AusBonsai

Hi guys im new to bonsai and Im just wondering when is the best time to dig. I have my eye on a lemon verbena
(which i think is a herb maybe?) Does any one have some advice the would be willing to share. would this make a good bonsai?
Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

If you had a photo to add it will be a little easier to make some suggestions.

As a blanket suggestion, try it and find out. You might learn somethings for the next time you try and it might work.

Thanks time8theuniverse, ill keep that in mind.
Ill post some pics tomorrow

Hi Damian,
Lemon verbena is used as a herb but does has a woody stem though not as hard wood as most trees. You can probably make some sort of a bonsai out of it but I don't think it will live as long as some of the woodier tree species we traditionally use. Lemon verbena is somewhat frost tender so will need a sheltered spot in winter.
Should shoot back well after pruning and I'd guess it will be relatively easy to transplant so worth trying, even just to practice pruning and shaping skills.

Traditionally the time to dig would be late winter, early spring. This being frost tender I'd advise later rather than when it is still cold.
If you have reasonable gardening skills I would be tempted to dig now during summer - it should recuperate quicker in warm weather provided you can keep it alive long enough to get a few roots established. (all care and no responsibility )

Hi Damian,
give it a whirl darl. I too have one in process. but be prepared as being a soft wood branches die back . so eack year your tree will change. The best thing about them is they develope a winedy,twisty roots system making for an interesting nebari.The more rocks amongst the roots the better.Ya never know what ya gonna get. Good luck

Thank you for your advise guys. I have one more question, if i manage to get the tree out of the ground intact, is there anything i need to add to the soil to aid with the growth process. Im new at the digging thing so im a bit green so to speak.

OK so here is the lemon verbena i was talking about. i plan to dig and cut down to a smaller size. the hight of this tree is about 2m-2.5m so how should i go about this?

The normal procedure for collecting a plant is to remove a significant amount of the top so the reduced root system will not be overloaded supplying water to huge number of leaves. Lemon verbena should shoot back quickly from the stems after cut back.
Different people have personal preferences when collecting plants. The wide range of successful techniques shows that there is a range of possible ways and no one way is correct. Use the following as a guide but do what you feel is right and see how it goes.

I cut back thick roots severely when collecting because they will have to be cut eventually to get into a bonsai pot and i believe it is best to do this when the top has been cut back hard. Others believe that leaving roots as long as possible is better. Both ways appear to work.
I remove most of the soil when collecting. Soil can spoil the drainage in a pot. Others try to leave the rootball intact and remove the soil in following years.
Many soak the rootball in seasol solution for a few hours - 24 hours. This may be benificial but I have never tried and still have good success rate.
Pot into a largish container with good potting mix, water in well and place into a sheltered position - Plenty of good light and some sunshine but protect from extreme sun and hot wind. Water regularly for the first week or so then maintain good soil moisture until new shoots appear.
Some species can produce good new shoots with stored energy and still no roots and subsequently die but new shoots is a good indication of success.

Your photo has now come up. I'd cut off most of the really low trunks completely to leave a single thick trunk. Cut back any potential trunks quite severely. Hard to tell scale from the pic but maybe 30 - 50 cm tall?? You can see where it has been cut before and grown new shoots
Good luck

Thank you so much for your advice i really appreciate the time you have taken to reply in such depth. Ill keep posting progress reports if you are interested in following the tree. once again thanks.