Siberian Elm Development

I received this tree as a gift about 5 years ago. Believe it or not, and I know you do, I have been calling this an American elm ever since, until I was corrected by Mark Rockwell on bonsaiTALK. It just never occurred to me to look it up online and be certain of the variety. For the record, it is a Siberian elm (ulmus pumila).

Its development has been arrested, as have most of my trees, by my move in 2005 and travel in 2006. This year I am home and working on it regularly. There is no photo of it as received. At the time, it had a tremendous ramification, but it was styled in a pine tree style, with pointed jins at the top, much like Goshin. I felt this was inappropriate and began reworking the style as a deciduous tree. I carved out the jins to make them more like hollows.

Another major flaw was its nebari. The previous owner had grafted roots around one side, which never really integrated with the tree. The root mass held it too high out of the pot, and at an angle the reverse of what it should have been, if it were to be planted at an angle.

I did like its strong, rugged bark as well as the price.



The second photo is the desired planting angle. I air layered the tree by cutting a groove around the trunk and twisting a wire as a tourniquet into the groove. The following spring I separated the layer.

The next photo is the tree in March of 2007, prior to pruning and wiring, and the one below that is partially wired.



This is the tree as of yesterday. It has grown very well due to a great deal of fertilizer, as well as full sun and heavy watering. I defoliated the tree to wire new shoots, prune, get rid of some pesky caterpillars, and induce more ramification.



Now I am in the process of wiring and arranging the new shoots, and pruning back at the same time to provide the shape desired. I will post updates as the leaves come back in.