so far I bought some seeds of Amazon.

seed stage
stratification and germination via fridge for couple of weeks.

planted them in late march. Had a few die. I’m a bit confused to what I actually have here. My plant identifier app isn’t so great.

i bought

jacaranda, d.pommegranate, tree wisteria, chinese mahogony seeds. I’ve mixed them all up between the germination and then repotting from small pots to larger. So some identification would be helpful.

had some fungus gnat problems so I’m planning on reporting them fresh bonsai soil with akadema.

i am also insterested in any tips that anyone could give me for helping these guys out through winter. I have a nice gazebo which holds off
frost through the winter and live in south wales UK. It doesn’t get too cold so I may be lucky with frost.

ive had a grow light on them until September and have cut the light hours down on that to about 4 - 6.

I am a complete beginner as you can probably tell. So any and all advice welcome, even if it’s just give up, I will accept 😂😂.

i usually push my finger in the soil and see which ones need watering rather than all at once. And recently I have been bottom feeding them more
as I’ve read it can be less hassle.

i use bonsai chrysal sometimes and also bonsai focus seaweed other times. I’ve tried killing off the fungus gnat with mosquito bites and that didn’t kill anything really.

i also have some established Japanese elm and Chinese elm.

Japanese elm is flourishing still on my window sill in kitchen, but the Chinese elm lost its leaves late summer and I read that maybe outside was good for it to start again so that’s a mystery too me being so close to autumn I assumed that it maybe just that time of year.

Hope you can make sense of everything from my pictures and apologies in advance if I have done something wrong I am new to this forum.

Help appreciated

Thanks.

Jamie.

I have a Chinese Elm, Ulmus Parvifloia Seiju, which got shocked in the hot weather this summer and dropped all it leaves.
They have started to grow back, but should I bring it indoors this winter?
I'm worried if it drops it's leaves in the winter, new buds may not have had time to from.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.

This plant needs to be outside. It is a Chinese Elm and is hardy and will not do well inside. Put it in a semi shady spot, and keep watered. Also some fertiliser will be beneficial. It needs sunshine, so at least 4 hours a day. The long growths can be pruned back to about two or three pairs of leaves. 

I would just prune the yellow leafs and stop worry.

I see nothing else wrong on the tree except for some ugly looking roots. But that is just cosmetical and can be fixed in the future.

They grow chinese elms in Spain, so I am sure it does not need protection from the irish sun.

I grow chinese elms in sweden, so I am sure it wount need protection from the irish winter.

You may want to repot into better soil come spring. But only do so if it grew happy this year. If not, focus on the health and wait another year.

I made an extensive video about my take on chinese elm care. you may want to check it out:




 

Hi all! I'm new to the forum. I hope perhaps one of you can guide me in the rigth direction. My wife gave me 2 weeks ago the Bonsai tree you see in the photos. The leaves are turning yellow and I don't like certain dark patches on the tree roots.I am concerned it could be root rot. The tree was labelled as Zelkova but I believe it is a Chinese Elm based on what I have read online. It seems they're often mislabelled in Europe. I live in Ireland and have kept the tree outside. This summer has been particularly dry and hot for Irish standards. The tree gets full sunlight around half of the day when it's sunny.  I've added water basically every day to every 2nd day and I bought a Bonsai liquid feed from Westland and have applied it once. I moved the tree inside for 2 days worrying that it was getting to much sunlight but then I moved it back outside because I read they are really outdoor bonsais. Not sure what  can be happening. All the info online is confusing because there can be multiple reasons for yellowing leaves. Any guidance is much appreciated. Thanks! 

So just move it outdoors and it will recover. As it is under quite weak light, start in the shade and slowly move it into full sun during a 4-6 weeks period.

There kept at 60% to 70% humidity 70 to 75 degrees plus there getting 400 to 500 ppfd along with some morning sun other people have kept them indoors so I would assume they would be fine with this setup as my other trees are i got this tree recently from someone so I dont know much about it besides its around 12 years old 

Yellowing leafs is a symptom of bad care or bad environment. It is not possible to determin which one based on a photo. All yellow leafs looks the same no matter what the reason is.

However the most common misstake with chinese elms is indoor keeping. So that would be my first guess.

Can anyone tell me what this is from? I'm thinking no fertilizer, but I wanted to see if it was something else more obvious that I don't know.  

I have a Chinese Elm which I purchased five months ago from an area Lowe’s. It has done very well until now, as I noticed leaves missing from the top branches.

Since it is so warm ( above 50 degrees overnight) I keep it on the front porch with a Juniper. They both receive adequate sunlight, and I only water them as needed.

I wait until the soil feels dry to water again, and I mist them once a day. Have I done something wrong to the tree in trying to care for it?

 

In October 2024 I was visiting a local garden centre and at the back of their Bonsai display, almost in the dark, was a very sad looking Chinese Elm. The  soil medium was a very dry basic compost and the tree just had a few dying leaves left. All this for the price tag of £150!!!!

I took the risk of repotting the tree thinking it was probably not going to make it anyway but a fresh, free draining medium, might  help the tree to recover. Five months on and you'll see from the photo the future of the tree is looking much more promising but still some way to go before full recovery. My question is on the tree are some deep wiring wounds on the trunk and I wonder what can be done to repair, or lessen this damage?

It has been suggested that I fill the wound with paste which will encourage the tree to heal over the wounds?

For the £20 I paid to rescue the tree it is great to see it trying to recover.

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards

 

Well spoken. My outdoor grown chinese elms is pruned from 20-30 cm long new growth 2-4 times per year. That is up to a meter of growth every year!  And our growing season is very short. This streangthen the trees to handle anything, including long periods below -10 degrees and heavy root pruning.

How much growth did you get out of the indoor grown elm year 2?

First of all, welcome to the empire

Very interesting. Looks like it is a grafted stump. I have never seen such trees sold as mallsai.

I will refraim from answering your questions for now and only answer the important questions you have not yet asked:

Your tree is not a japanese elm (zelkova serrata), it is a chinese elm (ulmus parvifolia). This is the most misslabled tree on the market. Everything points against that it is an intentional misslabeling from the producers. Nobody knows why for sure, but many thinks that it is due to the dutch elm disease. Trees labled ulmus would be in risk of getting stuck in customs and die according to that theory. It sounds like a good theory to me.

Now, it does not matter very much for the buyer as zelkova serrata and ulmus parvifolia both are temperate decidious trees and needs about the same care. Talking about that, here comes the answer on the second question you have not yet asked: No temperate decidious trees survives in livingroom conditions long term. They normally deteriorate slowly over a period of 1-3 years and eventually dies. I would asume what the industry call "indoor" trees is trees that cannot be produced efficiently outdoors everywhere in the temperate world. That they are produced in greenhouses, which is technically indoors. But they still need winter dormancy and the temperature fluctuations between day and night to survive and thrive. I do see an economic incentive to call them indoor trees. The market wants indoor bonsai, so they give the market what they want. The market in this case is defined exclusevly as beginners that would pick up a mallsai tree in a garden center, big buck store or even online. Most of these people will just fail within the 1-3 years the trees can go without proper dormancy and then blame themselfs for the failure. It is unfortunate for the hobby, as so many people leaves before they even tried starting in the right way, which is buying inexpensive locally hardy garden center trees, then grow and develop them outdoors. Pretty much as this hobby was for more than 2000 years before mass produced mallsai was "invented".

Excuce my long post, I am bored and cannot sleep

Now, tell us your location, climate and conditions and we can try to guide you throe to the next dormancy. It may not be easy as it has already skipped one, but it can be done. Any design conciderations can wait until at least after the first dormancy. That is 14 months or more and will give you plenty of time to read up on the basics of broom style design. If you are still here by then, I am looking forward to see more specific questions that shows that you have utilized the time at hand well.

You mean the leaves of the Chinese elm bonsai are supposed to turn brown, brittle, and fall off easily during dormancy? Why is it occurring now, about a month and a half later? 

I have a Chinese elm bonsai. I made the mistake of keeping it inside the past year, so I moved it out in December so it can experience dormancy. It has been in a shed with a window door in a styrofoam box (lid open) with a heating pad to ensure the roots don't freeze. The heating pad has a probe so the temperature does not get too high. On particularly cold days, I also wrap up the pot. On warmer days, I move it out of the shed. I water it every couple days, which is usually when the soil is getting dry. This method seemed to have worked so far, but the last few days the leaves turned brittle and brown. What should I do? Is there any hope of saving it? (The photo makes the leaves look greener than they are.)