HelpfulGardener.com

First one:
[img]https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/KDodds/2012-04-14_15-09-21_171.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/KDodds/2012-04-14_15-09-03_381.jpg[/img]

Second one:
[img]https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/KDodds/2012-04-14_15-08-19_370.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/KDodds/2012-04-14_15-07-51_29.jpg[/img]

Nice stump collection!! how do you go about collecting so many? I was thinking about emailing a listing I saw on craigslist for tree removal services and asking them what they do with their stumps, also my neighbor/friend does lawn work so I told him to be on lookout for tree stumps people may want to get rid of.

As far as your 2 trees go, would it be possible to take a picture of each every 45° and if that's too much, maybe at least every 90°. Unless of course that's your picked out front/back. The second tree looks like a very nice yamadori with lots of potential! and I love the bark on that first tree!

My property is pretty well forested, and shrub landscaped closer to the house. The house itself was built in the 50s, and most not-natives are from the original owners, who sold their home in the early 80s to the people we purchased it from about 15 years ago. Unfortunately, we don't have any larger JMs throwing seeds for us. So, many of the stumps, all of teh JMs, anyway, come from my in-laws' property. Most of them are at least a few years old. Since they've sold their home, I took as many of the larger, easier to get ones as I could, about 18 of them. Everything other than the JMs comes from my property.

It's funny, I see people have relandscaped all of the time, but I can never seeem to catch them "in the act". I've placed ads in the past, asking for seedlings and saplings. That's pretty ridiculous as well because once people find out someone wants their junk, it all of a sudden becomes worth its weight in gold. For instance, one person wanted $2 each for first year JM seedlings. She came down to $1 after I told her they were worthless. Another person (from last year) just contacted me again about a shrub (that I've already told them I'm not interested in) that is fairly large. I told them I'd dig it out for free, but they wanted $50 on top of that. So, it's not like yamadori are not available, they are, but once someone hears that it's "for bonsai", they get kaCHING dollar signs in their eyes, not realizing that it's not the stump that has value, but the artist's work.

I'll see if I can get some other angle photos today or next weekend. Today's pretty full on the bonsai front, as I have several airlayers and collections also waiting for me.

Some different angles:
[img]https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/KDodds/2012-04-15_10-57-49_279.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/KDodds/2012-04-15_10-57-38_787.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/KDodds/2012-04-15_10-56-55_74.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/KDodds/2012-04-15_10-56-33_20.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/KDodds/2012-04-15_10-56-25_210.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/KDodds/2012-04-15_10-56-16_230.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/KDodds/2012-04-15_10-56-06_580.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/KDodds/2012-04-15_10-55-48_0.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y201/KDodds/2012-04-15_10-55-36_60.jpg[/img]

kdodds, I'm having a very difficult time getting Paint to do what I want it to do! I'll have to find something else to install just not tonight. And thanks for posting more angles! I'm assuming you will be doing some wood carving on those eventually? the fist one looks like most of that wood is already dead, but on the second one, it almost looks like there's something growing from around all the cuts, correct me if I'm wrong.

The first one might as well be a canoe for all of the deadwood. Still, where it is alive, it's growing strong. I may or may not clean out the dead wood.

The second is very much alive. There was growth about all of the cuts, new and old. It was chopped back to almost nothing for the collection and potting. There is a scenrios front where I *could* keep all main branches (last picture as front), but I'm not enamored of it. I'm leaning more towards pics 3 or 4 as front. In both, I would lose the "thumb" on the lower right. In pic 3 I would just allow this to heal, but in pic 4 I would probably carve in and hollow out a little.

the first one definetly has a lot of dead wood, but may be very good for practinging carving! also, I like first picture of first tree, I guess it's about the same in pic post 1 and 2.
the second tree, I would also pick the 4th pic as the front, and I do think the "thumb" should be removed, or carved, once again that would make good carving practice. I'd probably go ahead and remove the bark on the parts you will eventually want to remove or make deadwood (but I do think the peeled bark tree will need to be protected, I'm not sure how, I've only read breifly on the subject).

You'd clean out the dead wood and preserve the the newly exposed living wood. I don't know that I'll have to do that just yet, but maybe if it keeps dying.

I meant eventually, cuz when were the trees collected? how long have they been in the pots that they are in? I'm sure it will be a few years before anything will look like a bonsai, and all material is learning material? Also, I still have not installed a photo edit program yet, maybe I'll try to do that now

They were collected and potted this year. They won't need repotting for two years, I'm sure, at which point they'll need some styling work as well.