Hi all,

First post so hey everyone and looking forward to a new bonsai adventure. New to bonsai and looking for a few projects to get me started.

I have a stump which I believe is mock orange (Philadelphus) which has new shoots. I hope in a few years I will have thicker trunks and branches to shape a bonsai and perhaps carve the stump into a nice piece. As you can see from the pics I’m at a very early stage and priority is getting a strong plant to work on down the line. In this regard is there anything I should be doing further to the below to help make this into a bonsai?

So far, I’ve uprooted it chopped off a lot of the old dead roots and branches and put it in a large pot of general purpose compost and a bit of garden soil. I can see it has promising fibrous roots. I’ve also pruned off smaller shoots from around the stump hopefully channelling the energy to the 3 main ones visible in the photo.

I plan to just leave this in a sunny spot, look after it, prune it back every once in a while and wait a few years.

Any comments on what I have done/should be doing. I.e. is mock orange a reasonable bonsai project, should I wire the shoots my desired shape now? Should I cut back to just one shoot rather than 3? Or is this all just a matter of choice and these decisions are part of the journey?

I also have an elder currently wrestling with my beech hedge which I plan on digging up and potting shortly, the growth on this one is much more mature so may well post about this one too!!

Appreciate any an all comments!

I dont see any pictures.

If you are in the northern hemisphere south of copenhagen it is too late for collecting. Leave the elder in the ground until next year.

Thanks. Ah, hopefully pics worked now.

Welcome to the forum!

You have a nice stump there. The main focus shuold be to get it well established in a pot.

I personally am not a fan of elder for bonsai. Hollow branches and soft wood that easily rots.. But if you like it, go for it. Keep in mind the leaves remain large. But I understand the urge if you are new, looking for material.

It's your tree, and you might do something completely different, but what I would do is put it in partial sun for a couple of years, fertilize with balanced fertilizer once a week, and let it grow.

Spend the next year or two seeing what grows where and think about a plan for the thicker branches. Multi trunk? Single trunk? There is really no need to make a decision soon. I would wait for a decision at least one year and probably longer.

The one thing I would do now is get some sealer to seal up the stump so it doesn't rot away.