Chinese Elm Root Over Rock

[jonathanv]

Hello Everybody

I bought this Elm off of Gumtree about 9 months ago: $70 or so I paid for it (I don't mind talking price when it's not a large sum )

The fella I bought it from had no interest in bonsai and purchased it on a whim, said it came from a bonsai man down Margaret River way that was closing up shop.

Almost immediately I re-potted the tree vertically, I thought that the leaning angle was ridiculous!! It had a really nice root system that I should of pruned but did not want to stress the tree too much. Its a big pot so there's plenty of room for roots to grow

Anyways, I think the last owner had it for 1.5 years and would just chop away at the canopy in any random way he thought was nice. It looked very pancake like, almost like an umbrella, I don't think it suited the tree so I defoliated it and performed some minor surgery (split a branch) and wired pretty heavily to create a new apex. The only photo I have of the new style is when I was taking a shot of an accent plant.

I'll take some photos tonight after work to show you guys how its looking now

Its not a very great example of a bonsai but I really like the tree. I think that it will look better in an unglazed round pot

I'll see how this growing season goes and might cut it back to nothing this fall

Any comments/suggestions are appreciated!! Look out for more photos tomorrow!!

[Raging Bull]

Hi Jonathan, I'm pretty new at this bonsai stuff myself, so don't take what I say as Gospel. I would feed it up to fatten the trunk during this growing season and not prune it at all. When it's lost most of the leaves next winter I would trunk chop it down to half- 1/3rd of the trunk. The best feature of the tree is the root over rock, so grow a new top for the tree and style it how you want it to look. It will take a few years, but then you will have a really nice ROR tree.
Cheers, Frank.

[jonathanv]

Well I took a few photos last night. I have not had much time to think about what to do but I'm pretty sure a major trim is in the cards. The canopy is not in proportion to the trunk and the shape needs direction

[Ryceman3]

I really like the root spread over the rock, they are hugging it pretty nicely from what I can see, which isn’t always the case with ROR. Not sure about the canopy, it needs to be thinned out and opened up to really get an idea about what is happening there, but it may be a moot point anyway. For me the trunk is the thing holding this tree back, good bonsai have movement and taper and unfortunately I think the trunk as it is lacks these.
BUT, that base deserves a top to match, so I would love to see a trunk chop which resulted in creating a new leader, growing with a change in angle to add interest and then chopped back down the track to again create a further angle change and just as importantly some taper. Chinese elm is a great species to achieve this, there’s plenty of potential in your tree, but maybe not an instant bonsai unfortunately. As always - the covenant :

Hope I haven’t taken the wind from your sales... I do think it has merit and potential, just a few years of work. (Essentially I agree with Frank)

[jonathanv]

I really like the root spread over the rock, they are hugging it pretty nicely from what I can see, which isn’t always the case with ROR. Not sure about the canopy, it needs to be thinned out and opened up to really get an idea about what is happening there, but it may be a moot point anyway. For me the trunk is the thing holding this tree back, good bonsai have movement and taper and unfortunately I think the trunk as it is lacks these.
BUT, that base deserves a top to match, so I would love to see a trunk chop which resulted in creating a new leader, growing with a change in angle to add interest and then chopped back down the track to again create a further angle change and just as importantly some taper. Chinese elm is a great species to achieve this, there’s plenty of potential in your tree, but maybe not an instant bonsai unfortunately. As always - the covenant :

Hope I haven’t taken the wind from your sales... I do think it has merit and potential, just a few years of work. (Essentially I agree with Frank)

Thanks for your honest advice!! So true that the roots are the hero of the tree, they have really become one with the rock. I am unsatisfied with the trunk and I think that an extreme chop is in the future.