oh yeah graham potter is the master of yamadori. i think ive watched all of the kaizan videos at least twice.i wish i lived in the u.k. and had the cashto pick up a couple of his creations.just amazing

Or better yet: Take a few courses. (Sorry, can't see myself buying trees that are very much completed. After completion I will probable end up giving away the trees for a bit of $)

Thank so much for the video link, J. Fabulous videos!

you may get an angry call soon your project has me eyeing up my mother-in-laws hedges ...its jelle's fault your middle hedge is missing

Hahahahaaa... Keith, now you know...you won't earn brownie points with your mother-in-law doing foolish things like that! And I doubt blaming J will cut it with her.

Hm yeah; clipping away at hedges would be annoying to your MOIL.

However, I find that on local trading websites (In the Netherlands we have Marktplaats and Ebay in Germany, the latter available worldwide) I find you can get astonishing deals. Growers at the end of summer who do not want to be left with stock, garden centres clearing out for the christmas decoration etcetc. That is how I found this one.

I have been eying a 50+ year old juniper, but that would have been a 5 hour round trip, not being sure I could actually transport is, or even have it survive (The juniper was in a backyard). If you read through grahams website, you will find that that is also how he gets a part of his rough material: pre-dumpster-hopping. And honestly, unless you are considering owning a bit of land, and you are willing to let the plants stand there for 10-15 years, what better way is there?

Old hedge-rows are in fact ideal: The plants will have taper, character yet no serious trunc-cuts. It the hedge has only been a low one, you can keep the plant as it is, and with some trimming and forming you have a 60cm bonsai in just a few years. 'Never pass on a good trunk and nebari'. (See also my article under review with Oscar on this topic; I guess it will be online in a week or so.

With spring starting, it was time to look at this taxus again. So last weekend I grabbed my chainsaw and had some fun. Rough cuts for now. It gets to recover and will proceed in summer with the finer work and perhaps a trial to reduce the rootbal again.

hey jelle,
cool never thought to use a chainsaw...i was going to use a dremmel tool to carve that unknown shrub i posted but was dreading tha hour of hard carving...not no more

I only used the chainsaw to get the large lumps out. The finer work will be done by dremel and yes. this will be a few days of work to get done.

[edit:} Just checked your unknown shrub. That is a very thin stick. I think that using a chainsaw will be way to rough and tricky. Use the dremel or take a normal drill and get some woodworker bits to put on it. A bit larger tool. But a chainsaw will wreck it..

Nice start on the tree, it's looking good. I got an elm that i'm digging up soon that has a 6-8 inch trunk, that I was planning to use the chainsaw on the half dead trunk. I will have to use the chainsaw on a huge side root just to dig it up. I have been thinking about this thing for a couple months now, digging and future styling that is. Got to love friends and relitives with great material they want to give away.