Styling advice No. 1 Chinese Elm

[Pandu]

Good afternoon all,
Just wanted to get some styling advice on the below elm, I had purchased it just recently from a place that had heaps of neglected stock.
I also had to trim it slightly to fit it in my car as it was double the height.

DSC00886.jpg

DSC00887.jpg

Look forward to your comments and advice.
I'll be posting a few more topics as I have more!

Cheers,
Pandu

[rowan]

It is a bit hard to give advice with the photos you have put up. When you have some more time try to get a couple of 'straight on' pics.
The good thing about chinese elms is that you can do just about anything you like with them. They are so tough and forgiving and they put out lots of shoots everywhere so if you decide to change the styling you just pick new shoots for branches.
I think you should draw the tree on a piece of paper and decide where you want to go with it, then just do it. If you make a mistake, you can usually easily fix it later.

[Handy Mick]

Hi Pandu,
To answer we need an answer from you,
1) why did you buy this tree?
2) what do you see it?

Mick

[Pandu]

Hi guys,
Yeah will have to upload a better pic, straight on.
Sorry about the quality of the photo's too, my camera is 24MP so the smallest setting is 8MP.
I had to reduce the quality/size to fit it on the website (very hard to do on a mac)

Mick thats a good question, I purchased for a bargain! about $30..
I have another elm which is no where near the size/age of this one so I thought it would be great to work on.
Not sure what to do with it at this stage, the leaves are coming out now so i'll try to wire it over the next few days.

Will try to upload another pic (straight on) soon, thanks again.

Cheers
Pandu

[Handy Mick]

Pandu,
It's only a bargain if you need it or its worth more than you payed.
Just remember, bargain piles exist because no one else wants them, yes you can find a bargain in them, but that's because you see something in the tree that no one else has.
With this tree I honestly don't see anything, I would hard cut and plant in the garden somewhere.
Sorry about that, but don't buy bargains with no vision.


Mick

[GavinG]

I think you're asking what bonsai is, because you want to make one.

A tree needs to come out of the ground strongly, so you look to see where the strong roots are, and maybe lean the trunk away from them.

The trunk then needs to do something interesting. It can bend at different angles, sweep smoothly, twist, taper, split or decay. You have to choose. An easy way with an elm is to cut it lowish, plant it at an angle, feed it heavily, and keep doing that each year for ten years or so. Then your trunk may become complex and interesting. With a bit of luck and careful choice. Take your time.

Along the way, branches will grow - you choose the ones that balance with the angles in the trunk, maybe bend them to make them more interesting. You leave other branches to make the trunk fat, and cut them completely off later.

You can buy trees that someone has started for you - if you do, look for a trunk that is interesting - one that bends, twists tapers and so on.

Gavin

[shibui]

I agree with others - difficult to give advice because we cannot see details of roots, trunk, movement very well.
Like Mick, I cannot see a bonsai in the little that I can see but this is an elm so it will develop quickly into something better if you grow it well.
To me it seems very tall and thin and branches are long and straight with little taper. I'd cut it back hard now and let it shoot again to get some taper and a better thickness to height ratio.
I think I also see long, thick roots circling the trunk. Now, as its shooting, would be a good time to repot and cut these back hard to get it to shoot new roots closer to the trunk.

It will develop into something worthwhile but may take some time.