AusBonsai

This Elm was defoliated just under 3 weeks ago due to finding a few Aphids, I treated with Pyrethrum then defoliated.
I lost a lot of the little branches cutting it back, but its alive. Sorry for the dodgy pics. This Elm doesn't know if its Autumn or Spring.

Would love to see the roots wrapping around that rock

Good to see it's come back well.

I noted something similar last autumn. Trident maples pruned hard late in autumn shot new leaves. They then held these fresh leaves through winter even though the rest of the trees lost leaves as normal. The leaves stayed on the trees all winter but the trees did not seem to suffer from the experience. Will be interested to see how your tree responds.

I got Elms in full Spring like flush here, Covered in New growth
Weird

With yours, I would be pruning the branches back to second leaf to start to develop ramification closer in. It looks like some of the twiggy bits are quite long and straight

Ken