Rare Fall Color

For some reason my Chinese Elm has decent fall color this year. Most of my other elms just seemed to have lost their leaves .

Pot by Nick Lenz.

That's a fine elm, Rob. Nice work. Looks like you get about as much fall color as I do.

Zach

thanks Rob for sharing
a real natural tree, I love this style
regards
bigbabol

I love it Rob

Its my favourite elm

Great tree Rob!!!!

Have a great week!!!!
Sam

That's a beautiful Tree! I hope you'll post some pics of it nekkid.

Thanks, Rob! Very impressive tree!

By the way, this year for the first time ever for some reason one of my chinese elms turned red this Fall. Normally they keep their leaves intact without any coloration all winter long (in the basement). It is no way near the perfection of your tree, however the color is striking! Not to be taken as an attempt to steal your thread!

Cheers,

Andrei

Andrei Darusenkov wrote:Thanks, Rob! Very impressive tree!

By the way, this year for the first time ever for some reason one of my chinese elms turned red this Fall. Normally they keep their leaves intact without any coloration all winter long (in the basement). It is no way near the perfection of your tree, however the color is striking! Not to be taken as an attempt to steal your thread!

Cheers,

Andrei

Welcome aboard Andrei. US we say in the US, 'pile it on'.
Great color on your tree, wonder what caused that?

the first elm is simply stunning - by far the best i've seen a picture of..........the red one is just ???wow, very unique, could be caused by the feeding or potting soil - out of 100's if not 1000's of elms i've never seen one go red. Grreat to see though, thanks

marcus watts wrote:the red one is just ???wow, very unique, could be caused by the feeding or potting soil - out of 100's if not 1000's of elms i've never seen one go red.

Me neither, Marcus, that was the only reason I joined this thread. Actually, the tree had the same feeding and soil mix as everything else. With about 200 or so trees at various stages I only differentiate between acid lovers and other trees.... All other chinese elms are currently mostrly green or at best a bit yellowish...

The first elm is beautiful and has a very nice branch structure, but I can't stop thinking it would benefit from a little more irregularity in the foliage mass, especially the edges. It looks a little too "perfect" and manicured. Maybe that's just the photo or confusion from the background.

On Andrei's tree - are you sure that isn't a hawthorn masquerading as an elm? That's amazing color.

Chris

coh wrote:The first elm is beautiful and has a very nice branch structure, but I can't stop thinking it would benefit from a little more irregularity in the foliage mass, especially the edges. It looks a little too "perfect" and manicured.

be fair - there are 7 leaves in a couple of places on the lower right side that are a little out of place . I guess it depends on the other trees in a collection and the owners personal taste, but generally its very easy to get most trees to look irregular and it is far harder and takes a lot more patience and skill to create perfect and even branch structure - for me this is a briliant bonsai elm

regards Marcus

coh wrote:The first elm is beautiful and has a very nice branch structure, but I can't stop thinking it would benefit from a little more irregularity in the foliage mass, especially the edges. It looks a little too "perfect" and manicured. Maybe that's just the photo or confusion from the background.

On Andrei's tree - are you sure that isn't a hawthorn masquerading as an elm? That's amazing color.

Chris

Chris, life is full of surprises! But this is chinese elm without a slightest doubt.

ROB,,,Ireally like this elm..the branching is so good !! the one posted below yours is also a nice tree,,never seen a elm with that color... you have done good shaping your tree...take care john

ROB,,,Ireally like this elm..the branching is so good !! the one posted below yours is also a nice tree,,never seen a elm with that color... you have done good shaping your tree...take care john

We had a cold snap last night so I brought in this Elm and did a bit of trim. It's starting to bud out so it will get repotted tonight or tomorrow. Just an update shot of it naked.



Tried a shot with some experimental lighting.

I thought of this thread the other night when I went to check on my chi-elm in dormancy. I moved it to my unheated rental house while it still had many green leaves, it was slow to enter dormancy and slowed down even further once placed in my rental, yesterday (a month later) all the leaves were a lovely yellow. I wonder if better fall color is achieved with Chi-elms when the dormancy is allowed to set in slowly?

-Jay

That is a beautiful tree Rob!!!! Glad your plants are safe.

Happy New Year!!!
Sam

I know I was a little critical of the "perfect canopy" in an earlier post, but I have to say - this tree looks really good out of leaf! The overall branch structure (especially in the upper part of the tree) looks like something I could actually see in nature. Very well done...

Chris

I might actually steel that second picture with the backlighting and use it as my desktop background, I think thats a beautiful picture.

If you don't mind of course Rob.
-Jay

In terms of getting unusual fall color, I have a story. A couple years ago I inherited a large metal hoophouse that had thick white plastic, in october all of my maples were placed in it, quite soon all of them were bright red. About 2 months later the greenhouse was destroyed by a storm, and ever since my maples have had relatively ugly fall color. Does anyone know if the plastic could have caused that color, and do people ever use an artificial environment to stimulate good color before a bonsai show? we have the shows in the fall where im from.

coh wrote:I know I was a little critical of the "perfect canopy" in an earlier post, but I have to say - this tree looks really good out of leaf! The overall branch structure (especially in the upper part of the tree) looks like something I could actually see in nature. Very well done...

Chris

Thanks Chris, the goal from fairly modest starting material was to mimic a mature (not ancient) tree living in a meadow somewhere.
I try to prune the tree to keep all the foliage near the periphery of the canopy - that also adds to the look of maturity - and let the branches take a fractal pattern.
Usually it's clip and grow for this guy (after the initial wiring) but this year, in addition to thinning the branches and I used a bit of wire to make the selective compression work a bit better.

drgonzo wrote:I might actually steel that second picture with the backlighting and use it as my desktop background, I think thats a beautiful picture.

If you don't mind of course Rob.
-Jay

Go for it Jay. Enjoy.

bucknbonsai wrote:In terms of getting unusual fall color, I have a story. A couple years ago I inherited a large metal hoophouse that had thick white plastic, in october all of my maples were placed in it, quite soon all of them were bright red. About 2 months later the greenhouse was destroyed by a storm, and ever since my maples have had relatively ugly fall color. Does anyone know if the plastic could have caused that color, and do people ever use an artificial environment to stimulate good color before a bonsai show? we have the shows in the fall where im from.

This USDA web page has this description http://www.na.fs.fed.us/fhp/pubs/leaves/leaves.shtm

"A succession of warm, sunny days and cool, crisp but not freezing nights seems to bring about the most spectacular color displays. During these days, lots of sugars are produced in the leaf but the cool nights and the gradual closing of veins going into the leaf prevent these sugars from moving out. These conditions-lots of sugar and lots of light-spur production of the brilliant anthocyanin pigments, which tint reds, purples, and crimson. Because carotenoids are always present in leaves, the yellow and gold colors remain fairly constant from year to year. "
So it sounds like placing them in a greenhouse would encourage this environment - try it again some time and see if it repeats.

I have learned that the intensity of autumn coloring for deciduous species in northern climates depends on many factors, sunlight, temperature, watering and fertilizer practices.

However, it's interesting to see that certain trees generally have identical autumn coloring throughout their lives, but this too can change.

Attached are photos of one of my Chinese elm, Ulmus parvifolia, group plantings. Note that individual trees consistently have the same autumn coloring throughout the years.

Bill


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