Yesterday I went with several other members of our club to collect in Marin in a graveyard of all places. The grounds were vast and the material included olives, plums, oaks, redwoods, boxwoods, junipers, and numerous other species. Tim Kong lead the charge and even brought a lunch for everyone (thanks Tim!).This graveyard (I can’t recall the name now) was over 150 years old and many of the gravestones that I passed were from the mid-1800s. We saw rabbits, deer, and a few cats, not to mention several vultures circling the sky.

I found a nice little coast live oak that had been deer pruned. I started digging and never found a root ball. I eventually flat cut it and moved on. There were numerous of these oaks around, but I figured I wouldn’t find a root ball on any of them either, and I didn’t want to take any more if I couldn’t be sure I could keep them alive. Later, Eric gave me a copy of Golden Statements with an article on collecting oaks, flat cutting them, and getting them to root. I also saw one of these same oaks collected later that day that did sport a root ball so maybe it’ll be worth going back and trying again if the flat cut doesn’t take.

I moved back to a Laurel Bay that I had spotted. It was also deer pruned and had a great trunk. I dug down a little and the trunk flared out nicely. I wasn’t sure if I could salvage it if I didn’t manage to get a root ball, so I went and found Tim to get his opinion. When he saw it, he thought it was worth giving it a try because the tree was so nice. I dug it up and headed home.

Once back home I trimmed as much of the foliage off the oak as I could and then selected the widest point in the trunk to make my cut. I was a little surprised at how hard it was to cut. I started with a hand saw but the pulpy wood kept gumming up my blade and I made slow progress. I finally broke out a jig saw and cut my way through with it.

Then I took a sharp knife and chamfered the edge just like the article in Golden Statements instructed. I covered the exposed cambium with root tone and some other growth hormones and put it in a deep pot, tying it down as best I could, which wasn’t easy considering there were no roots. I’ll have to keep an eye on these wires; if the tree survives and starts to grow they’ll cut in as they curcumscribe the entire trunk.

Then I moved on to the Bay. Tim hasn’t ever seen one of these bonsai-ed, so it’s anyone’s guess as to whether it’ll take. I didn’t get many roots on this one either, but at least I got a few. The canopy was quite dense and it took me at least half an hour to trim it back. By the end of it all I could smell were bay leaves.The trunk flares out nicely, but I didn’t know how well a tree like this would respond to getting flat cut. I didn’t have a pot deep enough to put it in so I dug a hole in my yard and filled it with the tree and bonsai soil. We’ll see if it makes it.

Oh, I also found this nice little moss-covered stone that should make a nice accent plant if I can keep the moss alive…

Tag: collecting