| Yorkshire Bonsai Association |
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| Work in Progress |
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| Chinese Elm (Ulmus Parvifolia) |
| 2001 The tree shortly after I acquired it. I was first drawn to the quality of the bark and the trunk line. Although the tree did have some problems, there was nothing that could not be corrected. The top dressing of academe covered up one of the main problem areas. The tree had not been reputed for years, and the tree was starting to show signs of ill health because of this. The tree was growing peat & grit, and around the trunk was still the clay that the tree was planted into when it was first imported. The drainage holes had filled with old roots trapping even more water into what was a poor draining soil mix to begin with. The soil surface and the lower trunk had become very slimy and the roots and bark around the base of were beginning to rot.The foliage was beginning to yellow and some of the branches were getting weak. At this point I wondered why I had bought the tree in the first place. |
| Gary Evans |
| Summer 2002, The repotting in the spring had worked wonders to the health of the tree. It was now growing in my then normal mix for deciduas trees of equal parts of sieved peat, biosorb & pumice. The rotting roots had all been removed along with as much of the Chinese clay I dared to wash off. The tree still had lots of crossing & badly arranged roots, but this could wait until the future, the important thing is the tree was starting to recover. Once the tree was starting to show signs of new growth it was heavily feed with high nitrogen feed to kick start the foliage into budding. The main back branch was still very weak but it was starting to put out new buds. Still a few crossing branches and the fine twigs were very long and straight, but I did not want to remove them at this point as they would help to feed the tree. At least it was now green. |
| Summer 2004 By the end of 2002 the tree was healthy and growing strongly, time to start work on the branches. All the crossing branches had been removed and some of the longer twigs cut back. The spring of 2003 the buds popped out all over the tree and the remaining long straight twigs were removed, but apart from heavy feeding the elm was left alone for the year. In February of 2004 the tree was again repotted. Very little root was removed but it gave me a chance to see how things were going under the soil and to remove uncross and tie down the ugly roots at the right hand side. The potting mix used was 2 parts akadama, 1 part pumice, 1 part kanuma, 1 part Kyodama. In August the tree was fully wired and styled, the apex was thinned out and moved to the left to continue the curves of the trunk line. |
| The future There are still some very ugly roots at the back, but when the tree is next repoted in 2006/7 they can be removed or corrected. By then the tree will have filled out and will need refining, but it is now on it's way to been a fine looking Bonsai. I can now see why I got the thing in the first place. |
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| Winter 2004 / 05 The tree as it looked after it was given a tidy up and displayed for the first time at a YBA meeting for a winter image display. |