AusBonsai

I bought this elm last Sunday at Bonsai By The Harbour.
It didn’t get a bid at $30 and after the auction I bought it for $20
I thought the Korean pot was worth that, I think an azalea will look good in it.
Now the elm is more of a challenge, with most of it is dead wood.
There has to be a bonsai in it somewhere. The good thing about a project like this is that you can’t lose much!

Howdy,
Put the tree in a bigger pot and feed hard in the spring. Only allow 2 leaves on any branch until it starts to shoot from lower down the straight trunk. Then let the new low branches get big and long. Don't worry about the dead wood, you need more trunk taper. If you are not in a bonsai club, I suggest you join as you will find so much knowledge just waiting to be passed on.
Happy bonsai,
Bruce.

I agree, planting into a bigger pot should help.

I started work on the elm; I could not see point in waiting till spring, as I would be to busy repotting and trimming.
There wasn’t any root system under the trunk, they were growing at each end of the big T-bar roots.
One was cut off while carving the trunk, allowing the trunk to be tilted.

a lot more interesting now!
going to be fun seeing how this develops over summer.

Ken