Can Chinese Elms really be indoor bonsai

[James H]

I have been looking into Chinese elms for a little while now and have seen in several places that they can been kept indoors, is this true. I picked one up yesterday with the typical "S" curve to it at my local bonsai shop and they had it labeled as an indoor bonsai. I have it next to my ceder elm outside enjoying a nice mountain top morning right now. Just wondering what your guys thoughts on this might be.

 

[larlamonde]

I have been looking into Chinese elms for a little while now and have seen in several places that they can been kept indoors, is this true. I picked one up yesterday with the typical "S" curve to it at my local bonsai shop and they had it labeled as an indoor bonsai. I have it next to my ceder elm outside enjoying a nice mountain top morning right now. Just wondering what your guys thoughts on this might be.

James in the long run not good idea. There is much discussion here about keeping trees indoors. It may make it a year or two but the plants health eventually fade. I'm sure others will chime in to this popular topic.

 

[James H]

It seemed a little odd to me so I wanted to ask the group here. Because of where I live many of my non native trees get moved from indoors to outdoors a lot but all still get great sun from our south east-west facing windows.

 

[Anthony]

Elms like a lot of sun, and you can take root cuttings, test to see what you need and you don't have to damage the mother plant.

In the tropics on our side, they rest from after Christmas until middle or end of February. Temperatures from 5.00 p.m until 8.00 a.m or so will be around 66 to 68 to 70 deg.F. High is generakky below 88 deg,F and that high is for less than half an hour.
They seem to react to shorter days and the temperature bit may be just enough to give a bare dormancy.

In case you wanted to know, this is the 30+ year of growing them down here.
Leaves may fall or they may not.

These are the Southern Chinese elms.
Easy trees to grow.
Always experiment on the cuttings.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Cypress187]

This question comes around alot.

 

[GrimLore]

In an effort to give you a genuine answer without doing a lot of typing this article on Bonsai 4 Me should clarify it for you http://www.bonsai4me.com/SpeciesGuide/Ulmus.html I must add though many times you can acclimate indoor grown to outdoor and the first step is mentioned in the article.

Grimmy

 

[James H]

Thanks that was a great link. The tree that I just pickup has been enjoying some nice dappled colorado mountain sunshine and our afternoon storms are coming so it will be heading in soon.