Zelcova from a dig

[Watto]

It is not very often you get an opportunity to dig Zelcova so when the opportunity arose a few years ago I grabbed it with both hands. I had in mind some clasical broom style in an old Japanese pot etc etc.
The reality was that these were growing as seedlings under a garden Zelcova and the owner didn't want them, however over the years these had been cut down on a number of occasions and they were not the clasic broom shape I had dreamed about.
But free is free and Zelcova's are not that common so here is the story about one of trees from that dig. It was about 700mm tall and now its about 260mm tall.

[Bek]

What a great freebie!

[Gav]

Hey Watto,

That tree is coming along real nicely, but that new pot just makes the overall result look so much better

[Watto]

Thanks. The pot is a "one off" by Australian potter Penny Davis of Mudlark Pottery.

[Raymond]

[Steve B]

That's a cracker Watto! I like it - a lot. Great example of what a skilled practitioner can do with what looks to us mere mortals like pretty uninspiring material. Hopefully if I keep eating my vegies I'll grow up to be able to do that one day.....

Inspires a couple of questions:
- did it live in a pot the whole time from shot 1 to shot 2? It looks like it put on plenty of girth in the process of recovering from the chop. Any ground growing or just left to run wild in the pot?
- did you take the tree to Penny to commission the pot or just via photo? Think you've inspired me to source my first Mudlark pot. Be nice to have a quality tree like this one to drop into it.

Thanks,

Steve

[Bonbon]

Nice work. How many years in total to achieve this?

[Watto]

This tree has spent all its time in a pot since it was dug. Reducing the height has shown an increase in the trunck width I think, but it hasn't really increased much. It has been six years (give or take one) since it was dug.
Over the last two or three years I have bought a number of Penny's pots just because I like hand made one off Australian pots.

[Watto]

Steve - I should have said - shot 1 and shot 2 were taken on the same day.