Some collected olives

[greg27]

Welcome to South Australia, land of the feral olive! All of these were collected, with permission, from a recreation park that's about a 20 minute drive from me.

All were flat-bottomed, so essentially a large cutting, and they've all just started springing into life so I thought I'd post a few up to see if anyone has any styling advice, particularly with the first where it looks like the main trunk has died (I found it lying on its side, so it was easy to collect).

The last one is my favourite and is the most recent one collected; there are a few buds starting to emerge higher up on the trunk.

I have a few more that are pretty boring-looking that I'll probably use to practice carving with.

[Keels]

You've got some nice bases there to work with. keen to see how they progress into the future.

[shibui]

There's no real point in giving styling advice yet. You really need to wait for at least a year until the trees re-establish roots before hacking into them again. I've found that olive roots grow slowly. Even after the top looks healthy there will be very few roots down below so hasten slowly.
When you have good growth and know which parts are strong and alive we might be able to offer some assistance. Until then just keep looking after them.
Not doing something is an essential skill in bonsai but quite hard for beginners to understand.

It appears you have dug these trees over a period of time. Others would really benefit from knowing when you dug these trees. We've found that olives can be dug from the wild almost any time of year.

[gordonb]

Not doing something is an essential skill in bonsai but quite hard for beginners to understand.

Well said! and hard to follow 'til you've got [started to learn] patience

[greg27]

Yes, patience definitely isn't of my strong suits and is something I'm trying to learn, especially when it comes to this hobby. I'll update this thread in a year

These were collected from October to December last year; the photos actually came out in order of collection from earliest to most recent.

[shibui]

Late spring to early summer. We have also had good success at that time of year. Because spring is usually very busy we have also tried autumn (March) collecting for olives. All trees have recovered well. A couple took nearly a year to sprout new shoots but most started growing the following spring and a few grew new buds within a few weeks.
Definitely leave yours alone until they have significant new shoots. They need the leaves to grow new roots.