English Elm initial styling

[pommie_mal]

G'day folks,
Been a while since I posted here, mainly due to a few health problems, although I do visit the site fairly often.
This is an English Elm I purchased 2 years ago as a bare-rooted, fieldgrown, pre-bonsai. It's spent the last 2 years in 100% DE to re-establish itself & seems to have re-covered quite well. I decided tonight was the night to do a major styling & after several hours of work I've ended up with this. This is my first attempt at a broom style bonsai & the end result is quite rudimentary but I'm hoping it will provide the basic structure for future development. I had originally chosen the second photo as the front but later chose to turn it 180 deg. The scar at the base will hopefully become a feature with a bit of carving (uro?). I'm hoping the second branch on the left will back-bud closer to the trunk & can be cut back & ramified with better taper.
Any & all criticism is very welcome.
Original tree as purchased

corky_elm1.JPG

Earlier tonight

100_0962.jpg

Several hours later

100_0967.jpg

[Dario]

Hi pommie_mal, hope you are over your health issues and good to see you posting again.
I think this tree could have a really bright future! Good on you for having a go at a broom style
I see that you are hoping the right trunk back buds to give you something to cut back to.
If it was my tree I would have cut back both trunks to induce back budding (which an EE should to) to then build a future branch structure from.
Please update this tree in the future.
Cheers, Dario.

[pommie_mal]

G'day Dario,
Thanks for the comments. I was thinking about cutting both main branches back but I'm not too sure how vigorous it will back-bud. This is my first English Elm so my knowledge & experience is pretty limited with this species. I would also like to pot it into a richer soil mix before spring & don't want to overstress the tree too much.
Mal.

[Dario]

Hi pommie_mal, it looks like you did a nice job getting it nice and healthy over the last two years. In my experience elms generally bud back pretty vigorously if they are healthy. I agree that there is no need to rush though, so if you prefer to wait and see how it responds and then cut back
Can you see many nodes or buds on the lower trunk sections?
They are a great species and I am collecting a couple at the end of the month.
Cheers, Dario.

[pommie_mal]

Yes there appears to be quite a few very small buds lower down the main branches but I might wait to see if any develop before cutting the branches back. I'll repot it this weekend then wait until Spring to see what happens.