Collected Yaupon hollies.....

Collected these last weekend....Using the search function here shows plenty to read up on.





Here is a pic in a training box.



Here is one drastically cut back....I will wait till spring to cut the rest back.



Brian

You'll have fun with them. They are incredibly tough plants and will take chopping back hard.

Great material: They are however very thirsty, and hungry trees

Don't know the species but they all have a lot of potential - lucky you!

Lennard

Great plants for Bonsai, and looks like a terrific haul! Nice trunks there. Did you clean the topsoil from the roots before planting in the boxes? If not, keep this in mind next time you transplant. I just take mine and wash the roots clean with a hose, then fill with an open Bonsai mix.

No they were not bare rooted....I figured digging them up this time of year was shock enough. I do plan on doing that when I re-pot them.....I hope to do that early spring but I'm not sure if that will be too soon....? Here they are on maybe the ugliest thing I have ever built.....They get about 30 min. morning sun and about 1 hour of late afternoon sun here. It's going on 3 weeks since I collected these....How much longer should I leave them in the shade...?



Here is a rolling table I built so I can take them in and out of the garage as needed this winter.



Brian

Hi Brian,
Yaupons are sun-loving trees. So long as you can make sure they don't dry out, you can safely put them into more light. This time of year heat shouldn't be an issue. You're right to protect them over winter this year. New roots freeze easily. It probably would be best on the newly collected plants to leave them alone for a year, and remove all that soil in Spring 2015. This would give all the new roots a chance to harden off before being brutalized again. You'll just have to be a little more careful with watering. Topsoil dirt is unpredictable when growing Bonsai; seems it's either too soggy wet or unexpectedly dries into a brick (hence the need for open Bonsai mix). Good luck - you've got a great start with these!

Thank you for the advice....I just hope the plywood training boxes will last till 2015....They were free from the office and would have just went into the trash had I not taken them.

Brian

I know what you mean about wooden boxes quickly disappearing. It was always a pain when picking up a grow-box to find it crumble in my hands, or the bottom fall out. I use plastic for all my grow pots now - mostly restaurant bussing tubs and other wash tubs and cat boxes, drilled with plenty of holes. Whatever I can find for cheap (or sometimes free). They look garish, but the plants don't seem to mind.

Update about 8 months after collecting.....

All but one made it thru a very cold winter....I got my share of exercise pushing these monsters in and out of the garage but it hit 5 deg here a couple on nights and I think the cold got the best of one of them....Enough of that here are a few pics as they stand now.













Brian