Mugo "Constrictor" and "Prometheus"

Another collecting trip and more beautiful pine trees.
It was nice and sunny day.
This first tree is a fantastic mugo with natural shari. Cascading type of tree. I like this one very very much. At the end of this post, you can see it in a training pot.
The name that was given to him is "Prometheus". The tree was bound to the rock with a
claw-like shari and exposed to the elements for many years. Because of that, the tree has naturaly dead branches and shari. Prometheus is beautiful and elegant, and at the same time old and gnarled.



My darling.

This tree was growing on the top of a large rock. When two or three larger roots were cut off, the tree was lifted from the rock with complete and incredibly dense root ball.

This is a second collected tree. This is Pinus mugo "Constrictor". It looks like a giant snake, like a giant Boa constrictor. It is turned and twisted many times, around and around.

Twists and turns are fantastic. I cannot say which side is more interesting.

FS

Have you seen such a snake! And look at this mass of twisted wood!? It is huge. This tree also came out with a very good and dense root ball.

FS

Prometheus in a training pot.
FS

Natureart

Your attention to this page!

This pots are fantastic. And text with thoughts about bonsai pots is great too.

http://natureart-bonsai.blogspot.com/

Few of my smaller trees

Here, I wanted to show few of my smaller trees, just to convince anyone who doesn't believe that I collect also smaller stuff.

Many of these trees are in developement fase, specialy Ligustrums. A few others are more advanced.

So, here are some small inhabitants of my little garden.

FS (face for scale) is here just to assure you that these are not taller than couple of inches.

Ligustrum vulgare (European ligustrum), collected from a hedge, 60-80 years old. Nebari 25-30cm. Finished tree will not be much taller than now.

FS

Ligustrum from same location and same age.

FS

One more.

Picea glauca "conica" (that longest branch on the left is not ok, something has to be done. probably bent further down, or to be shortened..., we'll see. and that branch on the right side, opposite to that ugly left...has to bent down also)

And this is my popular and famous Hedera. It has been trained and wired from seadling for 14 years. It begins to look more rounded and mature, so I'm very happy. My 14 year old project is showing results :)

During 14 years, the roots grasped the rock firmly.

Luka

Lorien

Monkey :)

Autumn colours of Parthenocissus quinquefolia

Bonsaipotplaza

Very interesting and informative page with bonsai pots and poters signatures and signs troughout the world. The page is created by Mr Maarten van der Hoeven. Do not miss it...
http://bonsaipotplaza.com/

Chajko's new Mugo

And this is Chajko's new mugo. The Beast. It is huge, twisted...perfect. This is the proces of making pot for his new tree.

The pot is pretty large, what do you think? When such a big pig sleeps in it... :)

And this is a proud owner of a beast mugo with a good rootball and wonderful nebari.

Look at this trunk! Amazing twists, turns, future jins and look at the girth!

Pinus mugo "The Boar" (Vepar, divlja svinja)

This is new Pinus mugo called "The Boar" or "Wild Pig". It is very big and heavy, like a real pig. In the background you can see wheelbarrow for measure and scale. The root system was very long and precious with feeding roots so the tree had to be planted in two big plastic pots (even three).
Nebari is big and wide like square pot in which is planted and that you can see on the top of the round lower pot.

Chajko is defying freezing winds on the mountain.

Yamadori transporters organized.

Chayko sleeps on the car peacefully after climbing the mountain. That is so annoying that we decided to kill him and to bury him in that hole where Mugo was sitting before collection.

Big Mario did the job. Chajko wasn't suffering, everything was over in a second.

Oh God, than, the animal reapeared in the mountain again.
:)

Ok, enough making fun.

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The Boar at the collection spot.

Branches removed to acces the root ball.

Mario with his tree.

The Boar in my garden.

FS (face for scale).

A few words about collecting this tree. Mugos are not difficult species to collect. Their wood is very soft and it is cut easily. They usually grow in their own decaying needles and some smaller or bigger stones which are not difficult to remove. The ground is very easy to dig. Mugo also makes root veeery easily and you will find that every branch that touched the ground around native trunk made its own roots. When collecting trees that are big like this, the main problem is carrying it to the car. This is heavy, and I mean really heavy. It is apsolutely not possible to collect giants like that alone. You have to have friends with you, at least two normal men or one animal humanoid like Mario who has 120 kilos of bones and muscles. And it is absolutely neccesary to have a car very near the collection spot.

This mugo is planted in pure Floreopor (4-8mm granulation)that is the same stuff like crushed Maxit sharp edged. Lower and longer root system in that lower pot is planted in big pomice (10-30mm granulation) with some big pieces of cole mixed with it. There is no anything else in the potting mix.

It is apsolutely neccesary for the tree like this to be wet ALL THE TIME. The potting medium has perfect drainage and contains a lot of air for the roots to grow. But the tree has to be constantly wet, misted from above, maybe 3-5 times a day, maybe more, untill cold winter months come. Conifers have capacity to absorbe water on base aparts of the needles so in that way they can absorbe 10% of needed water. Broadleaves cannot absorbe so much water via the leaves, only maybe 0.1 or up to 1%. So this 10% can be of vital importance for surviving of collected tree and this amount of needed water can be that thin line between life and death.

This big mugo will be misted as many times as I pass next to him untill winter comes. If the tree stays alive and I think it probably will, it will stay in this pot for 3-5 years, and it will not be moved from this location in the garden for the same time (because, nobody can move it anymore anyway).