Prunus spinosa_12 years in a pot

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In the early years of my bonsai passion I have spent most of my weekends somewhere in woodlands  criss crossing selected areas with the hope to find the TREE of my life.  Most of the time I came back  empty handed just with a hope for the next days.   But HAPPY anyway.    

   The main challenge for me at that time was not about finding a tree but to select the one worth the collection in terms of the quality and potential success rate of collection.   Soon I have realised that leaving that only  on my heart is not the best way to follow.   Suppressing the burning desire to DIG for a while leaving it for next day, week, month or even year(s) proved it is the way forward for me.

This was especially true for such special trees such as blackthorns as it is very rare to find  a tree with a character you look for.   You want it so desperately that you are tempted to lower the bar pretty low.

Just have a look on the blackthorn below -   worth the collection?   

-  Good chance of safe collection?   I think so

-  Character:  Reasonably thick  trunk looks good.  Curves of the trunk looks like a mallsai  produced somewhere in the East for European shoppers...  No taper at all.  What can you do about it?

Take it or leave it?   


2013 on situ


Spring 2017 


2018


2020

I have played with the inclination of the tree a bit.   Too much I think.

The tree has a very wide base unfortunately it is just from the front view - no surface roots on the back side at this stage.  But look at the lowest shoot at the back - too low to use is for design but  great place if we can somehow prompt the shoot to produce a root there...  The other low shoot in the front has been used to get more girth at the base - at least that was the idea.





2025


???  

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