AusBonsai

Just dug up this clump from a very old hedge. It is more like a raft as the base is all connected by old wood under the soil line. Any suggestion for styling? These guys are very hardy. I dug a few before and they all survived.

If they can't be seperated I would chop them by about half, wire them out to give a bit of space between them and plant them on a small shallow tray, a flat rock or artifical rock tray.

gday DK

you seem to have found a nice clump for a forest, differing sizes of trunks, it looks like it has some reasonable depth too, what i would be doing is choping them down to a managable height, they are rather tall, the smaller trunks should be cut shorter and have them at the rear to imitate depth, the largest trunk the tallest and the rest scaling down as the thickness does

nice score, i have been interested in privet recently, hopefully have some soonish

jamie

ps. i have a couple of hawthorn for you still just trying to find time!

Nice Clump, I dont know how well they will grow after collection but I would chop them down to differing sizes (to maintain varied vigour), and put some wire on to get some nice movement.

Thanks Scott, Jamie and Bougy. I found these guys shoot back easily on old wood. I have chopped all of them down to half original height. Will wire them out a bit and chop them again to different height as suggested (don't know which one for which height yet)
And thanks jamie for the hawthorns. I guessed you were busy too so I didn't ask.
Cheers,
DK

I have to say I absolutely love privit as bonsai
That's a realy nice find mate, I'd have that any day
it is extremly hardy and can be chopped back very brutelly and still spring back to life with massive amounts of vigor. Chopping back at the same time as collecting is perfectly fine and a decent chopping to the roots won't hurt it.

I like the first pick as the front. It looks like it is an old clump of trees so if it were mine I would use that as the front and chop them back to about 1/3 or 1/2 depending upon the among of depth you want to create at he moment and get some shooting and then choose the shooots you want for the future. I would also bend the back trunks back a bit so they are leaning out towards the back.
Awsome tree

Hugh