AusBonsai

Today I had the opportunity to dig an old red flowering hawthorn. The tree is quite old - well at least more than 20 years old and has been doing it tough over recent years. I have had my eye on it for a while and once the opportunity arose I took it with both hands.
For those people who attended the plum dig and found the ground to be dark, damp and easy to dig, well this was the opposite - it was dry and clay and very difficult. Anyway it took a while.
The tree was only about 4 to 5 metres high so a quick cut and into the digging. Some post dig after care and hope that it survives. I did notice during potting that there are a few borer holes so I will need to take care of that in the very near future.

Very nice find Watto. Love the bark. It does look very aged. I'm a fan of hawthorns and would be drooling again for this.
I wish I could have access to collect to materials like yours.
Cheers.
DK

Nice collect. Hope It does well for you =D

I like red flowering Hawthorn, very much.
I have my eye on some very large ones, but only for layering.
Thats a good one mate.

Mick

I heard this story that the red flowering ones (Paul Scarlett I believe) did not have thorn's, well don't believe everything you here, not only do they have thorns, but they go straight through your gloves - three times!!!!

They are quite large.

Lovely Bark on that one
Nice find

Ken

Nice find Watto,
Red flowering variety not grafted are not so easy to get hold of, this could make a very nice tree.

Well my hawthorn does appear to be recovering quite well after the dig, and just to show its appreciation for its new home it has presented me with a few flowers. I hope these are just a teaser of what is to come in the years that follow!
If all progresses well I will take a few airlayers in the coming years.

Very nice Watto and definitely "Pauls scarlet" you lucky bugger.

Thanks for the positive ID Bodhi. My plan is to have a bonsai less than half the current size of this tree and thus the need for the airlayers. It will be good to have a few more of this particular species going around in the world of bonsai, especially ones that are not grafted.

you lucky bugger

Its been a while since this tree was dug so I thought I would show it progress. The photo below shows it in flower in October 2012 so that is very encouraging.

As it has now been two years since it was dug I decided today was the day to set this on the road to where I think it should be. Of course there is still a lot of work to be done, but I really want a large number of small branches, only time will tell if this is succesful.
When I dug this tree it had some borer problem but I think I have fixed that issue now, except everytime in fill the holes with cut paste the snails (or maybe the slugs) eat it, they appear to see it as a delicacy.
I have selected the trunk structure to provide some movement to add interest to the tree.

Very nice trunk line watto.
That should turn out to be a beaut.
I read that hawthorn don't callous much does this one heal over?