The Lumpy Stump Gets it’s Day

[Mike Hennigan]

Hey all. Here is an elm I collect last year, March 25th 2018. It is an elm and I’m pretty sure it is Ulmus rubra, also known as slippery elm or red elm. You wouldn’t believe the amount of slippery goo that was oozing out of the roots when I did the post collection rootwork last spring.

The thing is an ugly beast and I love it. Somebody had cut this back hard (probably hoping it would die) some years before I collected it. A large part of the center of the trunk had died and is hollow. I’m thinking of extending this hollow up further.

Today it got its first real styling. I cut back all the large branches very hard. Last year by fall it had grown to about 5 and a half feet tall. I let the roots escape into the ground. Here’s how it looks today after some initial structural pruning and wiring:



Here are some pics from last year. The roots were a total mess. I’m going to be repotting this tree as well sometime in the next week so we’ll see how they look. May consider ground layering at some point if I need to. Some more pics from last summer after recovery as well. The tree grew much taller by the end of the season than this pic shows.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

The new leader is on the upper left. The branch that is serving as the new leader right now is less than ideal for where is see this tree going. I’m hoping to get a bud to pop closer tho the center or the left of the larger stub so that I can have more dramatic left moving movement and that spot. If that makes any sense. When I pruned this thing last year I got a ring of adventitious buds popping all over each pruning site so I don’t think I’ll have a problem getting a bud where I want it.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Oh, and the picture of the roots was post collection, BEFORE I pruned them back. And I pruned them back incredibly hard.

 

[Cosmos]

Great stump.

These leaves look straight-up siberian to me.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Great stump.

These leaves look straight-up siberian to me.

I thought it may be at one point, and it’s possible it is. But I have another tree which I know is a sibererian elm and the topside of those leaves are darker green and very glossy. They look quite different. And there was also a difference in the leaf hairs between the two. I can’t remenber exactly but can check again pretty soon. Like had leaf hairs on the top of this one or had none or something. I’m seriously confused as to identifying some of the elms around here sometimes. I have read that U. Pumila has readily hybridized with native elms, particularly with U. Rubra. So I’m also wondering if it could be a hybrid of some kind since the leaves don’t quite match the description for Siberian elm.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Well done elm, it will be nice in time.

Yours is probably U. rubra, slippery elm, because of the goo.

One clue might be where you collected it. Siberian elm will pretty much only grow where they can get sunrise to sunset full sun. They are shade intolerant. If your tree came from an area with some shade, for more than an hour or two, it likely is Ulmus rubra.

They do hybridize, but I have not a clue on how to tell them apart except from whether I find them in sun or not. Of course, U rubra can survive and thrive in full sun. But rubra also tolerates moderate shade. SIberian elm will have really small leaves even when by itself in an open field, no human intervention. That is the other unique trait of Siberian elms. But these are relative things, hardly diagnostic.