Chinese elm - from rooted to root-connected
Posted: March 29th, 2020, 1:25 pm
I enjoyed pottering this morning. Some years ago, I purchased a Chinese Elm from a bonsai sales day - I think it was in 2016. To this day, I don't know why I purchased it - just to walk away with a plant, probably. It had terrible nebari - sort of a split root above the ground - which I may have thought was interesting at the time. It was also a one-sided tree. It didn't cost much - the pot was probably worth more than the tree.
Anyway.. in 2018...I decided to sh!t or get off the potty. I was never going to be happy with the tree. I decided to strip one side of the trunk and lay the tree down to see to if I could create something out of not much. Today, I decided to have look and conduct an Autumn repot. I wish I had a photo of the original tree but it seems not or I just cannot find it.
Anyway here are two pots (in August 2018) after the tree was laid down and some cutting taken too. Look carefully at the first photo - in the middle, a root cutting with no foliage - that makes a re-appreance with roots and leaves later. And the same pots as they were this morning too. And the photos below are what transpired earlier today. I am happy. No so much with the current layout - rather that I have learned to take something rooted (pardon the pun) and create a root-connected setting that I can now work with, enjoy and potentially make something interesting over time.
Much better than before. Of course, other thoughts welcome and the lesson is ... before you chuck out a tree or dismiss it altogether, make sure there aren't other options. Not much to lose and a lot to learn.
Below is the root cutting from the first photo in this thread.I nearly seperated this cutting to make a single tree... but in the end, I removed that fat root and added back to this setting.
PS - The rocks in the current photo are not part of any design - just holding parts of the tree in place.
PPS - And somewhat buoyed by the success of the root cutting ... why not bang in eight more with the left over root from this tree.
This won't be a group planting ... just an experiment, banged-in a pot before a storm hits Melbourne in about five minutes time!! If they take, I'll seperate them later and figure out what to do. What's to lose?
Anyway.. in 2018...I decided to sh!t or get off the potty. I was never going to be happy with the tree. I decided to strip one side of the trunk and lay the tree down to see to if I could create something out of not much. Today, I decided to have look and conduct an Autumn repot. I wish I had a photo of the original tree but it seems not or I just cannot find it.
Anyway here are two pots (in August 2018) after the tree was laid down and some cutting taken too. Look carefully at the first photo - in the middle, a root cutting with no foliage - that makes a re-appreance with roots and leaves later. And the same pots as they were this morning too. And the photos below are what transpired earlier today. I am happy. No so much with the current layout - rather that I have learned to take something rooted (pardon the pun) and create a root-connected setting that I can now work with, enjoy and potentially make something interesting over time.
Much better than before. Of course, other thoughts welcome and the lesson is ... before you chuck out a tree or dismiss it altogether, make sure there aren't other options. Not much to lose and a lot to learn.
Below is the root cutting from the first photo in this thread.I nearly seperated this cutting to make a single tree... but in the end, I removed that fat root and added back to this setting.
PS - The rocks in the current photo are not part of any design - just holding parts of the tree in place.
PPS - And somewhat buoyed by the success of the root cutting ... why not bang in eight more with the left over root from this tree.
This won't be a group planting ... just an experiment, banged-in a pot before a storm hits Melbourne in about five minutes time!! If they take, I'll seperate them later and figure out what to do. What's to lose?
