Zelcova Japanese Elm - Showing off a little

This zelcova japanese elm was picked up a few weeks ago from a nursery. It was root bound in a 4 inch pot and badly needed some maintenance.


As purchased in 4 inch pot. Total height was around 2 feet tall.


A detailed view of the tree's base. A root had grown over the top of the horizontal trunk area, but after cleaning out the roots and repositioning I was able to move it over to one side. I loved the compact shape of this trunk.


1 week after repotting, most of the leaves fell off leaving the new shoots behind. at this point i've trimmed about 20% of the tall shoots and a few lower branches that were cluttering up the core canopy area.


The previously pruned areas at 4 weeks post re-potting. New growth has sprung up everywhere, and new shoots are starting to take off.


Opposite side after pruning the remaining shoots. Total height is about 7 to 8 inches from the rim of the pot.


And with some perspective

Eventually the canopy should be a low dome shape, around 10 to 12 inches high and 10 inches across.

I think this piece has some good potential as a shohin. Here are my suggestions.

- Next spring (2012), repot it in a shallower but wider training pot. Try to retain laterally growing roots and remove any choking and most of the vertically growing roots.
- This year, refine your branches by selecting well positioned 'primary' branches.... Seems like the tree wants to be a broom, so select few branches growing in different directions. Avoid sharp 90 degree turns in your branches; I can spot atleast one from the picture.

Hi brycebertola,
I usually advise people to stay away from cheap pot bound plants.
Maybe you found the needle in the hay stack.

Mick

Hey suburbia, thanks for your advice. I have seen a lot of 90 degree bends in the branches and i have worked on reducing those. I just want to be cautious with whatever I do because this tree has a lot of potential and I have a tendency to want to do too much.

I agree that the tree has a nice broom shape already, and I've been training towards that. At this point I have removed around 30 to 40% of the interior branches that were clogging up the core canopy. I wanted to provide some room "for the birds to fly through".

I'll probably wait another couple of weeks before trimming again, in order to let the plant recover.

handy mick wrote:Hi brycebertola,
I usually advise people to stay away from cheap pot bound plants.
Maybe you found the needle in the hay stack.

Mick

Hello,

Perhaps I was wrong in my description of the plant as root-bound. The tree has some great character and I don't have a lot of space, therefore we were a perfect match.

Hi,

Are you sure this is a Zelkova? Kinda looks like a Chinese Elm to me. Have you thought about removing the root in red? It appears to cross that bigger root (?):




Sorry! The pic is smaller than I thought it would be!

I'm fairly certain that it's a Zelkova Japanese Elm, at least that's what the label said on the pot and I tend to take their word for it. Rookie mistake? I don't know (:

If you see in the original pictures that root was actually pulled all the way across the trunk. After I cleaned all the roots I repositioned it as much as I could without breaking it, and more adjustments will come soon. Did you suggest just cutting the root free?

I agree that it is probably Chinese elm, Ulmus parvifolia. Zelkova has longer pointed leaves with more prominent teeth. They don't call it Zelkova serrata for nothing. Don't always believe the label. Chinese elm is often mislabeled Zelkova to get around import regulations. Google on pictures of both species.
Never tolerate a strangler root. It has to go.
Iris

Ryan wrote:Hi,

Are you sure this is a Zelkova? Kinda looks like a Chinese Elm to me.

I agree that your tree is a Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia). The picture below is Zelkova serrata. Notice the difference in the leaf edges and how much more pointed the leaf end is.

Randy

Ryan,Iris & Randy are right take off the cross root and change the label nevertheless it's still a nice tree

Regards,
Alex

After your comments, and an hour of comparing searches on google images, I have determined my tree is no longer japanese...

Yesterday I cut the additional root free and pinched off some of the new buds from the side I cut earliest. It already looks like the freshly cut side is developing nicely, and I have positioned some braces between several branches in order to spread them further apart.

Hi,
this is a nire leaf, from my nire elm:





Tis is a cuting thar i made one year ago, before the original passed away:





Now is like this:

Its a Chinese Elm.

You're wrong.
For you if every elm is chinese...

Mine is a nire elm var corticosa.

I think "nire" is the Japanese term for elm : ニレ

Google "ニレ", select "images"...

as above - rui's tree is a chinese elm, although it may develop into a corky barked one, the original poster has a chinese elm as well -
this is my chinese elm - had it 19 years now.

Nice one Marcus.