Chinese Elm Broom

I got this tree back in january this year, since then ive been cleaning up the branch structure and re potted it about three weeks ago..





The roots needed some work as well



The back^




The roots needed some work as well.

and today in its new pot, some guide wire in place to position lower branching and a bit of wire here and there..

Nice improvement in branch placement and pot. I look forward to seeing it again.

Nice job, Bobby. It's always enjoyable to see good examples of Chinese Elms instead of the usual mallsai. Can you post a pic of it in full leaf later in the year please.

Hi peeps, Thanks
Yep, will keep the thread updated

nice progression, in good hands...

Excellent tree, and where you acquired it from is also an excellent person.

Thanks for sharing with us your work.

Keep us posted.

Any plans to improve nebari? It's already quite nice, but the work is never done, am I right?

Hi, Thanks folks, regarding the nebari....when the tree is growing strongly the plan is to use ground layering techniques to induce more roots radially around the tree, especially the back and parts of the sides. i also need to see how it heals and recovers from some root work i did already...

Quick update, one month after re potting, this one is a slow grower compared to my other Elms, it has an air of maturity about it i think...




Below you can see how many bits were removed to improve and clean up the structure, its responding well..




Will update again later in year..

Might kick off when more established in pot. Keep it growing...don't cut to fast.

It was a little pot bound when I got it, the roots were circling the pot, i think that may have caused the tree to lack some vigour, so yeh will let it just grow all summer now, its set up nicely for the future now so there wont be much need to do any hard pruning for a while..

An update on this tree a few months on, its grown well..

Have you pruned already?
I think the tree should have more leaves..

Hi Rui, i took that pic 15th sept, it dropped quite a few leaves some weeks ago and replaced them all, then i gave it a light prune....

Here it is again today, its actively growing..





The bark is flaking nicely now, im almost certain the nebari and trunk have become more swollen during this growing season.

Looks good.

Look much better now.

Lovely, you make it look simple!

Really starting to take on a nice profile!! Chinese Elms really can be a joy!

Cheers mate!!

Thanks for a close up of the crown.  I am starting to grow broom style trees and am wondering how to develop the branches that form the crown.  They must be of similar size and have breadth as well as height.  The pics help me see how this is done. 

Thanks 
Steve

Hi folks, thanks for the comments..

Steve, i didnt build this from scratch, i acquired it how it was in the first image on first page, all i did was bring back the tree that was hiding within and it has a bright future now. the branch structure would have been built primarily with clip and grow, i can see this from all the sharp changes of direction in a lot of the branches.
Ive just acquired a field elm/acer campestre that has a very similar trunk to this Elm and im going to develop it into a broom style tree using clip and grow while the branches are still young.

Clip and grow is great. I do it with my elms also. But I also wire the branches when young to get movement in the part I'm keeping. It's called baby bending.Just bending the first couple inches or so to get the branch going in the right direction then in a couple weeks the wire comes off. When the limb is the desired thickness I cut it back for taper. Then start the clip and grow. It looks like that was done to this tree also.
Remember. Wiring is a very large part of bonsai. I would have wired the branches that you have guy wires on. Put a couple more bends in them.
I can't post pictures here but there is one of my elms that I did this to on the Arbor Arts Collective blog.

Thanks M, i agree about putting a little movement in early before the clip and grow, im going to do it with a Field maple next season. the branches i guy wired on this tree are quite thick and course, i may not have gotten much movement in with wire for fear of snapping, but there are one or two thinner ones that i will asses over the winter.

If you see here M, the guy wired branches already have quite a lot of angular movement in them, wiring is a big part of bonsai, but sometimes i think it can be overdone also. when you use wire on deciduous you dont get the angular movement that you get with directional pruning or clip and grow. i actually tried wiring the tree at first but because a lot of the branches are angular it was hard to get the right flow with wire plus some branches were too thick. on this tree i only used a little wire here and there to bring branches into different places, but not so much to shape them.

very nice... love the trunk !

You are correct. And whichever way you are using to shape it is working. I just use wire on the base of the branches to get them heading in the right direction when they first start to grow. Then use clip and grow to get abrupt angle changes like you do. So it seems we are not too far apart in how to shape one of these.