Hello! I'm pretty new to bonsai and after my JBP died, I did more research on proper care, and went grabbed some more, including this chinese juniper, along with chinese elm and larch.

Today I decided to give it a good clean up as it's pretty overgrown (first image), it's my first time to actually practice big pruning like this, other than a bit of a clip on the elm.

Here are my questions:
1. Am I cutting off too much foliage? I know many people say do not cut off more than 50% of the overall mass, so I'm a bit concerned.
2. Is it the right move to leave the remaining foliages long like this? I'm a bit scared to cut it back further, and maybe leave it that way will thicken the branches a bit overtime?
3. How to move forward in terms of styling, initially I was thinking going towards cascade or semi cascade, but after pruning, I'm not really sure anymore. I do have aluminum wires in different thicknesses, but I'm trying to get an idea first before wiring it up.

Please share your thoughts, thanks for reading.

so this was last year, but as I haven't posted in ages, I thought I would share this tree too. I'm trying to get the branches and foliage more compact as this is a fairly small tree.. like the lower end of shohin. And I'm trying to get the apex not to be just a whirl of too thick branches.. when growing season gets going, I'll post more recent photos... 

I like the development of the mother tree.

Trunk thickening comes wit foliage mass. Pruning always slow down thickening.

Yes, it is ok to let the tree shed all leafs in winter. It is a decidious tree after all.

The top of the soil looks better, I did notice that you had removed the moss. You don't have to remove a great deal of foliage, just rim to a shape that you like, it will grow back all over Chinese Elm is very vigorous.

m5eaygeoff wrote:

Chinese Elms are hardy, they are fine during the spring summer, but trying to keep them alive in winter is almost impossible.

I find chinese elms very easy to overwinter. 6 weeks below minus 10c was no problem. They are decidious, with a odd habit to keep the foliage all the way until late winter. Many people think that they have killed their tree when they shed all of it within a few weeks in february or march. But just waiting a few weeks and they sprout out like crazy.

My chinese elm is keeping most of its foliage all the way until early spring. Then it just shed all of it one week before new buds apears. Maybe they react different in other climates.

If it was my tree in my conditions I would strongly suspect it was dead.

This tree needs to put on a lot more foliage before it can be worked on.

If it is back to full vigour late winter or early spring, I would cut the two branches growing in the in curve of the trunk. I like down growing branches, but yours is growing a little bit too much down in my opinion. That can be corrected with wire or possibly by changing angle of the tree when repotting. I would not cut that branch. But in any case, I would not correct anything for quite a while. Earlies in late winter 2022, but possibly late winter 2023. Bonsai is a maraton not a sprint.

Hi, This is ChineseElm! I wanted some help with my pre-bonsai. I purchased this 3-4 days ago (It's a Chinese elm) and it looks pretty nice. Maybe not that much foliage though. I live in AZ, and I need some help. It looks like it came in an organic-heavy bonsai soil mix. When should I repot it? When to prune it? I also noticed that the lowest branch is going downwards. Any advice on when to cut it?

Thanks
Chinese Elm

Image attached below

You seem to have a slight fungal infection on the leaves. This would fit the small holes and brown tips. Do the holes start as small dry spots in the leave, which then break open and increase in size?

Can you keep the foliage drier?

It is not from sunburn.

Overall the plant does not give a healthy impression. Has it been growing well? I do not see any fresh foliage.
It could be that it is just the old foliage dropping. But it could be roots too.

If you see you fertilize twice a month.. Do this only if you actually see the tree growing.

Dear All,

My name is Richard Kogima and I am a Brazilian pianist currently living in Zurich, Switzerland. I bought my Chinese Elm in November and have kept him indoors ever since, with a growing light, at a temperature of 20-22 degrees on a south facing window, and fed him once a month, at the instruction of the personell from the store where I got it.

Now at Spring, temperatures outside are around 20-24 degrees during the day, but fall to 6-12 degrees during the night.

I brought my Bonsai outside, but have been experiencing some yellow leaves, although there are lots of new buds and new leaves. Some of the new leaves don’t manage to grow to full stature, but turn yellow and fall.

Are the nights still too cold for the bonsai to be outside?

Since it has been indoors always at 22 degrees, could the Bonsai be misinterpreting the colder nights, and think that Winter is coming, instead of the other way around?

Could it be getting too much sun now, since indoors it used to get only around 5 hours of direct sunlight and now it’s basically the whole day?

I’m sending photos of where it used to be and where it is now, and you can see the thinner foliage and the new buds.

Thank you for your help!

Sincerely,
Richard

If I wired it, it was only going to be a gentle bend in the trunk. I'm not a fan of the very obvious and deliberate "S" shape you see on many chinese elms etc. I'll see if I can do it through pruning as you suggest.

Rather than start a new topic, I'll ask another question about the same tree...

From what I gather, thickening of a trunk is done via growing length in the branches in order to feed lots of foliage. Can the same principles be applied to small shohin trees? Will the trunk thicken if I just let the tree grow wild despite being in a limited pot size?

I'm pretty certain the cause of the trouble with this tree was overwatering, once the leaves had dropped I can hardly see how excessive water and moreso direct sunlight would of helped. A leafless tree loses its ability to cool itself so surely sunlisgt would of further comprmised the health and dried it further. I really feel that the misting and the shade was what kept it going for a couple of months through recovery. Either way it worked.

Leather back.... I am not sure if it's a zelcova or as you suggested possibly a Ulmus Parviflora. I am interested to know what you think. I'll attach some close up pics of the foliage tomorrow. I posted my experience here as I thought it would be relevant for the original poster.

Myring wrote: I have it sat inside a foot or so from a huge south-east-facing bay window where it gets lots of light - I'm in a flat so my options for putting it outside are limited.

Welcome, Myring.
This looks like they are drying up, fast. It's not normal for an Elm to lose all foliage every two or three months.
But, as I can see from your pictures, it is sitting VERY NEAR an air conditioning system, right?
That can be one of the reasons the leaves are dry; the air around it is... Way too dry.
I would boldly face the elements (including wind) with an Elm rather than keeping it indoors.

They are robust. That does not mean they thrive inside...

In tue some 7 year on this forum i have seen at least 100 dead or dying elms on windowsills i have only seen hanfull of them dying outside.

What does not help is that these plants are sold for mass consumltion. In bad soil these are imported by the thousands. Oushed to get a new head of foliage for sale and are then placed in poor conditions for sale. By the time of sale these are already very weak. If you then do not know how to care for them death is just one incident away.

I am sure peiple with a green thumb can keep them indoors. For bonsai you want more then alive though. You need thriving.