Finding wild trees

OK if I was to go round the woods looking for baby trees, what am I looking for??

I mean what sort of size/age/height??

Chris,
Please remember that you need the landowner's permission to collect trees

I'd recommend you don't go collecting on your own until you have been on a trip with someone who has the right experience - of what to look for, where to look and as Graham so rightly says, how to get the permission to collect.

A lot of unnecessary damage is done by people going out and howking out any bit of material they think "might do". I'm not saying for a minute you'd be like that but it's always better to avoid the accusations whether they're justified or not.

I go back to recommending you attend Graham's meeting. There may very well be people there who are planning field trips, but if not then you will probably get a clearer picture of where is possible and where are the absolute no-go areas.

A little bit of caution is always better than facing a twelve-bore.

Hi Chris

...baby trees in a forest. Hm! In a typical low land forest you're most likely to find leggy trees with no character - just looking about. Focus on sub surface: hidden trunk base and radial roots growing in the mulch layer. However, I second what Fiona says ;-)

But to train an eye for suitable material doesn't have to involve collecting trees - to begin with. A beginners advise: select one species at a time, learn/observe how it grows in your local forest: what makes them do what they do right there?! The same species will look very different depending on growing conditions. In other words, knowing your species is about living conditions and climate. In time you'll learn where to look for what ever material you want in what ever particular condition you prefer. Learn from the experts: google 'yamadori' and you'll get the idea. In the end, quality raw material is rare to find. I wish you good luck

regards

/Loke Emil

I don't think you have quite got it. There is usually no point in collecting baby trees from the wild. You can find much better ones in the nursery. Collectors look for old trees that have been stunted by the environment. Good ones are rare and valuable, but require a great deal of skill to collect successfully.
Iris

With no intended implication that their arguments were "wrong", I have removed all the posts relating to the ethics of taking trees from the wild for the following reasons:

1. The bottom line: our oft-repeated mantra that IBC cannot condone taking trees from the wild without permission.
2. The second bottom line: irrespective of how ethical or otherwise collecting from woods might be, the fact is that in most of the places Chris would be going it is illegal. To imply otherwise is irresponsible.

This was a post by an absolute beginner (and no offence to Chris but it was abundantly clear that he has little or no bonsai knowledge or experience) in which a simple question needed only a simple response rather than a philosophical debate. We've had that debate in the past and I don't have any real objections to it occurring again, but not in reponse to a beginner's question.

I think we have now established the simple response so the issue need not go any further.