AusBonsai

Hi all, there is a great looking plant in a front garden, in a pot, a large pine of some sort in a house near me. It could be 20 years old looking at it's size, it is perfect material to work on - would be a long term project. About 2m tall, trunk a good 5-6 inches wide, it's brilliant. Stuck in a corner of their garden, barely alive.

Has anyone asked a stranger like this for a plant??

I did once before, another neighbour had a great cedar of some sort, sitting neglected, but they were so not interested, and seemed to think I was a threat somehow, as the next day they moved the pot away, so i didn't get that one. I guess my confidence in asking took a battering then, so I haven't worked up the courage to ask for this one.

I can offer a few $$ and some grog maybe?

Thoughts, ideas?? Encouragement....

Mabe lots of $$$ and lots of Grog
You could try offering a plant that they might like better.
Whenever I get nervous about stuff I try to remember that in 1000 years who will care to remember!

Explain what you do first, and then offer to buy or swap the plant. Dont offer grog.
Talk tot hem and tell a little about the art any why their plant would suit it.

Thanks dudes... I was wondering if I should mention that I do bonsai, maybe they've heard of it, maybe not. It's obvious they do not do bonsai, and this is most certainly not a bonsai. But for me it would be a dream tree. But I was thinking to try not to seem overly keen incase they ask for too much. he he.. anyways, I will give it a go. Might leave the grog offer off for now, offer a few $$ and then take it from there.

Wish me luck!!! I'll let you know how it goes.

DON'T NOT DO IT!!! I have three times been hesitant about asking for a garden plant only to walk that way again and discover a whole new planting scheme or the pot has gone. All they can say is no. Yes, mention bonsai but stress the amount of time needed to turn it into something so they don't think they are giving away a fortune to some nutter. Offer to replace with an azalea or something pretty and flowering. You gotta kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince[ess] and if this doesn't work... keep looking. And maybe if you can do it so can I ... there's a claret top melaleuca in a garden near me with potential. Now an azalea would look a hell of a lot better there - or so I think........

Its a tough one isn't it?, around the corner from me are some huge Junipers sitting in a garden that the owners couldn't care less about, they would never get watered, only the fact that they are hardy has saved them from certain death, I often walk past and think about knocking on the door and offering to give them a more caring foster home safe from those neglectarinos.

Ask and ye shall receive (except for pottery secrets). Marc, like Melaquin says - they can only say no.

I'm sure that most of us can relate a story about one that we should have ask about.

Jon

Just do it. Donty worry about it...as Soltan said in 1000 years who will remember. If you dont ask, you wont get....but if you do ask you just might. I got 12 nice big bougs just for asking, countless Olives, Celtis, Green Island Figs. I have also found 5 very large Podocarpus trees growing on a footpath in front of a house, they planted them and grew as a hedge about 7 or 8 feet high. These trees have a base of about 6 inches +. I told them what i intended to do with them,I offered them $100 for each or just one. I offered them a bonsai to help them get over the loss as well as $100 (i just happened to have 2 nice little junipers in he back of my car) i promised to either replace the trees with younger stock, give him the money, a bonsai and i will fix the surronding area up, and still the answer is NO! Ya just gotta walk away. The things ya do!
Regards,
Peter

Hi Marc,

Go for it!

You have a few approaching strategies you select from. Honesty is the best approach
I think.

Four years ago, I moved to my present house. Just a few houses away, they had this
beautiful dwarf black pine planted in the front yard. A few months later, the house
was sold to another Vietnamese family... and the new owners was doing a lot of
cleaning up, I came over and talked them (in Vietnamese,) I told them how beautiful
the pine was and to up root it would take a few months etc... No mis-understanding
about what I told them, we were speaking in the first tounge.

Two days later I saw it among the heaps of their garden waste! They just chopped it off!

I was assuming that they saw it a as beautiful tree as I did! They valued it the same
way I did.

Why did not I just ask?

Everyone, thanks, I will, tomorrow, or as soon as I can get there, i'll rock right up and ask. Nicely and honestly. Peter, shame about all your offers and they still said no, crikey.

But, you are all right, if you don't ask, you don't get.

I'm forever walking past houses looking in thinking "oooh, that one would be good, and that one and that one...", always. so much potential material out there. I see fruit trees around I'd love to ask for, and all over Melbourne there are what we always called Blossom Trees, remember? They are cherry blossoms with their purple leaves. Not many around now, all replaced with either natives or Northern European Plane Trees, every where now. But some streets you still see 50 year old blossom trees, ragged and half rotten, sooooooo perfect!!!!

Fingers crossed!!!

Jon Chown wrote:Ask and ye shall receive (except for pottery secrets). Marc, like Melaquin says - they can only say no.

Goodnight, Jon.



Jon

Go for it Marc. The worst thing they can do is say no. I've scored a few interesting prentensai this way.
Penny.

Hi all, been a while. You wouldn't believe it, every time I go past no one is home, how frustraing! I'm going to put a note in their letterbox I think...

In the mean time, around the corner from me there is a shop behind a train line that has closed down, all around the outside of the now disused car park are brilliant ash trees. I love them, great fissured bark, great autumn colours. I've been eyeing one off for some time now. So last night I took the 5 year old with me and we started to prune it, as it was about 2.5m tall. I left it in the ground for now, and prumed off nearly all branches and got it down to about 1.5m. Probably at the end of summer i'll attempt the dig. This one has a trunk about 10cm accross.

Hard part will be due to it growing out of the 50-60cm gap in concrete, not sure how far down the roots go...

Then I had a look at the plethora of others, there are another 2 that I am preparing the same way, great age in them for small trees. One other about 3m tall, now trimmed to 1.5m, another only about 30cm tall. The trunks are already deeply fissured, I love them.

When I can I'll take some pics and post them.

I am very keen for these ash, does anyone think waiting another month or two is ok, or should I wait longer? I'm just not sure about what could be the future of this car park and shop, I don't know if there are any plans for demolition.

Marc wrote:Hi all, been a while. You wouldn't believe it, every time I go past no one is home, how frustraing! I'm going to put a note in their letterbox I think...

Gday Marc & Co!

Click here for a copy of the letter I used to gain permission to dig a local Euc stump. I was in much the same position as yourself, passing by this little trunk every day as I walked my dog. As you can see from subsequent posts, I got the tree and kept it alive!

Good luck.

Fly.

PS: Mr AusBonsai - please let me know if you'd perfer not to link offsite. Thanks.

Great work, I love it, if you don't mind i'll change it a little and use something like this, thanks mate.

Good luck Marc, keep us updated on how this pans out. If you get a chance, take a picture of the future urban yamadori so we can see what you are excited about.

Mr Fly, you are most welcome to link to other sites particularly if the content is as interesting as the one above.

Regards,
S.