AusBonsai

Hi All,

So after recently getting my first Bonsai for Christmas I instantly got hooked and wanted some more.

I decided I wanted to get some younger, pre-bonsai, trees this time as I really want a long term project and I have a bit of a vision for these trees. Also, they were more in my budget and since they are my first Shimpaku Juniper and Chinese elm trees I thought if they died I would be less heartbroken than if they cost a lot of money.

So I thought I would start a bit of a progression thread and see how I go with these new trees, I was thinking of maybe repotting both into bigger pre-bonsai pots either this coming early spring or early spring 2021 but if anyone else has a bit of a better idea when I should re-pot then I am open to whatever is best for the trees.

I think the Shimpaku Juniper has potential as it has a good amount of foliage and a nice sway to it but I think the Chinese elm needs a bit of work since it doesn't have much foliage at the moment. I am open to suggestions though as to what everyone thinks could be a nice style to go for, I have a few ideas in mind but of course I am open to any and all suggestions.

With trees at this stage the world is your oyster. These can grow into almost anything. i think there's 2 possible approaches:
1. Grow the trunks then work out what to do afterward when the tree has some character and features.
2. Plan and grow the trunks to the plan, manipulating, cutting and influencing along the way to make sure you get what you set out for.

Chinese elm is a little more flexible in approach as you can grow the tree and know that you can cut it back at any time to any size and it will make new shoots that you can work with.
Shimpaku needs a little more planning as they don't always sprout on older, bare wood. Juniper wood gets quite stiff so if you plan to have bends and twists they need to be set when the tree is quite young or it gets really difficult.

Spring is a good time to repot both these species. At that time you can comb out the roots and rearrange or prune to start a good nebari.

Hi Alex,
Both good for starters. Chinese elm is great to use as is pretty easy to take care of and cuttings work at a high rate in my experience. Both are a must in collection imo . Most of my trees are informal upright but it really depends what you want. Its good to look at as many pics in books and videos on youtube to get ideas and inspiration and ofcourse from this great forum. Its always good to have a sacrifice brach and feed regularly for trunk thickness and make sure they get the water they need. Good luck.

Greg

Congratulation Alex on your new trees. they both look fine especially the juniper. if you know how to slip pot to a slightly bigger pot without disturbing the root too much, you will get more growth until spring.

shibui wrote: ↑January 18th, 2020, 10:16 pm With trees at this stage the world is your oyster. These can grow into almost anything. i think there's 2 possible approaches:
1. Grow the trunks then work out what to do afterward when the tree has some character and features.
2. Plan and grow the trunks to the plan, manipulating, cutting and influencing along the way to make sure you get what you set out for.

Chinese elm is a little more flexible in approach as you can grow the tree and know that you can cut it back at any time to any size and it will make new shoots that you can work with.
Shimpaku needs a little more planning as they don't always sprout on older, bare wood. Juniper wood gets quite stiff so if you plan to have bends and twists they need to be set when the tree is quite young or it gets really difficult.

Spring is a good time to repot both these species. At that time you can comb out the roots and rearrange or prune to start a good nebari.

Thanks for the, as usual, great advice shibui! I definitely have a plan for how I want both trees to look so I will probably start wiring mainly the Juniper later this year as I have heard it is good to wire them in winter when they don't grow as much so the trunks don't get scars. I picked out this Juniper because I liked the natural curve the trunk was growing so I want to work with that curve and accentuation it a bit more.

Greg F wrote: ↑January 18th, 2020, 10:22 pm Hi Alex,
Both good for starters. Chinese elm is great to use as is pretty easy to take care of and cuttings work at a high rate in my experience. Both are a must in collection imo . Most of my trees are informal upright but it really depends what you want. Its good to look at as many pics in books and videos on youtube to get ideas and inspiration and ofcourse from this great forum. Its always good to have a sacrifice brach and feed regularly for trunk thickness and make sure they get the water they need. Good luck.

Greg

Thanks Greg! I agree I think they are both excellent starter trees and I hope they will make some good long term projects. I am thinking for more of an informal upright design for the elm as well as I think a more classic look without too many twists and turns would look nice on it. I have cut the three branches towards the bottom of the trunk off to try and thicken the trunk and get more growth on top. However, I probably won't do any major trimming right now as I want to let it grow a bit more naturally right now. Do you have any photos of your elm that I could see for some inspiration?

bki wrote: ↑January 18th, 2020, 11:42 pm Congratulation Alex on your new trees. they both look fine especially the juniper. if you know how to slip pot to a slightly bigger pot without disturbing the root too much, you will get more growth until spring.

Thanks bki! I was thinking of repotting now but I might hold off until spring just so I can get use to how they grow and let the roots stay healthy through the winter.

I will use this thread as a progression thread and keep up some semi-regular updates on it.

Hi Alex here is a few of my chinese elms. Greg

Two of them are root on rock but not the best tree type for this as they dont have as many roots to grip the rock .

The tree in the middle in the last post with the gray rock has a sacrifice branche as you can see. It seems to be helping to thicken up the trunk much faster.
I have an older elm with a thick trunk and nice bark from Neil (shibui) but for some reason its not working and wont let me put any more pics up. The option of putting the pic in line doesnt come up like it did with the previous pics that i took at the same time.

Greg

Somehow got it to work. Im the worst with technology. This is the elm from Shibui, lots of branches to choose from and a nice trunk that is showing nice bark . I will show it after I choose the branches to keep and wire in the future.
Cheers
Greg

wont let me put any more pics up. The option of putting the pic in line doesnt come up like it did with the previous pics that i took at the same time.

That's usually because the file size is too big. Attachments need to be under 1Mb to load. You can also only load a certain number for each post but it's usually more than you put up last time.

Your trees seem to be doing quite well. You are already seeing that extra growth gives extra thickening but just be careful that your sacrifice branches grow from locations that are hidden if possible because when you cut those off there will be an ugly scar for a few years until it has a chance to heal over.
Looks like you have a couple of commercial looking S curve trunks. Trees are grown like this en masse because it is easy and quick to make, not because they are particularly attractive. If you have the choice of doing your own trunk shaping I'd try to avoid those lazy repeating bends. Bends that decrease in size and width definitely look a lot better and more abrupt bends also look more natural that the wide arcs found in commercial trees.
That larger elm is looking really healthy.

They are some really nice looking elms there GregF! I love the one with the big trunk it has a nice shape and very dense foilage which I'm a bit of a sucker for. I think I am going to go for a bit more of a straight trunk as I kind of like the simplicity of a straighter trunk, I have attached a photo of the kind of design I am going for. I quite like the simplicity of this tree and how the branches move, not sure where this one is from as I just found it online but I know it will probably take quite a long time to get to this point.

I will need my trunk to thicken up a fair bit before I'm happy with it but I know that is going to take a fair bit of time. Currently though I am mostly focusing on getting more foilage on the elm as I think it is lacking a bit right now so I am going to try and make the most of the rest of summer and hopefully get a decent amount of growth before winter. Then the plan is to slip pot it up to a slightly bigger pot size along with the Juniper.