AusBonsai

hey everyone
i gave this Privet out the back of the yard in the bush the chop about 8 months ago as i wanted to dig it up but then once i chopped i didnt know what i wanted t do with it if i dug it up. it has prouted out a bit and the left hand trunk has died. i would like to see what you all think i could do with it.
Thanks

Hugh

Nice one mate. Just dig it up. Put it in a grow box and let it recover then you'll have an interesting carving job to do. Cheers

it will be a massive carving job! i would love to see a clear pic of the nebari with out the grass in front of it. it looks great!


i wish these were in my back yard!


jamie

jamie111 wrote: i wish these were in my back yard!
jamie

That makes the two of us jamie I just got a couple of rotary chisel bits that workatreat for this kink of jobs.

i seen them mate, they look like they chew in well, gonna give us a review on them???


jamie

thats what i was thinking ill need to do is to carve it. only problem is that i dont have any carving tools, but ill work something out.
ill get a better pic up of the nebari soon

Hugh

What an excelent little tree, congratulations.
The first thing to do with it is to get it up out of the ground and into a box with well drained medium. Feed it well and in no time at all the thing will be covered in foliage. It is a shame the left trunk died, something that happens all to often with Privets unfortunately. That left trunk was the perfect continuation of the trunk line in my eye, but taper will still be easy to induce into that main trunk. I'd look at removing the left trunk from the fork and then cutting the main trunk around an inch (25mm ) above the fork and encouraging a new leader from there. One little tip with Privet is they suffer wood rot very easily if not watched. Do Not allow water to pond anywhere within the tree and also watch for fungus attack on any bare wood.
That Nebari is something to behold isn't it!! A tree well worth working on I feel.

jamie111 wrote:i seen them mate, they look like they chew in well, gonna give us a review on them???


jamie

They work very well mate. I got them from here: http://www.rotarychisel.com/info.html
These guys also used similar bits in there videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jOekUucOKM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPZCboXJJAU

thanks graeme
i was devestated to see the left trunk die when it did cuz i knew it was going to be the best one to use, but oh well.
sounds like a good idea, one to consider. ive also thought of carving or hollowing out the left trunk and also carving the main one and padding branches around it. or a more severe option that i thought would be to cut a V down lower under the two trunks and try and get shoots to come out of the top and create a broom style tree. But thats why im asking for ideas cuz i would like a few more to get an idea to do with this tree.
thanks for your idea graeme

Hugh

hard to say bout styling right now mate. padding sounds great and i know it works sweet with privet aswell, i havent seen many broom style privet on the other hand either (i will probably be inundated with pics now ) if you are gonna want carving then i think pads will be the way to go. if you want a broom style. no carving

just my thoughts!


jamie

hugh grant wrote:thanks graeme
i was devestated to see the left trunk die when it did cuz i knew it was going to be the best one to use, but oh well.
sounds like a good idea, one to consider. ive also thought of carving or hollowing out the left trunk and also carving the main one and padding branches around it. or a more severe option that i thought would be to cut a V down lower under the two trunks and try and get shoots to come out of the top and create a broom style tree. But thats why im asking for ideas cuz i would like a few more to get an idea to do with this tree.
thanks for your idea graeme

Hugh

Yep the left one would be better but the right one also has a good small secondary branch in the first pic. If you were to go with carving then it could be use a new leader. There is no taper for the right branch so I vote 1 for carving.

Allowing for poor co-ordination with Paint, I would use the small upward growing branch as the new apex. Cut back the dead left to the high line first and then possibly have to take it back a bit harder and lower to eliminate or minimise an apparently slight bit of reverse taper at the split. The lower right branch I would nip back to the growing shoot and wire the shoot horizontal as the start of the first branch. Develop the tree from the branches that shoot from the new apical branch. If I am establishing a bonsai from stout stock such as this I tend to remove any unnecessary branches/shoots as they develop to send all the growing power to the shoots I want to grow into branches. This reduction has to initially be balanced by leaving enough growth on the tree until new roots have been established. Once the tree is shooting vigorously showing that the roots are doing fine, then I would start really directing growth and getting rid of almost everything I didn't see in the eventual design. When in doubt - leave it. You can always cut it off later but can't glue it back and I will leave two branchlets in proximity if I think I need 'insurance', removing one after the other has really established itself.

I have found with privets that while they shoot madly, they often shoot where they want and not where you need a branchlet so I would be careful about leaving 'insurance' as necessary until the branchlets were stronger and definitely no question of survival.