New spruce

Here are some photos of a spruce I collected just behind my house in september : -)

As you can see it has a really strange shape with a 180 degree bend in the trunk




It was growing on a rock and had a very shallow and compact root system so it has an excelent chance of survival


Here it is in its new home.

Honeysuckle wiring

Here is one of my honeysuckles. It was collected as a stump in spring 2007




Today I cut it back and wired it again. Here is the result. It's improving every year, but it still needs a lot of development.

Privet again

Here is my privet after I have plucked off all the leaves


The back



Here it is after I have given it a haircut



And here I have started to wire the branches. Still a long way to go....

Development of a privet

I got this tree last summer. It was raw material then. Here it is after the first styling in august 2008




This is how it looked a few days ago, only one growing season later. Ramification has increased a lot. I have cut back the branches 4-5 times this summer. It grows like crazy.



In order to better see the branch structure I decided to pluck off all the leaves. Ligustrum is a semi decidious tree and if it becomes cold enough it looses all the leaves by it self. I placed the tree inside in a frost free room a few days ago so it will not happen by itself. It had been exposed to night temps down to - 5 celsius for a few weeks and showed no signs of dropping the leaves.
It is time consuming to pluck off all the leaves. I have to take one at a time, it's not like a pine where you can pluck many needles at the same time.
When I'm done plucking the leaves I'll cut back the branches again and wire the tree.

More carving

Here is another big honeysuckle that needs a lot of carving work






And here it is after a very rough first round with 'the terrier' No detal carving has been done yet, only bulk removal of wood.

Carving work

Here is one of my BIG honeysuckles that I collected this spring.
First a quick history
The tree before collection


Here I have cut it back and are getting ready to dig.


Here it is in its new home just after collection


And finally today after the initial block carving. It is not finished yet. I have only used one bit on my power tool so far. It's 'The Terrier' from www.kaizenbonsai.com
It's a very good tool for removing a lot of wood quickly. I must have carved away several kilos from this tree during the few hours I worked on it to day. The next step is to do some more refining on the dead wood and to wire the tree. Report will follow.

A few honeysuckles

Here are pics of 4 honeysuckles I collected this spring. I have done some carving on them, wired and cut back the branches. It is only a very rough first styling.