Help for a hopeless case

JD_Wolfe

Hello,

Attached is a picture of my ugly Chinese Elm at present and what I'm hoping to turn it into 10-15 years down the line. I'm not all that talented with PhotoShop so please don't laugh too hard.

The tree itself was butchered in some mallsai factory greenhouse and inherited by me as a gift. It has crossing branches, wheel-spoke branches, homely nebari, conflicting trunk-lines, wiring scars and deep scarring in multiple areas where the trunk was wrapped around a bamboo stick. I call it Frankenstein.

If nothing else I want to learn on this tree and make the best tree out of it I can. I'm not asking for miracles, just some thoughts.

Like, do you think this goal realizable ? Is it worth realizing? What could I do differently. (in referrence to the below pictured)

I know it's not the most interesting composition but I'm not all that experienced with bonsai or PhotoShop so I suppose my first efforts shouldn't be all that polished.

Thanks for taking the time to look this over and for those who choose to post, much thanks.

Regards,

Jeremy

Attached Images

	before.jpg (64.8 KB, 139 views)
	After.jpg (72.6 KB, 77 views)

Advertisement

RedPine

You could chop the trunk just above the first branch on the left there and grow the tree out into somethingworth more in the long run.

__________________
http://gongshi.freeforums.org/index.php

Asus101

would putting it in the ground for awhile help grow out the wire marks?

__________________
"All your pinus is belong to us!"

Shrunken heads for all occasions. Collect them, swap them, give them to your witch doctor friend.

imonetwo

That is a great looking trunk, I would remove all bar branches making sure that ones taken were mainly from inside curves,jin the ends of ones facing outward. Carve the trunk or branches to remove wire marks if they are too deep to grow out. Trim all roots from base of trunk down till acceptable nebari is found. Repot into larger but shallow pot and grow on for several years,any supplementary branches you need you can grow by continued pruning in that time.
You arent going to need many years to make it a great tree.
Regards
Eric

anttal63

im with red pine on this. i would also plant into big pot or box and lift the soil level higher to bury those roots in hope that if you let them run they will fuse into a big ass base. then develope some lateral flatter roots off the the bottom of the flare at a later date. this is of course if you want the best possible tree long term. otherwise there is a quicker way for a how do you do tree.

man i dig that axe.

__________________
Antonio . . .
------------------------------------
http://www.ausbonsai.com/forum/index.php (unlimited)

weeijk

I could and probably would agree with whats written above, but if you want there is another sollution. Just by clipping and growing see how this Ulmus P., which was looking rather the same as yours, is looking after 15 years........

Just to keep in mind

Wessel

Attached Images

ulme05.jpg (32.2 KB, 58 views)

__________________
Every tree can be a bonsai, but only some will be.

JD_Wolfe

Probably most of the them, but the damage from being wrapped around bamboo is severe and will likely never fully recover.

JD_Wolfe

The angle in the pictures is the one most forgiving of the trunks many flaws. If you look at it from the apex down it looks like a very severe figure-8 with deep gouges where the bamboo dug into trunk. I faced it this way because the S-curve, as I see it, is the only attractive part of this tree. In the virtual, the tree has been potted about 10-12 degrees to the right and the top third of the trunk has been lowered by about 5-8 degrees to create a little better continuation of the trunk line. The roots are quite long and I thought about taking advantage of this growth feature and doing a root-over-rock, but it has a large tap-like root running straight down making this option an unlikely one. Thanks for your response.

JD_Wolfe

Thanks for the response.

I've thought about doing just as you've said. I thought the poor thing had been through enough so I didn't want to hack it down and have it start all over it again, but in terms of making this tree "the best it can be" it's most likely the best course of action. I've glad you like the F. It's one of my more favourite things.