Late Spring Pruning: Chinese Elm [Bonsai]

At our monthly bonsai club meeting, it was a bit more fun than usual. Most people's trees have been pushing out stems from their buds for about a month or more. So it was only natural that a few of us brought in a couple of our trees that we wanted to work on.

This Chinese Elm is my tree. I brought it in to practice pruning, because I felt that it looked like it was ready for a trim.

At our monthly meeting, it is also a good opportunity to seek advice from the more experienced senior members. I had a few trees that seemed to be lacking in health, so I brought them in also for inspection.

To restore the beauty of asymmetry to this young bonsai tree, it is easy from the top view to find parallel branches that seem peculiar. Also branches extending too perfectly in the same length and ending at the same point seems out of place. Such branches will eventually cross over one another, and compete for dominance. That is waste of the limited energy the tree has available.

Most of these branches will be trimmed down to be no longer than one or two sets of leaves away from the parent branch, forcing the stems to develop new buds before they can continue to extend. Buds will form new stems on the Chinese Elm into the same direction the leaf is pointing.

In the photo below, I opened up the space around a top branch that was showing signs of many buds that had not yet opened. My hope was that these buds might be reinvigorated to sprout after my light pruning is completed. This would be better than completely removing the entire branch.

It also had a branch criss-crossing into the shoots that were growing from the lower branch. You can see the cut mark facing the front where I decided to remove the branch. My cut was made to be as small as possible to prevent causing too much sap and water to seep out, as this would cause the nearby branches to dry out and possibly die, or further weaken the top branch with buds that I want to stimulate. In some cases, making a clean cut mark can stimulate nearby nodes.

With the good advice I received, we decided I will carve the top branch better in winter, when the tree becomes dormant. That way I can reduce the appearance of a fat stubby end. With a carved diagonal cut, I can accentuate the ideal curved edge according to the ideal branch width, so the branch taper flows in a more natural shape.

Quite a bit removed, but this was all new recent growth, and the entire summer is still ahead allowing the tree plenty of time to redevelop additional growth. The small pot bound roots can only support so many leaves, so in some cases reduction of foliage can actually trick the tree into a second or third budding stage. With fewer leaves to support, the roots will have a surplus of energy that can be channeled into making new leaves.

Once the leaves mature, they will be more important to maintain, as they will create food necessary to feed the living wood inside the tree.

Here, I show the final shape of the tree from the front. Many spaces are now opened up for better airflow, sunlight, and rainfall. Some extra buds, leaves, and stems were removed that were growing in the crevices between multiple branches. Crowded spaces will never be ideal for supporting beautiful, healthy branches. Now you can see the shape of the tree and branches, instead of the mess of young stems.

The canopy of the tree is starting to develop a more visible hedged shape. A full canopy is a stage of refinement this tree has not yet fully established in its juvenile age.

Thankfully, nobody at the meeting pointed out my poor wiring of the tree into the pot (see how it's wrapped around the outside?). We all enjoyed sharing, helping, and giving freely in any way we can. Encouragement when performing these delicate operations on these priceless trees is always paramount.

Photos in this post are all #originalworks by @creativetruth, unless stated otherwise.

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