Ulmus Parvifolia Yatsubusa

[fredtruck]

This is my new ulmus parvifolia yatsubusa, purchased from Brent Walston at Evergreen Gardenworks. The elm fits naturally in the sumo style. It is 18.5” tall, with a diameter just under 5”.


The pot I selected is Chinese. It is unglazed, has windows, a wide lip, and ornate feet. It is 18.5 x 14.5 x 4.75 inches. As it stands, the pot, classic in style, contrasts with the tree which is very fat, with a circumference of 15.31”. It is definitely not classic.


I wonder what you feel about my container choice. Does it work?

 

[Mellow Mullet]

I like it Fred, but I think that I would have tried to pot the tree a little lower. It is a nice tree and pot combo.

John

 

[M. Frary]

That's the second elm tree from Brent you've put up here Fred. I want one so bad. They are badass are they not?
I think it looks good in that pot. But then again it would look good planted in anything.
Nice!

 

[JudyB]

I'm probably the last person who should be critiquing a pot choice LOL. I had to pull the pic off the page and look at it on my desktop to see the whole thing on the screen as in the post it's too big. I didn't expect to like it from seeing it in the post. However in the full view, I was surprised that I do like the combo. Something about the juxtaposition between the rugged tree, and the curve of the pot is working. The pot is strong enough to carry off the feminine quality it has without being too much contrast. At least that's what I see.
And it's a very nice tree!!!

 

[fredtruck]

M. Frary: Yes, Brent's elms are very badass.

I chose this pot because it was the best of 2 pots I had. I always want to make these choices with lots of options, but I misjudged how big the tree was, and I misjudged how many pots I had would actually fit. Fortunately, it worked out.

 

[erb.75]

hilariously, I chose a pot for my yatusbusa that looks a lot like this one

 

[erb.75]

not a good picture of the pot, but here it is

 

[erb.75]

your pot color is darker, and i like it more i think...mine I just got as a nice training pot for the time being

 

[erb.75]

but mine is pretty good still with the leaves on the tree

 

[mcpesq817]

Great tree Fred. This is practically a finished tree when it comes to the trunk and primary branches. Great pick up!

I think the pot works nicely for now - if the roots on this one were anything like the roots I had on mine, I'm sure it was a bit of a struggle to get the tree into this pot. I can see the tree ultimately going into a shallower oval, maybe a touch less wide, and probably without fancy feet. Maybe oatmeal or a greenish/brownish glaze? I'm pretty simple and traditional in what I like with pots though.

John, many of these big corkers have a bit of a waist right off the nebari - and the nebari is usually pretty good. Not sure why that is, but the two options are to either minimize the waist with the planting angle (or growing very low branches to help bulk things up), or planting it deeper to grow new roots above the waist. The latter would take quite a bit of time, and you'd lose a not only height on these, but also their quirky corky character. All depends on what you can live with.

Fred, that being said, looking at the picture, have you considered losing that lowest left branch and cutting off that knob it's attached to? That might help remove the waist issue on the left side, and I think the right would be something you can easily live with as most of the cinched waist look would be gone. On mine, a couple of weekends ago I cut off some of the low branches and knobs and the trunkline improved quite a bit. I was worried about getting big scars, but at least on mine, those knobs were mostly the corky bark and the resulting scars were like half the diameter of the knob. Either way, very nice tree!

 

[MidMichBonsai]

Overall I like the composition and I think your pot choice is pretty close given the choices you had. Moving forward, I think the pot may be an inch or 2 too wide. The tree would look even more powerful with and slightly reduce pot profile so perhaps that's something that you could keep your eye out for in the coming years.

That being said, I would love to have either pot or tree. Well done!

 

[fredtruck]

"Fred, that being said, looking at the picture, have you considered losing that lowest left branch and cutting off that knob it's attached to? That might help remove the waist issue on the left side, and I think the right would be something you can easily live with as most of the cinched waist look would be gone. On mine, a couple of weekends ago I cut off some of the low branches and knobs and the trunkline improved quite a bit. I was worried about getting big scars, but at least on mine, those knobs were mostly the corky bark and the resulting scars were like half the diameter of the knob. Either way, very nice tree!"
​

I looked at my tree after reading your post, Mike. It would be possible to remove the knob mentioned, but since there are actually 2 branches coming out there, a hole would result in the foliage.

The model for my elms is a pollarded tree in England, on which a murder was committed. Here's a picture of the tree:



Fortunately, the murder is optional, but as you can see, the waist is key to the image.

 

[JudyB]

Whoa Fred, where are you going with this? Very Edgar Allen Poe...

 

[fredtruck]

Walter Pall has a very interesting essay on Fairy Tale Trees. I'm not quite going in that direction, but somewhere close. I like the Poe reference.

 

[Smoke]

What makes this yatsubusa and how do we know that? Looks like seiju to me....

 

[fredtruck]

I think it's the leaves. The Seiju leaves are .5" long, but the Yatsubusa leaves are 1.5" long. The Seiju is a sport of the Hokkaido elm, and the Yatsubusa is a sport of the Seiju. This is according to Brent's catalog descriptions.

 

[erb.75]

the leaves are totally different on seiju vs yatsubusa...much smaller on seiju, also different bark, and i think the seiju leaves look a little rounder

 

[jk_lewis]

What makes this yatsubusa and how do we know that? Looks like seiju to me....

I assume it is yatsubusa because Brent identified and sold it as yatsubusa. I think I'd take Brent's ID over someone thinking he or she could ID it from a picture on a website.

 

[mcpesq817]

What makes this yatsubusa and how do we know that? Looks like seiju to me....

Al, these trees from Brent are very big - like 16"+ in height and with 5"+ bases. It probably looks like seiju if you aren't aware of how big the trees are. The leaves on my seijju are probably about a 1/4", while the yatsubusa leaves are a good 1".

 

[Smoke]

I assume it is yatsubusa because Brent identified and sold it as yatsubusa. I think I'd take Brent's ID over someone thinking he or she could ID it from a picture on a website.

Al, these trees from Brent are very big - like 16"+ in height and with 5"+ bases. It probably looks like seiju if you aren't aware of how big the trees are. The leaves on my seijju are probably about a 1/4", while the yatsubusa leaves are a good 1".

You guys throw the word Yatsubusa around like it means something. It is a Japanese word not used in real plant taxonomy and simply means "small tufts" in Japanese. It is not used in the nursery trade because it has no meaning, any more than nishiki or arakawa. Currently in bonsai the word is used to define a rather "dwarf" species. Hokkaido and Seiju are both considered 'dwarf" species of ulmus.

So you guys seem to be argueing about a mutation of a mutation of a mutation? Ask yourself this can you grow seiju or yatsubusa from seed? What will happen if you plant both in the ground, will they hold true or do the continue to revert to elm foliage?

A mutation becomes a cultivar of the original species. It is propagated ( or cultivated) by vegetive means only, cutting, grafting, layer. It does not hold true and will revert or suspend mutation over time.

A variety is a plant from a plant that was grown from seed and retains all the caracteristics of the parent plant. It is true to the parent.

This is an acer palmatum. Period. It was grown from seed 35 years ago. Plain old green mountain maple. Hundreds of trees were planted. Most all made green maple palmatums. This is one that became a sport. What do we call it? Maybe a roughbark maple would be a good name. The Japanese word for rough bark is "Arakawa". All cultivars of Acer with rough bark are called Arakawa by the Japanese. It is a cultivar and not a variety. I can reproduce this by cutting and grafting only.


Here is a clump grown from seed with one mutation in the clump. All the same seed but one rough barked tree mutated to add some variety to the clump. Pretty special.



A Mikawa black pine is a Variety of black pine and holds true to the parent via seed. Nishiki and arakawa are mostly cultivars, mostly grafted, and named for their appearence in Japanese nomanclature which means nothing except to those in bonsai.

Now about the elm....you can call it a Yasubusa or Seiju or Hokkaido or whatever, but it is a cultivar of Ulmus parvifolia. You can't grow Hokkaido nor seiju nor yatsubusa from seed, and all of them over time will throw regular elm foliage from the trunk trying to revert back to the parent. It is perfectly acceptable to consider this tree seiju like in appearence and absolutely nothing to get ones panties in a bunch.