Hi! I just bought my first bonsai tree, which is a Chinese Elm. When I bought it the leaves were slightly less yellow, but it seems like all the new shoots/smaller leaves are a much brighter green/yellow than the bigger leaves. I was wondering if this was normal? I haven't pruned it or anything yet, I was going to see how it grew first and get my bearings with its basic care, is this a good idea or should I cut back some of the overgrown parts? The 'final' design, or rather what I'm aiming towards, is a continuation of the kind of square curve pattern it has. It looks a bit less natural, but I like that it will be a bit more modern and quirky. I really love this community, hopefully, I'll be able to help others once I've had this one for a while! Also, R2 is just there because it looked cute

thank you for any advice!

tl;dr, is the different pigments of the leaves normal?

At the moment the leaves look ok. I hope you only took it inside to take the pictures. You must get the watering right, and as for pruning you need to remove the excess that is outside the shape, and ant dead bits or crossing branches.

I have to keep it inside for the moment whilst I'm away from home, but it will be back outside in no time Thank you for the advice! I will give it a little cut at the end of the week. As for watering, I check it a few times a day and if the soil is dry, I water it with about 400ml ish of water? The info on this website suggests checking a few cms down as to whether the soil there is dry, so that's what I try to do. I water it until the water drips out the drainage holes at the bottom. I also bought some bonsai fertiliser to add every week. Is this watering method okay?