Escallonia for collection this weekend.

Just wanted to show you the Escallonia I'll be digging this weekend. Once I'd hacked my way through all the overhanging branches and stepped gingerly through all the rubbish scattered about, I found a nice, chunky trunk (app. 10ins diameter). There's a triple trunk Forsythia next to it that I can have as well. Bonus!
I'll post more pics after collection.



You wouldn't believe the crap that this person has in their front garden. The front bumber (fender) of a Ford Mondeo, God only knows how many beer cans, fast food containers, half-eaten kebabs, single shoes and at least one pair of very tattered knickers. Oh the joys of living next to a bus stop on a main road, eh? lol

Looks like a winner!

Any thoughts on where to lop it to?

Harleyrider wrote:Any thoughts on where to lop it to?

look for slight bumps on the trunk where dormant buds will be lurking... lop there. but do not leave any trunk longer that 24 inches for now.

How's that for service! I just sent you a PM on this subject, lol.

Right you are, advice read, digested and understood.

Have a great weekend, you lucky swine!

Hi Harleyrider,
Another great find, wich you luck on the recovery of that big girl,
Regards from Portugal...

Thanks Ferdy-san. I think she'll be a lot happier when she's not surrounded by rusty cans and bricks, lol

Hi Steve, Nice find, mate..but digging this weekend???
Have you permission to do that???

Good luck my friend. Hope to see you soon.

Regards

I think a dawn raid is on the cards? Before the Birthday girl wakes up.

Hope he's able to sneak in before she does, Will :-)

Ah, I have a cunning plan to avoid any birthday related confrontations!

Come Sunday morning, she'll be severely hungover, or in church, or severely hungover in church. Either way, I'll have a couple or three hours to collect 'n' box both trees!

She won't be waking up Will, she'll be coming-to.

OK, so we had a slight change of plan (which is, so I'm told, a woman's perogative. Just bloody awkward if you ask me). I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say I got chance to collect the Escallonia today, so I did. Here are a few pics of what occurred.......

First up, for those of you who didn't believe the state of the garden it was growing in....

Note the Mondeo front valance in the bottom of the pic.

Hmmm, I can't get another pic into this post for some reason. Every time I click on 'Host an image' it brings up the url for the previous pic and won't let me change it. I'll have to post them in individual posts.

Here she is after I'd cut her arms off....

The tree was growing right up against a concrete path, and while I was raking away the soil a cloth bundle fell out from under the lip of the path. This is what was inside!



I established that the house owner (a 60-odd year old man) didn't know anything about them, and he's lived there for nearly 40 years, so we assume someone has, at some time, stashed them there for nefarious purposes. We decided against calling the police and threw them in the recycling bin. Maybe wrong, maybe right, who knows? But it's his house so he gets to choose.

As all seasoned yamadori hunters know, Murphy's Law is our constant companion. In light of that, and remembering that the tree grew alongside a concrete pathway, guess where the main root went? Give in? The saw may give you a clue.



A creative solution was called for. Enter the householder with a large, nasty looking hammer!

After reshaping the path, a bit more scraping and digging revealed the next thing sent to try me; heavy clay wrapped around broken bricks, otherwise known as a builders' rockery.

Having studied yamadori collection at the feet of a Master, I wasn't going to let such trivialities as concrete, dubiously located cutlery and sticky clay defeat me! another half hours' toil saw the last big root cut and she was free!

Carrying a spade and various collecting implements AND a bin bag full of a 50lb tree stump along a main road on a Saturday afternoon attracts quite a lot of strange looks, y'know. Anyway, here she is after I'd cleaned most of the crappy soil (did I say soil? Hah!) away.

And here she is in the only thing I had that was big enough to squeeze her big feet into.

And t'other side.



So there you have it. Another hefty lump o' timber safely rescued from whatever ill fate was bound to befall her. Now to see how kindly she repays me!

same thing happened to me when i was collecting yamadori this year, all of the roots of the tree i wanted were under a large surface rock. i mean it wasnt huge but it took 4 people with metal poles to roll the rock so i could get under it. you should have done what i did and just moved your obstacle, gotten a jack hammer and DESTROYED the sidewalk. even though its not your property

A man after my own heart! No point pussy-footing around with the little toys.......go get the man-sized stuff from the get go!

Hi Harleyrider,

you got yourself a decent lump of material! hope she's gonna repay you alright.

anyway, i really enjoyed your report: 1) the 'thumbs-up gave me a chuckle alright, 2) the stashed away knives a laugh, 'i may be called a few things but i'm not a grass', is it? haha. irrelevant really, but what's the funky box she's planted in about? thought for a while it was a fish box

All the best!

Grass? Me? With my reputation? lol

The box she's in is one from work. We keep exhaust components in them. We have several different sizes and a few of my bonsai buddies have used them very successfully. Just drill a few holes in the base and yer good to go.

Hi Steve my friend,

this tree is to good for you, shall I come and pick it up
Sirious very good find, I found one aswell a couple of years ago, but she is gone.

Peter