This really is an interesting story. Since many years on the way to my fitness club I see some trees alongside the parking lots of a big furniture store. In winter I admire the ramification which comes from the gardeners cutting them back several times a year. With some I would be tempted to try makein a bonsai from them. But this is certainly just wishful thinking. And then they are far too big, some are one foot wide at the base and they are from 5 to 10 feet high.
Anyway, one late summer day in 2001 while driving by I saw that one of them was run over by a car and lay flat on the ground. Two days later this tree was still right there on the ground. Three days later again. On the fourth day I went there and asked the gardener whether I could have the tree. Of course, he said, we just had nno time to get it out of the way. I cut it with a saw right there and planted it into my growing field. In 2004 I took it out of the ground an planted it into a big mica pot.
1) the Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) as I found it on the ground of the parking lot in fall of 2001, 2 mters high, around 7 feet.
2) after cutting bakd to fit it into the car - it is very hard ot believe that this should become a stunning bonsai only five years later
3) the tree in 2004 being cared for by David. Here you can see the surprising size of the thing, and also the 'impossiblility' to make this a decent bonsai.