This Privet soon-to-be-bonsai has been collected for about 14 months. Right after collection I moved it into my garden in the ground, with a large flat brick underneath the root ball. It's a single trunk, will be 'informal' style tree. The many privet I have collected, I use as training trees before I move into more common (and less hardy in comparison) trees. However some of the Privet - are pretty interesting in their own right (down the road more likely).
Here you can see it has a pretty decently flat root base as is. Time to bare root all this famous 'Georgia Red Clay' and good soil I used around the root ball when I first collected.
All clean, lots of good roots here. Time to reduce the root ball's height so it can fit into a pot snugly.
The pot. Training pot for sure, it will go into something smaller in the future. The soil. This mix is approx. 30% oil-dry (NAPA product, 100% fired earth), 20% coarse builder sand, 40% lava rock, and 10% organic sphagnum moss. (Need a little organic for Georgia's hot summers..)
Happily potted up, some wire through the drain holes to hold it in place. Time to take it inside and do a little more work.
I think this is the front that I will use for now.
Quite a trimming (generally safe for Privet, they grow like mad and I sealed all cuts well). Poor man's measuring stick (the lighter).
A pic from the rear, the nabari look decent from here as well. Could go either way, will see which side strikes best for the lead to a final apex.
Close-up of the nabari from the rear.
Close-up of the trunk/nabari from the current front.
From the ground up, it's 12 inches, 6.5 inches to the main trunk 'chop'. Approx 2.25 inches at base with 1.5 inches being main thickness of trunk to the 'chop' line.
Lots of fun with this project, I have many more privet to unearth in the near future. Maybe 1-2 more before this spring gets in full gear, many more next spring for certain.
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