AusBonsai

I have too many trees but when a dig is organised I usually go along for the social aspect, you know just to be sociable. However sometimes I can't resist and that was the case today.
The dig was actually about English elms but there was a few Chinese elms there and one took my fancy and this is the result.
There is a few years of work needed but the general rule of " don't dig straight stuff was applied" and this is the result. A couple of cut backs and maybe a little carving might result in a decent tree.

Good result Watto. Finding trunks that are NOT straight in feral or wild grown trees is not easy.
No scale in the photos so how thick is the trunk?

It was a fantastic day out Watto. I'm really happy with my couple of English elms. The best part of the day was the hawthorn's. Photos to come

The trunk is about 125mm wide and I was happy to find it.
I would like to thank the person who invented reciprocating saws because the root trimming would have been very difficult without one. Those roots are from 35mm to 65mm in width, far too time consuming for an old bloke without mechanical assistance.

Where are those promised photos Keels?
I want to see how your English elm looks potted up.

Watto wrote: ↑August 15th, 2022, 4:58 pm Where are those promised photos Keels?
I want to see how your English elm looks potted up.

As promised, here are my trees from Saturday's dig.

This is the best english elm I dug on the day. It's a big tree and had three massive roots. It's pretty much a sucker that joined to a full size tree. I removed one big root and reduced the others. I'm confident it'll survive. I'll reduce the roots over time. This was the second best elm dug on the day, wattos elm was by far the best. The second English elm is another root sucker and much smaller. It has a little movement but hard to see from the photos. It will make a nice small tree over time.it has this odd bark on the branches. Third tree is a hawthorn. I really like this tree and the moment is nice. It also has a nice root flare which is a rare find since I started digging hawthorn's. I'll expose the flare over time as it recovers. I had to cross a swamp to get to the tree but I think it was worth it.
I dug another two smaller hawthorn's but I haven't potted them up yet. I'll do that tonight and post at a later date. It was a fun day out digging trees.

The so called odd bark is just the start of the corky bark that will eventually cover all but the newest branches.

Root system will be a challenge but it will be a good long term project,

Grant

Winged bark is a common feature on English elms. Usually only on the smaller branches so I guess it falls off as the branches grow thicker but will still be on newer shoots.

Good stuff Keels. Movement in the trunks in paramount when digging .
Its always good to get a hawthorn or two

My "offsider" found some Chinese (?) elms with good flat roots growing on a concrete base (old drain?) so now he has some larger ones to plant as full size trees and I scored some for a small forest (one that I may be able to lift!). Jan

They've pushed out lots of new growth and been trimmed back for new shoots to start building better branching. Elms are tough!