It is not very often that you get the opportunity to dig Zelcova in Australia, so when the chance arrived I grabbed it with both hands.

I had in mind a clasical Zelcova broom in a handmade Japanese pot etc etc. What I had in mind and what reality was were very different things. However a dig of Zelcova is still exciting and this is the result.

There were a number of Zelcova seedlings that were growing under a Zelcova that was grown as a garden tree and the owner did not want them. However when I went to get them they had been cut down (trimmed) a number of times over previous years and were not in the classical shape of a broom style.

But a free Zelcova or three is a good day of digging and so home came a small number of trees that were quite different. This one had a few trims with the secateurs but was still quite tall and without much shape. 

This is about two years after it was dug

After it was potted it was about 70cm tall and stayed in the training pot for about two years. The above photo was taken in August 2010 and it was planted into its first bonsai pot then.

Trimmed and potted

It was left to grow over the next couple of years but it was also trimmed to keep it to the size I wanted the final product to be.

May 2011

In 2011, I thought this was a better “front” for the potential bonsai and so that year I changed the viewing side.

August 2014

By 2014 the ramification had improved and it was time for another pot. The new pot was a hand made one off pot made by Australian potter Penny Davis (of Mudlark Pottery) and the size is a much better match for the size of the tree. The bonsai will be further refined and the height reduced a little bit over the coming years.

Repotted August 2014