English elm raft au naturale.

[Glenn C]

It worked Grant, I think you have shown me the reason for my first and 2nd trip to the NBPCA between now and next August.
I hope others new to bonsai get the same message, that tree is magnificent.

[Gary Bee]

That is just phenomenal, Grant.
We all share your excitement with such a tree.
It is also an excellent photo.

What makes it special is the striking base, the uniform thickness of the trunks, as though it had been originally cut right back to the roots and all started at the same point in time.The Ramification, thanks to the great photo leads the eye beyond the tips, deep into the canopy and to me, I can see what appears to be past seasons clipping layers uniformly over the whole canopy. To top it off you say it is 1.25metres in breadth! Crikey!

I would suggest only a committed master could painstakingly develop such a tree, Don't you think?

Well worthy of a place in our national collection, Are there better trees out there Grant?

What a proud job you have?

Phenomenol!

Gary

[Taffy]

That is one awesome setting. Going to be interesting to see how you can improve on it.

[aaron_tas]

AWESOME SPECIMEN

thanks for sharing, this tree evokes my imagination and is now my insparation for one of my english elms... not that that one is raft at all...

[Grant Bowie]

I am glad this tree has excited a few people out there.

You can understand why the major shows in japan are in winter.

Grant

[NBPCA]

Hi all,

Here is a photo of the tree in foliage. This was taken today just after lunch. We will now defoliate and look at its structure and how we can refine it with the artist in mind.

Ulmus Procera2 - QV - 2010-11-9 - resized.jpg

Leigh.

[NBPCA]

Ulmus procera 2 002.JPG

Ulmus procera 2 004.JPG

Ulmus procera 2 003.JPG

[bodhidharma]

As Grant stated earlier, you can see why the Japanese shows are with the trees naked. An inspiring raft with its leaves on but without, stunning. You must have had to spend some time grooming the tree before that shot, not a leaf out of place I would imagine you are stripping the leaves with your fingers as it would take days any other way?

[NBPCA]

Ulmus procera 2 005.JPG

Ulmus procera 2 007.JPG

Ulmus procera 2 011.JPG

Yes the owner said that this particular specimen is easy to hand defoliate. He asked us to defoliate it once this year but I suggested that as it had already stopped growing after spring growth and then a cold snap; it was already budding again for a second growth, so we could do a defoliate, trim, thin, delump and sculpt.

It should only take us 3 or 4 full days to do a complete job!

Grant

[NBPCA]

040.JPG

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[Matthew]

without a doudt the finest english elm i have seen. I had the pleasure of quickly seeing it in person and its not untill you set eyes on it just how amazing this tree is

[soda]

Wow this is amazing Grant.

Any chance you could post a brief precis of a year calander to develop elms. i.e. best months to defoliate (2?) etc.

[Graeme]

An amazing tree, as good as any of this species that I have seen in magazines. From where was it dug up Grant?

From the Gippsland area of Victoria.

What an outstanding tree this is, the one exception to English Elm. Until this one I have never seen an English Elm I could say I really liked, but this one really has WOW factor plus.

I also note with interest the origins of this tree. While not taking one tiny fraction of anything away from the owner of this marvelous tree, or their 22 years of work, I have seen a number of trees that originated from the Gippsland district which display this level of ramification. Trees include Pines, Hawthorn, Privet and many others. I believe it is the direct result of "Trimming by Bovine", which makes a great start to any Bonsai.

Now, if the owner of this one tires of it and you have no further space in the collection Grant I shall forward you my address. I would of course be most prepared to pay any and all freight costs to get it up here. And Leigh, I reckon you should go make a cuppa and have a good sit down after that effort.

[Mitchell]

Spent some time in photoshop with this amazing tree. Blotted the rest of the backdrop out and the block (?) under the trunk, sharpened, selected luminance enhancement, saturation and contrast. Few other little things.

That trunk is crazy.

[Grant Bowie]

An amazing tree, as good as any of this species that I have seen in magazines. From where was it dug up Grant?

From the Gippsland area of Victoria.

What an outstanding tree this is, the one exception to English Elm. Until this one I have never seen an English Elm I could say I really liked, but this one really has WOW factor plus.

I also note with interest the origins of this tree. While not taking one tiny fraction of anything away from the owner of this marvelous tree, or their 22 years of work, I have seen a number of trees that originated from the Gippsland district which display this level of ramification. Trees include Pines, Hawthorn, Privet and many others. I believe it is the direct result of "Trimming by Bovine", which makes a great start to any Bonsai.

Hi all,

I spoke with a person who helped dig this tree up 22 years ago and it certainly must have come from a paddock where it had been eaten, beaten, trampled and maybe even run over by agricultural machinery. The trunk could have been a sucker (English elms send out lots of sideways suckers if damaged/bulldozed etc) that has rotted out and regrown. Anyhow it is a great tree and a delight to work with.

Despite a great start it is still up to the artist to bring the best out of the material; even sometimes decisive inactivity!

Grant