Thanks for the warm welcome Les.
I sent you an email Sunday with a few questions. Looking forward to
chatting soon.
Dan

On 17 Oct 2004 13:17:29 -0700, (Les Dowdell)
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Oct 2004 11:23:45 -0600, Dan
wrote:

Hi,
Firstly, I'd like to introduce myself. A bonsai newcomer, (two years),
in Edmonton, Canada where my favourite larch forest is now comfortably
sleeping under a foot of snow.

I would like to make another small larch forest this coming spring.
Having read about collecting plants, most info seems geared towards
collecting mature specimens. What I am thinking of collecting is very
young larch.

I want to create a forest with smaller trees than I have now where the
average height is 14 to 18 inches tall. Since I will be looking for
larch which might be 10 inches high can they be root trimmed
immediately and put into a forest setting or do they need to be
transplanted into pots for a year or two before they are made into
bonsai?

Dan


Hello Dan,

I am also in Edmonton, covered by the same foot (30 cm) of snow. Drop me
a note off-list (back-channel, etc) for more info about bonsai in Edmonton
and the rest of Alberta.

Spring will be the best time for collecting American larch (tamarack)
and, as long as you get a reasonable number of roots when you dig up the
young seedlings you are talking about, you can start your forest as soon as
you get the candidates home from the collecting trip. Our society, the
Bonsai Society of Edmonton, has a collecting trip every spring in early May
and we stop to collect tamarack on every trip. There are lots of young
seedlings where we find the larger tamaracks so there should be lots to form
your group planting. I have a 20 tree group of tamaracks that has been
together for almost 8 years. They were put together the day after collecting
and not a single tree in the group has turned into firewood. You can either
start with small seedlings, as you indicated, or you can get slightly more
mature trees and trim them down to the size you want.

Drop by the next meeting of the society this Wednesday, when the
workshop topic will be "Wiring Conifers". Bring something to work on and get
acquainted with other bonsai people in Edmonton.

Best wishes in bonsai,
Les Dowdell
In Edmonton, waiting for the REAL winter to show up in a few weeks.

************************************************* *******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Boon Manakitivipart++++
************************************************* *******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++