Monster Multi-trunk Boxwood (burn pile)

Monster Multi-trunk Boxwood 

This is a boxwood is a single plant and sizable shrub.  The digging was pretty easy, but cramped with other garden plants and the concrete slab.  Before digging I lied down and took the below image.  There are many trunks emanating from one central trunk.  The branches on the left side of the image could be developed.  

Here is the boxwood, wider then my car. It was pretty heavy despite brushing off most of the soil.  I dragged it from the backyard and planned to thin out some obvious poor branches, to lighten the load.  

Here it is thinned out a bit.  I had to use a strap to hold the swinging trunk closed.

Below is the tree before I began work.

Based on my knowledge of boxwood and what I found in recent research.  My plan was to keep some lower branches and eliminate any crossing and dead branches.  In doing this, I can open it up and allow light to penetrate the interior of the branches, and hope for back-budding on the older branches.  It ended up looking really leggy, but that was essential. Keeping the green growth on the ends of branches ensures the survival of each branch.  

The plan is to see how the tree responds and then cut it back more drastically once new growth forms on the interior.  

Another thing about box is that it takes a really long time to grow out branches, so I will be slow in deciding which to keep because they can not be regrown easily.

Below is the pile of branches cut off, with another the same size cut before I loaded it to transport it home.

Some scale with a 16oz PBR.

Below, I began reducing the root ball and bare-rooting the boxwood.  Boxwood typically has a nice shallow root mass and this it the case here.  There are nice fine roots.

A potted it up in a big yellow recycling bin, the biggest thing I had on hand.  It was filled about one third of the way with soil.  Below is the boxwood with the bonsai bench.

Below the movement of several trunks can be seen.  Boxwood can have boring straight growth so I plan on utilizing some of these wavy branches which move from center to right in the image below.   

Here are two images that show the girth of the trunk(and a bit of damaged bark from the long day).

In this image you can see the green tips and the leggy growth.  I am wishful that it will back but well and fill out the interior.  By next spring perhaps I can consider cutting it back some.  Repot planned for 2020.  

RIP:

This Tree did not make it!! the leaves quickly dried out despite being in partial shade and being watered well.

Lessons: either don't bear root and leave it in its soil surrounded by substrate.

Or instead of trying to keep the live veins going by keeping foliage, perhaps I should have cut in  back hard and let buds regenerate when the tree could sustain them in its own time  

Siberian front fence rescue (burn pile)

Siberian Elm

This is the first collected Siberian Elm, the one that got me thinking about this invasive as potential, since it was collected as a weed along my fence line.
On the left side of the image you can just about make out the original cut made by the previous tenant.  Last summer, I cut back the branches branches and got thinking about digging it out.  It kind of has a windswept feel, although not best seen in this image.
RIP: this tree did not recover after the winter of 2018-19

Soil June 2018

SOIL

After running out of soil and desperately needing some after some weird incidents with some of my trees (puppy attack), I decided to get a new batch made.  I have not tracked down a Turface supplier so I am working some new additions.  I read about using a product called dry stall which is pumice, so I went to a farm supply store.  They did not have that product by an alternative which uses zeolite.  There are cute barn animals on the packaging so it must be good! From what I read it seems in a similar vein as diatomacious earth and Turface in that it holds water well and slowly releases nutrients. DE and Turface are more clay based while Zeolite is silica based.  A caution is that if can raise the pH a bit if too much is used proportionally. About 30% is recommended.  

I got a 40 pound bag for 5 bucks, w/ a discount for the bag being ripped.  It was really dusty so 1/3 of the bag or more was sifted out. 

DE from the auto parts store was around 6 bucks too.  I have used it in the past.  the interesting thing was the an equal amount of it in my sifter was half as heavy as the zeolite.  There was also way less fines and dust to sift out.  

I tossed in the rest of the wood mulch that I had left over from the spring repotting.  This will help with the balance by adding some acidity.  

I had some left over DE, but will probably sift it and add it too, to help with the pH.

It has been wet and mild I may try to keep an eye out for some yard collection opportunities, especially since I am out of school...

Lilac dig

Lilac Dig

Someone answered by craiglist ad, but didn't send me any photos, so I took the chance and went out there.  She showed me around for 15 minutes pointing out all manner of things but is was all spindly, or ill suited for bonsai.  The best things were two lilacs. The sandy soil made for quick digging.  After a half dozen wacks with my pick ax I was able to pull out each one.  The leaf size will be an issue, and it would have been better to collect one with more girth, but these were the best available.  

l.o

Above is the first one.  It was storming outside so I worked in the shed.  I left some leaves on each of the branches that I kept.

This second one has a nice wound that adds some visual interest.  There where roots at three different levels.  I trimmed the small roots on the trunk and reduced the larger roots in the middle.  The lowest ones I cut off with a flat cut through the trunk.   

It seems to have enough roots to be OK, and some gentle movement in the lower trunk.

Here they are potted up.

Update: June 2018 

The "escaped rottweiler puppy incident" had these two trees tipped over and all the soil removed.  Along with that one of them (left tree in above image) has been repeatedly had its trunk base chewed by squirrels.  

Here is the one that  survived in mid-May of 2019

Below: Oct 2019

After only putting out that first flush of leaves and not growing much despite heavy feeding, I was surprised to see this new growth layer in the growing season.  Next year, I may try defoliation to reduce leaf size.