AusBonsai

It's been a while since an update. This tree grew on nicely over summer and once again refused to drop it's leaves this year, don't know if it had anything to do with the hot autumn but, in any case autumn colour was pitiful! Today was nice and sunny, and so I decided to stay outside for more than 5 minutes and root prune/repot a few elms ... and this was one of them.
I was planning just a standard repot, but when I removed the tree from it's container I decided to try and get a few more roots slightly higher on the left side so I cut out a bit of a gash and dabbed on a bit of rooting hormone to encourage some new roots in this area. I've had success doing this with tridents so thought it was worth a shot with this elm. Note, I did cut the roots back hard, but after I took this photo, so they are much shorter now than they look there!
I then packed a bit of sphagnum around the area I want the roots to keep it moist before covering with potting mix... And here it is after I gave the top a bit of a trim ... I have actually trimmed the apex back further since this shot - but forgot to take a final image so this one will have to do. That's it! hoping for a development in branching this season, and obviously for those new roots to kick in - we'll see what happens...

I've got so many contrary trees in my yard, some of my Chinese Elms are colouring up madly, and some are still very green. Likewise one of my Chinese Quince trees is bright green still, and the other is showing colour. Trident maples are all over the place, and some have lost all their leaves, with some still quite green....

It seems up here in Brisbane I've had more Autumn colour than I've seen in years, and yet you guys have had a weak year for colour... Contrariness abounds.

As for your tree, it's looking good! Good luck with growing some new roots where you want them!

I like the lines of this elm Ryceman. Simple and elegant.
New roots should grow from the cut you made

I spent the afternoon digging Chinese elms out of the grow beds.
I noted that deciduousness of Chinese elms appears to be linked to the variety. Corky variety have all lost all leaves. Seiju all have yellow leaves still attached to the trees but that fall easily when touched. Smooth barked Chinese elms all still have green leaves well attached - and that's down here where we have had quite a few sub zero frosty nights now.

Oh that's interesting Neil, thanks for that.

Some of the seedlings I grew from your seeds are the ones that are colouring up....I'll take a note of them to see if they are growing differently to the rest.

Thanks for the input Mel/shibui,
I think you may be onto something shibui, most of my elms are smooth and all of them have their foliage. Only one with a rougher (corky?) bark actually dropped foliage, interesting!
Thanks for the comments/compliments, I too hope those roots come through! It’s one of my faves this one, it’s an honest tree, I like that about it.

Thanks for the update. This is a very good progression showing what can be achieved over time with stock trees.
Many congratulations.

melbrackstone wrote:I've got so many contrary trees in my yard, some of my Chinese Elms are colouring up madly, and some are still very green.

I'll add an observation that only just caused the penny to drop for me this year regarding the colouring and dropping of leaves on a standard smooth-bark chinese elm.

I have a 30+ year old chinese elm which is in refinement.
This past growing season, the majority of the growth on the tree was held back with pinching to maintain the silhouette. Thus, in these majority areas, only the foliage from the first initial flush of spring growth was maintained on the tree. My elms always bud out in the last week of July, so the foliage in these areas is about 11 months old.

On several select branches/areas, I forced some new growth late in the growng season for various reasons of development. This growth was forced in these areas post-Xmas, which makes the foliage in these particular areas around 3-4 months old.

The contrast this autumn was unmistakable - the 11 month foliage all yellowed nicely and dropped, but the young post-Xmas foliage is still green and hanging on.
This observation was backed up by the elms in my adjacent grow-beds, which are all cuttings from this same 30+ year old tree - they were all fertilised heavily all season to force growth right up until April, and are all still green-as-green.

Maybe this foliage-age-dependancy only applies to the area I live in? I don't know, but it is very obvious this year.

Thanks for your input wrcmad. I can see how the fresher growth would not colour up so much, and I was wondering if that's one reason why my larger smooth barked CE was hanging onto its leaves, since I defoliated it in Summer, and then lightly root pruned it in May. It is hanging onto all of its leaves, with one or two turning purple, and that's it.

The corky bark trees I have are all hanging on, nice and green, but the seedlings I planted last Winter are the ones that are being variable. On closer inspection the ones that have coloured have smaller leaves, so I'm assuming that shibui sent me some seed from a Seiju as well as some from smooth bark Elms.... Is that correct Neil? (Or am I just being hopeful...)

Sorry for the hijack Ryceman, but you've gotta admit it's fascinating!

I am looking forward to seeing how you develop this particular tree, it does have nice lines.

Mel, I think I made my own bed for this tangent on topic when I said ...

Ryceman3 wrote:This tree grew on nicely over summer and once again refused to drop it's leaves this year, don't know if it had anything to do with the hot autumn but, in any case autumn colour was pitiful!

... so that's all good. I think wrcmad has a point, all my growth would have been from later in summer so may help explain the lack of autumnal glory! Something to keep in mind.

Thanks for your comment Watto, I'll keep at it!

Gave this elm a repot today also.
I have gone with a smaller pot and a new viewing angle - a change is as good as a holiday! It did well over Spring/Summer and I think the branching is on the road to ramification, all in all I'm happy with how it is travelling.

Well on the way!

Sweet little tree - I like it.

Real nice ! Good job


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And just to keep this progression up to date - I repotted the "bonus" trunk today. I noticed it was already budding out, as are a number of my Chinese Elms ... very early (usually I make it til August). Anyway, I thought I'd better get on with it.

Looking good mate