Hay everyone, just wanted to post a update on my Chinese Elm.
I’m having a little difficulty trying to decide how to progress with the shape and style as it has a big dead terminus when I got it, (Asda reject reduced to clear),
Thought it was worth a try to save the poor thing.
First thing I did was a repot out of the horrible coir compacted soil stuff they put them in into some bonsai soil, then cleaned off all the dry crispy leaves, hence the branches that are only just recovering now with lots of back buds.
I got it back in February so it had been kept indoors until about a week ago when the weather started to get nicer ( I’m south UK) and less frosts, hopefully it will be able to stay outside soon.
I have also had to re-pot again as the aforementioned bonsai soil I brought was retaining far to much water and staying wet for days from just 1 watering, it is now in akedama and lava rock mix, and doing so much better
I suggest just letting it grow and gain strength this year based upon what you said about the state when you got it. You may even get some more shoots which could lead to other design options that you can’t see today. A good rule of thumb is one major insult per growing season. The repot was this year’s.
Hi Andrew, just to give you a few ideas to think about concerning design options. If you want to keep the long (aerial?) roots you could consider finding a nice stone to fit in between to create a root-over-rock style.
There’s also the option of a much higher root base. If you would want to go for that you could already create a mesh around the current roots, make small incisions in places where you want new roots to grow, and fill it with small particle size akadama or good potting soil with for example cocopeat (the main idea is that it remains moist). I have good experience with stimulating new root growth with Chinese elms in this way. In a year you could check if it worked and if so cut back the aerial roots. I’ve added a rough sketch to give an idea of what direction this would take you, with the red line indicating where you could cut back to in the future when you have new root growth above that line.
