.

[Greg F]

A great read Tim. Congratulations on the nostalgic tree.

Greg

[kcpoole]

How cool to get a tree with history to boot!
nice trunk to work with in the future too
en
K

[Ryceman3]

Cool story! Gingko are slow growing but hey, this tale is already 20+ years in the making!

[TimS]

Ginkgo certainly are slow to thicken, and also incredibly slow to heal over scars. There is one on the trunk from a council whipper sniper, it must have happened a very long time ago because the cambium is rolling over to heal it. Perfectly normal for most other trees, a sign it happened long ago for Ginkgo!

I’m not sure this will make it into a bonsai pot anytime in the next decade as I want it growing as uninhibited as possible, so I’ll keep encouraging those dormant buds and build up as many shoots as possible to hide the scar on the side of the trunk and at the top where I cut it down.

Even with the flaws, I do loving seeing this stump on the bench every bit as much, if not more, than my more established trees.

[MJL]

Excellent thread and story Tim. You and others might be interested in two beautiful Gingko embedded in this recent video of the Toronto Bonsai Society autumn show. (See at 8 minutes and 31.51 minutes.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN0MxF--cYA

[Redsonic]

Love the story, and love the tree. Thanks for sharing. I look forward to seeing it in 10 years time

[TimS]

Maybe in a few generations it might end up looking a bit like this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORA1v8vsqc0

[TimS]

pdate for the Ginkgo, this thing is just bombing ahead with no issues to report *touch wood!* Clearly quite happy with an open mix, a combination of liquid and pellet fertiliser and room to spread out in the box there. Lots of buds opening low down, and signs that even more dormant buds are going to push through into the future. Ginkgo buds are interesting, they will form on the trunk, but will take several months or more to actually leaf out. I've had a few where it thought the bud may have died of, only to later find it starting to leaf.

Strangely suitable to photograph it on the green-waste bin, since it was originally destined for a wood chipper!

12.1.20.jpg

When i went to find my trident maples for the group competition i noticed this dwarf Ginkgo. It pleased me greatly, and it was quite a reasonable price too, so home it came with me. I have a pot by Marg Fenn in mind for it already that is just sitting in a cupboard at the moment. It's quite a pleasing little tree at least to me. I see a time coming in the future where i really only grow perhaps Chinese Elm, Trident Maple and Ginkgo with the odd other thing here or there. This little guy can keep the big one company while it continues to recover and push on from being unceremoniously pulled out of the ground and losing 5ft off it's height at the same time. I'm loving the bejesus out of Ginkgo bonsai right now.

12.1.20.jpg

My feeling for a potential front for the tree.

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A comparison of the difference in leaf size. Intereting to note that leaf size and shape can be different across the tree, so the large leaf is actually 4 lobed, each lobe is divided as well, whereas in other parts of the tree there are the traditional two-lobed leaves. Anyway the nub of the matter is the full leaf of the dwarf is about the same breadth as one quarter of one leaf on the stump!

[Ryceman3]

I see a time coming in the future where i really only grow perhaps Chinese Elm, Trident Maple and Ginkgo with the odd other thing here or there.

Japanese maple

[TimS]

I see a time coming in the future where i really only grow perhaps Chinese Elm, Trident Maple and Ginkgo with the odd other thing here or there.

Japanese maple

I will keep a few special ones in the collection, and plant heaps in my future garden, but I prefer trident maples for bonsai tbh. I find JM just too sensitive in Melbourne summers, and far more susceptible to aphid and powdery mildew than trident. I think those three species will become the cornerstone of my growing though!

[MJL]

I am sure your passion and focus will result in a very deep knowledge of the species and of each of the trees in your collection. I look forward to watching your collection grow and your trees will benefit from the focussed knowledge for sure.

Oh and I’m glad I haven’t had the issues you’ve had with Japanese maples .... I can’t imagine getting rid of my forest and various other Japanese maples in development!



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