rawhide wrote:awesome tree Bretts
I thought you were having space issues
i will do you a favour and take it off your
hands if you have trouble finding a spot for it
When I had the space issues I always had this tree in the back of my mind knowing I needed to make space for it. But I have had a slight change in attitude to this stock. This come out with a perfect rootball.
I had the mother in law step sister misses and all the kids standing around chatting as I sweated away finding a way to release this. Plus since I had taken the bottle brush's the mother in law had planted out some very nice plants that looked great in spring flower so I had to watch ever step I made.
Anyway from watching Sandev Bonsai I have found a very handy tip in using a pulley system to lever the tree out of the ground.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Wj4lQ8Vjzc#" !
I find with trees like this after going around the base with a shovel as best I can I start using a tool I now find indispensable when collecting trees. It is a long straight type of crow bar. Funny thing is the mother in law asked me if I wanted to borrow a crow bar. I told her I already had a crow bar of hers and it was my favourite collecting tool that I had for years now.
This thing is like a jack hammer with no on switch, might get a pic of it tomorrow. Even I was surprised is it popped out of the ground with a perfect ball of soil and roots.
But I had other plans for this tree and washed all the soil of and was quite drastic in reducing the root ball. The plan being that it would go into a fairly small pot and I would not be reducing the root ball drastically again in a couple of years after it has recovered.
I had the same idea with the top and thought I would bite the bullet and decide on the future plan for this tree now when it is bare of foliage instead of trying to look through all the foliage in a couple of years wondering what the hell to do.
kvan64 wrote:Excellent taper and root spread for a lilly pilly Bretts. The primary branches distribution is very well balanced too. It will make an excellent broom style as it is (not saying that you shouldn't change the design)
Congrats.
DK
That is my thinking too DK I am thinking of making a few adjustments tomorrow something like this maybe
lilv.jpg
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It's too bad your in such a hurry cause the stories I could tell you, Bushels and baskets of stories, hole crates full of stories. But if you can spare a moment I will tell you one story.
If you need any help at all just send it down for a while. 
