AusBonsai

My new chinese elm. It arrived today, potted it straight up. I forgot to take a picture of the roots, but they are super healthy, lots of feeder roots. Going to give it a season to come to terms with being uprooted and potted up before styling I think, although as it is just budding up it might be worth a shot now?

Good stock, well selected. Give it time to recover is my suggestion.

Chinese Elms are pretty darn hardy, but if you've just taken it out of the ground, I wouldn't work on it for a while too.

Thanks for the replies. I'll definitely let it tick over for a season. It will give me time to deal with the tough decisions, be brave, cut low and start again or cut higher and manage the branches to get the desired shape.

GreenThumb wrote:Thanks for the replies. I'll definitely let it tick over for a season. It will give me time to deal with the tough decisions, be brave, cut low and start again or cut higher and manage the branches to get the desired shape.

they are hard decisions but this tree is a good place to start

Ken

GreenThumb wrote:It will give me time to deal with the tough decisions, be brave, cut low and start again or cut higher and manage the branches to get the desired shape.

I have a similar bare rooted ground grown elm I acquired recently. Longish trunk with some movement but not much taper and a few thick branches. I've stuck it in a grow box and plan to air layer off some of the more interesting sections on my way to reducing it down to the base from which I hope to build a decent tree eventually. I'd think about doing this, makes it easier to chop it down when your getting a few trees out of it.

You might consider taking one of the upper trunks off, so there is only one line going to the top. It's a nice fluid trunk, you wouldn't want it a lot thicker.

Gavin

Thanks for the suggestions, most appreciated. The two top branches are definitely going, I hadn't considered air layering, still new to the game and will read into it.

Cheers

J