Great Collecting Trip

Hi Folks,
I'd like to share with you an amazing day trip collecting yesterday.........started early with all the necessary tools, great company, a great coffee and lots to eat and drink.......after an hour and half on the road we came out of the thick layer of fog for an incredible day exploring a subalpine ecosystem.  It was truly amazing to see everything from beautiful vista's, signs of recent wildlife activity and of course some wonderful inspirational ancient veterans and every size and age .
The small ponds and north facing slopes had a slight frost but it soon warmed up.... the photos so one of the larger ponds looking northward as we arrived, a wildlife trail that a bear and Elk had recently used....and I followed it as it snaked through the area....a nice grade to it lol.
The second photos shows a Dragon like Hm protecting one side of a smaller pond....
Some of the oldest and ancient ones were incredible but it was also very interesting to see so much younger growth and everything inbetwween.
I hope you enjoy........oh yeah I did collect three small ones.
Cheers G.  

Here is a photo of one (out of three) Mountain Hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) that I collected,it has a father/son, mother/daughter feel/quality about it (which really can't been see in the photos- and being cautious to get all of the root mass it came with another tree (which is seen in the photo).  
There were some very inspirational old mountain Hemlock veterans which give me some ideas for future design work.  

As a forester it was also very interesting to see this area under an ecological, silvics lens (understanding how trees grow, reproduce, and respond to environmental changes) and boy this area has seen many extremes in "global change" since the last ice-age which was approx 9000 years ago.
The active growing season at this elevation is very short (perhaps only a few weeks) so everything grows at a slow rate (produces some very unusual shaped trees) and they have to survive some incredible conditions.

The preparation of the tree- explored the direction of major roots from the base, removed some lower branches and dug down 4-6" and 12-14" away from base of the tree and it came up all in one piece- the humus/duff is very thick with very little biological activity and thus breaks down very slowly, it was very wet and cool (a thick sponge) which was interesting in that it hasn't rained in this location since Oct 4th.

Photo shows it bag'd and ready for me to pack it out, luckily the road wasn't too far  

The next 3 photo are of some inspirational trees.....



Cheers G

I also prepared two Balsam (Abies Amabalis)- cut away some of the larger branches that wont be needed in the design, (this gives the smaller branches a chance to grow), I also fertilized them to encourage future growth - I also GPS'd their location and will consider collecting them if they have responded well enough in 2014-15.
Balsam  #1 -

Same tree as above photo - prep'd - it has great taper and an interesting focal feature of a split trunk at its base which can be seen in photo, it measures approx 5-6" (12-15cm) at the base and is approx. 20-24" (50-60cm)Tall

Balsam #1

Cheers G

Graham,

Thank you for a great post ! Are there other species that you collect in the same area shown? Yellow Cedar? Sub-Alpine Fir?
Different location for Pines and Spruce or same?

Jason

Hi Jason,
Yes these high elevation areas do have Yc, shore pines are found lower down and in different valleys. The west coast of the Island is a good place for Ss.
Cheers Graham

To borrow from Annie Lennox... Sweet Dreams are made of this!

Thanks for posting Graham. beautiful and inspiring older trees. amazing what ma nature can do over the hardships of life. I feel the hardships myself, but don't look "quite" as good!

what is it about yamadori collecting that's so appealing? You mentioned you used fertilizer. was curious about which one and how much?

I must admit in my collecting, I pack out what I find as opposed to preparing one for a future trip the following year. heard too many other stories from others who found holes where they had prepared the tree from the year before.

Amazing trees and scenery. Thanks for posting.  

it seems like heaven
a very beautiful scenery and amazing trees

PLEASE keep on sharing your trips with us

Madness what a landscape,  Thanx for showing this

Thank you all for your comments, I do feel lucky that this area isn't that far away.


Dick,
I take a lot of photos of the old relic's as they provide some real inspiration........I like to reflect on the fact that they look spectacular even though they break every classic bonsai rule.  Maybe I'll be a rebel and let them inspire my designs....all out of balance, scruffy foliage, weird taper ratios etc.
I use a fertilizer tea bag that we use in the forest industry with our spring planted seedlings. It is time released (16-18months) with basic NPK with trace elements, we use 3 different types (formulations) depending on the conditions of the planting sites. The manufacture is RTI from California.
Balsam aren't that popular so I hope that I'll see them when I return next fall.
Cheers Graham

dick benbow wrote:Thanks for posting Graham. beautiful and inspiring older trees. amazing what ma nature can do over the hardships of life. I feel the hardships myself, but don't look "quite" as good!

what is it about yamadori collecting that's so appealing? You mentioned you used fertilizer. was curious about which one and how much?

I must admit in my collecting, I pack out what I find as opposed to preparing one for a future trip the following year. heard too many other stories from others who found holes where they had prepared the tree from the year before.

Here is a small one that I collected in 2013, it grew so well last year I decided to style it.....I'll post a better photo soon.
Cheers Graham

gman wrote:I take a lot of photos of the old relic's as they provide some real inspiration........I like to reflect on the fact that they look spectacular even though they break every classic bonsai rule.  Maybe I'll be a rebel and let them inspire my designs....all out of balance, scruffy foliage, weird taper ratios etc.

it is my opinion, and i believe it is shared by some others, that the best thing you can do with collected material is to disregard the rule book... so yeah, be a rebel... but unlike james dean, you have a cause

dynamite post !!!

Wow!!! What an awesome area. Thank you for sharing!!
Steve