A few years ago I was asked to head up a workshop in Denmark, one of the nice things about visiting friends is being taken to their happy Yamadori hunting grounds, on this occasion I collected a rather magnificent ‘English’ Oak… in Denmark? however I flew into Billund (Lego) airport so wondered if they would let me take the tree on board.

This is a brief story of the Danish Oak Tree.

Collected in the North Jutland, Denmark in 1999 during an event the Jorgen Skammeritz organized where I was one of the demonstrators.

The first picture is Me, Mike Sullivan (UK) and Jorgen, just after the tree was dug from the ground, the water in the background is the sea!

Here is the Oak in its first box… this is a BIG tree, over 1 meter (36”) in Girth, planted in a nice open soil mix and left for three years until my return in 2002.

This is the tree after 3 years, as you can see it has thrived, the tree is very healthy… but it was still inAahus,Denmark. I live in the North of England.

The only way forward was to remove the tree from the box, it has a lot of fine roots…. Very healthy, even though it was in full leaf… it was OK to move. The root ball was wrapped in bubble wrap and tied very well with string.

The tree travelled in its own seat on the plane… good old British Airways, I let it sit next to the window because it had never flown before, here I am leaving the plane inManchester.

The tree started to grow very well but it was really just a large lump of wood. Jump forward five years since the tree arrive in the UK and I have hollowed the trunk to create taper and interest.

And here is the tree potted in a fine Derek Aspinal pot. The branches are styled as an oak should be, trying to mimic an oak in nature. Ramification will take years and years and years… but I can wait. Hoped you liked the story.