Carved Elm trunk

[Beano]

Hi,

I'm new here, this is my first post. Those trees look fantastic!!! Here I would have thought suffering their tearing from the ground would have killed them. Very nice job, well done.

[alpineart]

Him Beano, welcome aboard mate. Elms are pretty hardy ,they grow from root cuttings , sucker up well and survive being grasped in a 3 way bucket and ripped out of the ground by a bobcat . Most still bear the scars from the bobcat bucket clamping down on the lower trunk At the time of collection i had to use a pick to remove the clay so i could get them into the tandem trailer . Goes to show you how well a graft actually knits together , none broke at the union , some were severed from the bucket which basically chopped them off . I kill more tree's with my hack and chop attitude , then again i can kill anything when it comes to Bonsai.

Cheers Alpineart

[MattA]

Hey Alpine,

Dry rot is the usual culprit but its interesting that none of your trainers have suffered any so far, maybe carving them out like you did has actually helped prevent it (air & wind etc). I have a few trees that were butchered but not carved out & most have been full of dryrot after a couple of seasons. Having said that I took the log splitter to another trunk thats been recovering in my garden, I had expected the white ants to have done a fair bit of work after 3yrs, no such luck its still solid as a rock. Might have to take the Arbortech to it

The foliage variation is even more intriguing, no point in speculating, just enjoy the uniqueness I say. Good luck with getting a totally accurate ID, I have more than a few here that I will probably never know for sure, no matter I like them for what they are.

Matt

[alpineart]

Hi MattA , last year was one of our wettest and the humidity was light the Daintree. If anything was going to rot it most certainly would have began then . I have a few unknown species is just niggles me not know what the actually are . I create humidity around most of my trainers with sand trays /wet beds and it doesn't affect any of them .Now and again i might drown a pine but that a rare event . Good open air circulation is a must except in this hot weather where the radiant heat becomes the issue .I slice them open so i believe this dries them out quite evenly .I do have one trunk i simply drilled a 30mm hole down from the top and with no out let for water to leave , just a little test . That trunk died , however it didn't rot ?

Cheers Alpine

[alpineart]

Well i got sick of looking at Cedars so i give a couple of elms a work-over

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These will now be defoliated then allowed to leaf out and with a bit of weathering the final detailing of the carved area's will take place . The dry wood is very stable considering the humid weather last year and the daily watering with the hose no rot was struck during the carving process .I liken the hardness of the wood to that of kiln dried Alpine ash or KDHW . I enjoyed these two jobs , so i will tackle a few more during this week .

Cheers Alpineart

[alpineart]

A little bit more inspiration and another 2 trunks carved .These required defoliating in order to get the carvers in to do the job .This Golden Elm

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had a reverse taper at the graft union

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, while it is not completely sorted it will need further work .

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A close up of the carving

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This smaller trunk has 2/3 green foliage and 1/3 golden leaves .

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Its a pity the foliage wasn't balanced but i can always remove a green trunk to improve the overall look .Acloser look at the carving . These can now grow on until i find the time to revisit the carvings .

Cheers Alpineart

[alpineart]

This is the last of the trunks collected

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. The curl grabs had managed to get to these , i picked out at least 50 odd grubs from these 6 pots today . Oddly enough the Chinese Elm posted earlier had no grubs in it and it was growing in the same decomposed pine bark blend . I have hard root pruned these for the 3rd time since collecting them in the attempt to get them to flat bottoms

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, still a few seasons to go but progress is being made . I only have 10 of these left , i did sell a few and the curl grubs and high temps claimed the rest last year. All of these are Ulmus Glabra Lutescens or Golden Wych Elms . Look forward to doing some carving on these in the future .

Cheers Alpineart

[alpineart]

A couple of the survivors that I hung onto , some died , others where sold .These are getting another trim and shape after leaf out .

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The carving can be done at any time ,

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Reverse taper , in there is the challenge .

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Nice taper on this one .I have removed a section of dead wood with the sabre saw on both trunks to make carving a little easier if and when it takes place .

Cheers Alpineart

[alpineart]

This had a touch up today , I have removed the English elm foliage suckering from the root stock ,

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had a play with altering the reverse taper and a bit of rough carving to to make a bit of progress on the trunk .

Cheers . Alpineart

[Homer911]

Great progression. ... love it

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[alpineart]

Hi Homer011 , mate the remaining trunks I have here are progressing slow but well , considering the lack of real care . I will ask Fiveoffive to do a topic on his purchased tree . I have seen it at our club meetings and with good care it has turned into a very nice developed works in progress .

Cheers Alpine

[Kevin]

Hello Alpineart,

Thankyou for sharing your unique approach.

I am constantly in awe of your ethos and the individual works you have performed with your many specimens over many years. Your tenacity in converting landscaped trees to happily abode into bonsai sized pots is incredible.

Do you have a collection of Alpineart favourites? If so, how many and their real / bonsai ages. I would imagine these would all have been collected and trained by yourself from the beginning. I would love to see the Alpineart pride collection or at least a glimpse into one of them.

Thanks.

Kevin

[alpineart]

Hi Kevin , mate thanks for the positive feedback . While I do collect or try to salvage plenty of material , not all survives . I have killed plenty and sold many , a lot of material has been sold to members here with the request that a topic be started on each and every tree , trunk , trainer and seedling sold . I have yet to see a handful of topics and they should measure in the hundreds .

Most that visit leave with the better material if the price is right I keep the unique and unusual which I endevour to keep alive . My yard is like an organized jungle of plants at various stages of development and potted material exceeds 500 plants . Do I have a few favorites , well yes I do and I can count them on 1 hand , however everything here is uniquely different and a various stages so I really like them all .

Photographing large material is a task and a half just moving them and the time is not really available , neither is trimming all the stock but i manage to trim almost everything at least once a year . I have thought about putting a few in my album but that hasn't eventuated , maybe its time it did .

Cheers Alpineart

[Kevin]

Thanks for the feedback Alpineart.

Much the same as 'Good Friends', they say you can only count them on one hand too.

Looking forward to viewing those few Alpineart favourites - when time permits.

Drop a note into the cafe when you do load them into your album.

Thanks,
Kevin