Rescued old Pyracantha shrubs for potential bonsai

I'm still in shock!
My wife called me during my half-hour lunch break to say "...they're digging out those shrubs you commented on in the parking lot right now! They are just ripping them out with a backhoe..." I was there in ten minutes to see the back hoe still digging up roots. They had a pile of pyracantha shrubs and allowed me to take as many as I could get in to my Vibe, I stuffed seven of the best ones I could find. Most had some soil in the root ball, but many of the roots were bare. It was cloudy and I had to leave them in the car until I got off work. They were in the car for approx. two hours. The car was steamy on the inside when I got in; the sun came back out for approx an hour while I was still working. I was home in 45 minutes, got five gallon buckets filled with water and super thrive and soaked the trees. I also pruned broken branches and obvious branches which wouldn't be needed.
Many of the branch tips had wilted in the hot car. Once in the buckets, they appeared to re-hydrate because the wilting disappeared before I started to prune them.
These shrubs were probably original plants of the 30 year old shopping center. Some have lots of character; trunks up to 5 inches in diameter (12.5 cm). They will have to soak until I can get them into the ground or training pots. I don't have enough soil to put them in pots. I may put some in the ground and some in training pots. Unfortunately, I won't be able to started planting them until Friday afternoon or Saturday because of my work schedule. I hope they will be all right soaking for that long. Wish me luck and please send good thoughts or advice my way. Thanks!
I'll send some pictures in a few days. Salut, Todd

Good luck they seem to be pretty resilliant trees I collected one last year in nov and it is doing great but it was under better circumstances.

November would be a much better time for collecting. All I can do is try. I'm glad yours is doing well.

Todd, the older pyracantha do not stand up to too much root abuse, but you did what could be done.
Hold thumbs, until spring.

Good luck with the plants, I hope they wil survive or at least some of them.
I found a Wisteria "a nice big one" a couple of months ago, it was dug up and dumpt in the frontgarden of the owner, I past by and asked if I could have it, Yes ofcourse she said, me very happy then I asked them how long ago it was dug up from the garden, it was 1 and a half week ago they told me.
It was barerooted all that time, but I took a chance and cut it down for transport on foot, once home I did cut al big roots away and took a large piece of the base aswell, I put in a bucket with water with a few drops of HB101 in it for 2 days and last but not least I planted it in a wooden "small" box, I never seen a tree or shrub grow so much as my wisteria.
Now I have to buy a bottle of wine for the kind people that gave me the tree.

Buy the way, I already could have sold the Wisteria for a nice amount of money but said no, also one wanted to give 2 big really big (80cm+) koi for it, again I said no.

Kind regards
Peter (who is slowly crawling out of the black hole)

[quote="landerloos"]Good luck with the plants, I hope they wil survive or at least some of them.
Wow, Peter. Will you send a picture of the wysteria? I don't know much about koi, but I have heard that the older they are, the more expensive. The wysteria must be nice. So far there is not wilt on the pyracanthas. I have to decide where in the ground to plant them this weekend. Salut, Todd

You should take as many cuttings from them as you can (you'll probably have to cut them back significantly).

Plant the ripped up trees in the shade.

Peter what is HB101?

Why do I have a suspicion that this should have been posted somewhere else?

I -- or someone will zap it shortly. (HB101 would stand for House Bill 101 -- probably in some state legislature, and not the Congress, but maybe there, too.)

Hb 101 is this http://www.hb-101.com/ its not a fertilizer!

Its more safe to use than other vitamin b rootsafers, its all plant extracts that are used to make hb101

Peter

Oh, Lord. Better if it was a House Bill. Not another wonder drug for trees.

A "natural bonsai enhancement" pill.

JimLewis wrote:Oh, Lord. Better if it was a House Bill. Not another wonder drug for trees.

A "natural bonsai enhancement" pill.

No wonder drug Jim, but I have had good results with it, see my Wisteria, and I have more trees that one could stamp dead, all pulled trough after a nigt in a hb101 sulution.
Better this all natural based then all the chemical stuff.

Peter

I'm sorry, Ive gone into detail on these horticultural hoaxes time and time again and I'm NOT going to repeat myself except to say that trees (plants) need ONLY NPK and trace elements. You get those in virtually all commercial fertilizers.

Magic elixirs like this and Superthrive enrich ONLY the makers and sellers.

Your very nice Wisteria would have looked just as good with the cheapest fertilizer you could have found.

Peter,

HB 101 does work. It is a great supplement. Also, NPK are not the only nutrients a plant needs. Trace elements are equally important. In other trees like pemphis and suriana, salt water is a must!!!

Kind regards,

Jose

I talked with a member of our bonsai club at our meeting yesterday who remembers seeing these shopping center shrubs in 1970. Which means that these trees are at least 45 years old; probably closer to 50. I was amazed. So far, five of the seven look like they made it through the first 6 months.