Neglected Chinese Elm
Posted: December 21st, 2014, 9:31 pm
Hi all,
I had not kept a photographic history of my trees in the past, but since joining this forum I have been inspired to do so. The development and changes time can bring can be really surprising.
So, here goes my first progression....
This tree has a lot of sentimental value to me, for reasons I wont bore you with. However, I sowed the seed myself in 1987, and it has lived in a pot ever since (except when it thought it had escaped through the drainage holes on numerous occasions). The tree has been in and out of my possession a few times over the years, and has been very neglected over that time. In 27 years it had two trunk chops, and not much TLC. This year I happened to notice some potential in it, so I thought I'd pull my finger out and make something of it.
This tree in June 2014 - very sparse. I Chopped almost everything to start with a bare trunk for spring, keeping only a stump for the first branch, and the sacraficial whip to thicken the last of the trunk to the apex. The red lines indicate the cuts.
By September, I had selected nearly all of the branches from a profusion of budding.
By October, all branches had been selected (leaving a few extras just in case). But I had no luck with bud placement for the first rear branch, so decided to attempt an approach graft using a whip from the a bottom branch.
Today, I had time to start refinement pruning. Here is the before shot:
And After:
I am amazed how much growth this tree has put on in only around 6 months! To give an idea of what is possible in a pot (with a lot of feeding), I have a couple more pics. The first is the sacrifice branch, which has grown from a bud to around 20mm diameter in about 6 months. The second pic shows the first branch with a diameter of around 10mm from a bud in the same time:
Cheers
I had not kept a photographic history of my trees in the past, but since joining this forum I have been inspired to do so. The development and changes time can bring can be really surprising.
So, here goes my first progression....
This tree has a lot of sentimental value to me, for reasons I wont bore you with. However, I sowed the seed myself in 1987, and it has lived in a pot ever since (except when it thought it had escaped through the drainage holes on numerous occasions). The tree has been in and out of my possession a few times over the years, and has been very neglected over that time. In 27 years it had two trunk chops, and not much TLC. This year I happened to notice some potential in it, so I thought I'd pull my finger out and make something of it.
This tree in June 2014 - very sparse. I Chopped almost everything to start with a bare trunk for spring, keeping only a stump for the first branch, and the sacraficial whip to thicken the last of the trunk to the apex. The red lines indicate the cuts.
By September, I had selected nearly all of the branches from a profusion of budding.
By October, all branches had been selected (leaving a few extras just in case). But I had no luck with bud placement for the first rear branch, so decided to attempt an approach graft using a whip from the a bottom branch.
Today, I had time to start refinement pruning. Here is the before shot:
And After:
I am amazed how much growth this tree has put on in only around 6 months! To give an idea of what is possible in a pot (with a lot of feeding), I have a couple more pics. The first is the sacrifice branch, which has grown from a bud to around 20mm diameter in about 6 months. The second pic shows the first branch with a diameter of around 10mm from a bud in the same time:
Cheers
