I'm really hopin this one turns out well - i dug it out of the ground yesterday and spent a good 3 hours today rootpruning, repotting, pruning and then styling a little.
had a couple problems initially with draining but got that fixed up and now things are alright, but I don't think i'm going to need to water this one as often as my others, perhaps.
I've not seen anyone use the Russian Olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) in bonsai (I am, of course, very new to bonsai, so correct me if I'm wrong here) but up here in CT they grow like weeds, and fast. Trees that I saw as whips not 6 years ago are already 20 feet tall! They grow fast, and they can take a lot of abuse; repeated, brutal hackings, boiling water, weed killer ... nothing works. Additionally, the leaves don't get too big, and I think the tree would respond well to leaf-shrinking techniques, and ultimately become an excellent species for use in bonsai. They even fruit later on the summer, as well as have a pretty yellow flower in early spring.
My only concern is how well the species takes to healing, as what I've seen in the wild isnt perhaps the most beautiful thing. I had to go into the cuts I made today and re trim the bark back because it was flaking out (man, do I need a spherical or concave cutter)
Tomorrow i go to a nursery to see if I can get one of those two tools and to see if there is any other nursery stock worth purchasing. Lookin forward to it!
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