Yamadori of garden plum tree

Hi!

A friend of mine is doing some reforms in his house and garden. He has a plum tree that has to be removed. I told him that if he did not want it, I would take it. I have actually not seen the tree, so I do not know how worthy for a bonsai it will be. Anyway, I am willing to take it with me. The point is that I have no experience at all with collecting trees. Moreover, I believe it is not the right time to collect the tree. We have had a really late and cold spring here in Trondheim, Norway. Last two weeks the sun shined and temperatures reached 20 °C. If I am not wrong, the tree must be flowering now (it probably started one week ago, as other plum trees around my house). Now it is rainy again and temperature has gone down to 7-10 °C, although it seems it will go up again from next week.

As you see, I need as much advice as I can get. Do you think the tree would survive if I collected now? And If I chop the trunk? Should I try to retain some leaves, and how important that would be? Where should I place the tree after I eventually take it with me (i.e. shadow, sun,...)? What kind of care should I provide to th tree after collection? Would it be better to convince my friend to put the whole tree on another part of his garden and take it with me later? Thanks!

Cheers,
Humberto

How big is the tree?

Agreed the size will be a big factor in what you should or want to do at this point, that and the overall health of the tree as plums can be very unhealthy trees

Hi!

Thanks for the replies.
I have now seen the tree. It seems healthy, although I am not sure how much care has received during the last years. It is flowering, but it does not have a lot of flowers yet. I am not sure if it is just because it has started flowering late, or if it is a sign of lack of fertilization, proper pruning or unhealthiness, since my neighbor has a younger plum tree that has already much more flowers, and started flowering 1 or 1,5 weeks ago. The base of the trunk is about 20cm in diameter, an the tree is about 4 or 5m tall with a nice number of medium branches. The first branch is probably about 60cm from the ground.

Cheers,
Humberto

do you know what type of plum it is, and how long they live in your climate, I know the purple leaf plum can have a very short life span in different parts of the world. Otherwise I love plums, I have been working on a smaller one for a few years now.