Yamadori in Washington State - The Hunt for Bonsai in the mountains

[@jballenger9240]

The elk are masterful at creating shari and fertilizing the yamadori as well. Couldn’t ask for a better partner. Beautiful scenery. Thank you.

[@raymondplodzien7459]

Beautiful footage. The best of two worlds. Bonsai and hiking!

[@eulycisbalantac3497]

That site is my dream site for find yamadori, beautiful

[@Kwood10]

Looking forward to this video I’m from Wa. Also .

[@Gang1955]

Tough watch

[@edmilkovitz297]

Definitely a trip worth taking, great haul .

[@바라미-u1r]

우리가 아는 세계 어느곳이든 산채 yamadori 를 하는것을 보면서 이것이 자연분재목의 보편적인 수집방법으로 정착된것임을 알수있습니다. 항상 건강하시고 멋진 분재를 기대하겠습니다.

[@expandingknowledge8269]

Great trip guys, you got lot's of fantastic tree's, going to a much better home, to be loved and cared for! 👍👍

[@teresagalbreath7452]

I love your Yamadori videos! Thank you

[@XaviersBonsaiRetreat]

What a really interesting video to watch in sunny UK! It is great that you can produce this and make me feel so jealous. It is good to see all your hard work pay off for some pretty decent yamadori finds. Cheers, Xavier

[@stefandehaan1677]

This is such an awesome video Ben! Now I want to move to Seattle myself ;) Looking forward to seeing how the trees are doing in the near future.

[@loganforgey4281]

Another great video- I love the yamadori trips. I’ve one planned in the Gifford Pinchot in October. Nice tree haul!

[@KitakuBonsai]

This is great!! You ‘da man Ben!!

[@samuelmula5570]

Great Video! Really enjoyed the scenery and content. Collecting is a very fun and interesting part of bonsai. Quality not quantity. Thank you for sharing. Look forward to the progress and of course next years collecting.

[@abarbadobonsai]

Nice video, Ben. I will do my first yamadori tree in a very different place here in Brazil. Always good to see your videos.

[@pikurupam]

Fantastic video.

[@vwchannel79]

Wooww amazing bonsai i like this 🙏🙏

[@CharlieForeign]

Really dope finds Ben! Not sure when exactly, but I’m looking to do a yamadori trip soon in or around Mt. Baker/ Snoqualmie. Hoping to find clump style mountain hemlock🤞🏽🤞🏽

[@BenBSeattle]

Plenty of those around there

[@invinciblecucumber]

I thought pines should be collected only in spring, how come your doing it in autumn? That little bunjin is just gorgeous.

[@arnoldmmbb]

very cool common juniper unfortunately i think they are very hard to get them survive the collection

[@BenBSeattle]

so I've read, but we'll see

[@BridgeCityBonsai1]

I’m just curious what your survival rate is on removing trees the way you are. Pulling on trunks and tearing roots. Bare rooting. I know some trees can be pretty resilient but given the amount of effort we put into finding these trees, I tend to be way more careful when removing. I usually start much wider and start by using a claw to clear away any rocks and ground cover to get a clear idea of where big roots are before digging. I never pull on the trunk to remove. I have been told to always keep as much of the native soil as possible. I don’t mean to be critical. I just see these methods flying in the face of a lot of what Ive learned about collecting.

[@131313chemistry]

Same. Evergreens hate barerooting. :/

[@pawoodsman1737]

I've bare rooted alout of evergreens. I only do it when the ground is wet. Lost very few when they are strong and in nice wet soil. I cringed when he ripped that juniper out of that dry soil. It didn't look very strong to begin with

[@maryweber4176]

Hi ben It was great watching you and your friends forage for the forest trees. My family lives in the Bellevue area for a long time now, and I have been up into that area, before my interest in bonsai. It was very interesting. I am staying back home in Minnesota while my own family goes to visit family in the area. Your video not make me feel like I am going to be missing out on some fun. Do you have a retail space that I could send my family over to at least purchase a piece of work from you, ........say like that beautiful little purpleleaf sandcherry that you worked on for 3 years. I an having a hard time finding one around here. I want them to bring me something of bonsai from the pacific northwest. Would you be willing to sell me something from out there. My family will be out there in a couple of weeks, I have to stay home to recover Loved you rvideos!!!!! Mary Beth

[@DKSHBONSAI]

Cantik sekali

[@jjjjermie]

great video ben, i live is massachusetts and i want to go yamadori hunting this fall to experiment i’m just not sure of the perfect time. do you think now is a good time to collect pitch pines?

[@tgward313]

how many perfect specimens have you passed and not seen? (rhetorical)

[@wills4543]

I understand the misting for junipers, but do you think it benefits pines? I’ve also been collecting this fall in the CA sierras 😊.

[@BenBSeattle]

I think so if you don't get enough roots like I did

[@chompers11]

I was looking forward to this video but something I really wanna know is do you ever feel bad taking such a nice old tree from its home in such a beautiful place to the middle of a city? I think I'll stick to layering

[@BenBSeattle]

What is worse is when forest service goes through thick dense forest cutting down much bigger and older trees to thin them out just in case of fire. Also The forest fire that occurred burned through thousands of acres of trees killing countless trees. I feel worse thinking about that. The few trees that we grab are generally smaller or beat up. What we do as bonsai artist barely causes blip in the larger scheme of deforestation. And I'm not out there purposely killing trees, I'm trying to give it a new life. daily.jstor.org/does-forest-thinning-work/

[@chompers11]

@@BenBSeattle sorry this is a better conversation in person, I think I could state my idea, not even a point, better. I live on the border of the olympic national forest, it's all logged. Almost nothing left. There is a company from canada I've been watching fly aerial surveys for weeks to get the rest. What you're doing undoubtably isnt affecting anything. I just was curious what you, a pro, felt... and if it was anything similar to what I felt. Wasnt trying to call you out. These secondary and tertiary forests are barely alive anyway. Some recent literature I've read said that at max you could log every 150 to 300 years in order to not lose biodiversity. RIP

[@simplelilblackboy]

🎉

[@modernsurvivalarkansas2287]

Man, if I tried a collection like this, it’d take hours to get through the first soil layer. Must be nice to have diggable soil.

[@saikong2553]

Do you need a permit in order to remove these plants? Jw because I want to try this.

[@BenBSeattle]

yes absolutely, always check the nearest ranger station to get one. It's called a transplant permit

[@expandingknowledge8269]

Judging by some of the size of these tree's, they must be the Bonsai of the God's! 🗿

[@Angela-un2tx]

I live in the Gorge...Should I wait until spring? PS: the Literati is my Fave 😎

[@BenBSeattle]

Spring is great time frame. But fall in the pnw is also a great time for us.

[@Bysourcebonsaisonsing]

I want to go on a trip dig up

[@iPheek]

Do you guys just collect pines or conifers? Or do you also go for deciduous? Non maples?

[@kyleboldy9573]

Ben, great video. I enjoy watching it. Do you ever collect in other states other than Washington. I am from Michigan but I do make annual trips out collecting California, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado. I try to get a group of people to go as it is a lot funner with people that have similar interest.

[@BenBSeattle]

Not at the moment. I got young kids so makes it hard to be away from them too long. So I keep to day trips. But I would love to visit other states to collect. I'm contemplating about buying a few acres in remote lands so I can privately collect on my own land. Hit me Kyle if you plan another trip.

[@kyleboldy9573]

@@BenBSeattle I sent you a message on Facebook easier to chat

[@ngocvuvuong8893]

What is the rooting hormone do you use?

[@Musicfridayz]

Is it ok to yamadori in the fall?

[@BenBSeattle]

Yes for the areas with mild winters like Seattle's it's actually better.

[@Musicfridayz]

@@BenBSeattle thx for replying love from sweden :)

[@sagebonsai]

I love yamadori if I ever go out to my mothers forty acre property thats on our reservation she said I can bring home anything I want as long as the land looks as if we weren't there. At some point I have to go see the damages the road services illegally done without our knowledge, and whomever rented the property out from under us to place powerlines thu it. We want to keep it wild and untouched, not many places left in United States that hasn't been bothered by human interference. Slowly that's all being taken away. We been trying to fighting the Indian land grab act for a long time and some day our can be taken right under us.

[@johnzeiger910]

At 13:51 look in the lower left of the screen you can see Bigfoot.

[@Gang1955]

As a PNW bonsai guy as well all I want to show is love but Ben your methods and ways around Yamadori “hunting” are borderline reckless. Pulling on trunks, bare rooting evergreens, not properly digging enough native soil, letting it sit in your truck for what seems to be hours and then it seems like they all die as we never get an update (or at least a positive one) It all seems almost disrespectful to these trees. Love your work with nursery material but I’d leave the Yamadori efforts alone for a while

[@RATAPATEOS]

as much as I really appreciate your videos on bonsai, in general, but here, regarding yamadori samples, I am shocked to see your lack of experience in this area. why are you in such a hurry to take one tree after another without taking the time to do the job correctly? It looks like you're making a business out of it, looking at you, and it makes my stomach hurt! Truly your method is borderline barbaric while the yamadori you have around you deserve the greatest care and a lot of delicacy. I'm sorry, well, you have to learn to harvest and set a good example... because there, a lot of people who are watching you will do like you and damage a large number of trees and not even be able to take them away or lose them after packing them.