Chinese Elm Broom

BobbyLane

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Nice work!! I understand why you cut it back but i still liked the old branches. It's looking great again and will be even more special in the future

the thing with this C elm....its only ever been leafless when i first bought it. on my balcony it never drops its leaves, it can become so dense that i dont always see the branch structure to an extent. updates soon
 

just.wing.it

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yep.not to your tastes?
Nice elm Bobby!

The pot sticks out to me...I cant tell if its the color, the shape....or maybe the small mound or hill the tree is planted on.

Mounded up soil always distracts me...

The brown pot, I like!

Great progression on this one!
 

BobbyLane

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Nice elm Bobby!

The pot sticks out to me...I cant tell if its the color, the shape....or maybe the small mound or hill the tree is planted on.

Mounded up soil always distracts me...

The brown pot, I like!

Great progression on this one!
ive never actually got the potting angle perfect in the blue pot.tree seems to be tilting to the right, its not as flat n grounded as it was in the oval.
 

VAFisher

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I liked what you were originally doing with this one a lot. It must have been hard to do that cutback. No risk, no reward though right? And it's looking awesome again.

I like the blue pot but it just seems too big for the smaller canopy. I think the tree could be more centered in the pot as well.
 

BobbyLane

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i agree the tree could be a little bit more centred, i dont think this pot is too big though. anyway, the tree still has some growing to do, a few cycles of letting grow and cutting back. it may go in the oval again to stretch its legs properly...

some recent images
IMG_6951 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
IMG_6950 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

thanks for the comments guys
 

drew33998

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yep.not to your tastes?
The pot is excellent. It just looks too wide now. Unless you plan on letting the tree spread out some. My tastes would be something as wide as the canopy currently but a free formish round or something.

Edit: it looks better in the last photo you posted and i see you will let it fill in so thats settled. Looks great
 
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@BobbyLane I have just bought a broom style elm from Kaizen too, lovely try you have. Any tips for me in UK and growing season coming :) small-elm-bonsai-care-pack.jpg
 

BobbyLane

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@BobbyLane I have just bought a broom style elm from Kaizen too, lovely try you have. Any tips for me in UK and growing season coming :) View attachment 232476

hi mate, welcome. elms are one of the easiest species to care for. one of the videos that helped me a lot on my journey
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pruning+deciduous+bonsai+trees

had to watch it a fair few times before i really grasped the pruning process. once you have a few trees and prune a few over n over it becomes easier and like second nature of which branch to do where n when. hope that helps

i'll be updating this thread soon
 

BobbyLane

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the size of the canopy is now approaching what it was, at its largest in the oval pot...
ill leave it a week or 2 maybe more, before shearing it back, i might put it back in the oval soon for a little more room.
i do like this with the larger crown, but at least now the tree has great taper on all the branches
20190602_120852.jpg
 

jason biggs

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Please don't carve this one ;)
looking great, the way it is going...
 

BobbyLane

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Update

collage 1, first major cut back
20190609_183844 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

collage 2
a series of cut backs done in the last few days
20190609_183940 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

20190609_182652 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

the tree was thinned out again, quite considerably. a proper little tidy up

i see the crown only slightly bigger. its going to back bud like crazy, next tidy up wont need to be so extreme. i think the tree is beginning to look mature now. i wanted to reveal some of the top of the trunk and where the main primary branches begin
 
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Fantastic progression. I don’t know that you would need a larger pot given the amount of growth you were able to get from the current pot. I definitely see why you did the major restructure/taper cuts in Summer of 2017, but I didn’t expect the speed in returning to such full stature. That should give us all courage to cut... at least with our elms.
 

BobbyLane

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Fantastic progression. I don’t know that you would need a larger pot given the amount of growth you were able to get from the current pot. I definitely see why you did the major restructure/taper cuts in Summer of 2017, but I didn’t expect the speed in returning to such full stature. That should give us all courage to cut... at least with our elms.

cheers guys,

yeh ill keep it in this pot now, dont plan on moving it again. this one is an extremely fast grower, never sleeps. since ive had it, its never dropped leaves over winter and usually pushes out some green, when my other trees are asleep. but when i bought it was leafless almost. just goes to show how chinese elms react in different micro climates.
 

BobbyLane

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two weeks after pruning, its been budding out like crazy. last week i spent 20mins rubbing off buds in crotches and clustering buds of two and i spent another 20mins doing this again today. no pruning though, plan is to let it grow back out. doing this now makes the task of cleaning it out much easier next time.
2019-06-26_07-55-54 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
 
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ConorDash

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two weeks after pruning, its been budding out like crazy. last week i spent 20mins rubbing off buds in crotches and clustering buds of two and i spent another 20mins doing this again today. no pruning though, plan is to let it grow back out. doing this now makes the task of cleaning it out much easier next time.
2019-06-26_07-55-54 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

I think I will also start rubbing out rubs before the season, it’s the smart thing to do with a strong, fast growing species like this.
 
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