Summer in your Winter. English Elm development.

[will baddeley]

I apologise to those who have seen this before (IBC members or those who have watched my blog). This Elm was collected from a building site in Suffolk (UK), back in 1999. It was planted in a large container for a couple of years but all of a sudden, one side started to die off. On inspection I discovered a huge amount of Vine Weevil feasting on the roots. This picture was taken shortly after that and the whole right side died. The dead bark was removed in the Summer and to my horror I had just 1" of live vein left.

[will baddeley]

The tree was already hollow but the outside of the deadwood was very boring. I decided to carve some interest in the deadwood. I firstly used a Makita to rough out. Then more detail was added with a Dremmel and finally the grain was picked out using a scalpel. This photo was taken in 2006.

[will baddeley]

Close up of the carving.

[will baddeley]

...and another. The deadwood was treated with a wet rot wood hardener and is a spirit based resin. This pic is how it looks today.

[Pup]

That is some very nice detail in the carving Will. The ulmus family in general are fun to work with, as they are so forgiving, and in Australia fast growers, well here in the West they are.

Thank you for posting Will Pup

[will baddeley]

This tree has always been slow to grow. For years I have been using organics like seaweed extract and fish emulsion. This pic was taken shortly before the Ginkgo awards in 2007.

[will baddeley]

Thanks Pup. I will post some updated pics when I finish off work.

[will baddeley]

January 2011 at the Noelanders Trophy in Belgium. I still wasn't happy with the branch development and ramification and had a word with some "West country boys" who grow a lot of deciduous trees with fantastic ram. It turned out they feed their trees EVERY watering.

[will baddeley]

Tree from the side at the same exhibition.

[will baddeley]

Two month into my feeding every watering regime and I have never had such vigorous growth. This is how it looked last weekend just before cutting back andleaf pruning

[will baddeley]

I left the leaves on the weaker and intenal shoots to get a little boost before the canopy fills in again. A little touch of Summer as you head towards Winter

[anttal63]

Love your work man !!! yes it is becoming more evident that feeding is king, not only for EE but many. Thanks for sharing these are the tid bits that make a difference!

[will baddeley]

Cheers Ant. No going back with the feeding now. Wish I'd known years ago.

[Pup]

Cheers Ant. No going back with the feeding now. Wish I'd known years ago.

Will, it has been out there, for as you now know, a long time. It is a failing of a lot of Bonsai growers. I advocate little and often not every watering though I must admit, once a week I find is enough for me.
I have friends whom, I am always badgering to fertilise more as they are very lax. Then they would have much better trees.
I say that it should not be hit and miss, it should be part of a regular routine.

I thank you for bringing to the attention of those that are slack.

Cheers Pup

[Ray M]

Hi Will,
Love the tree. It looks really nice. I think a lot of folk don't realize the importance of regular fertilizing. I was very interested that you fertilize at each watering. I don't do it that often. I have had interesting comments from students at the School of Bonsai how green my trees look. I have always believed that a regular fertilizing program is very important. With our trees being in pots they are constantly leached of nutrients.

Regards Ray