Hy there,

I am pretty new to the art of bonsai and after a few weeks after i got a Privet as a gift i went to a garden store and bought 2 more trees.
The trees are Chinese Elm and Fukien Tea (Carmona) and i picked them based on some features i thought were interesting.
I attached several photos with them.

Do you have any suggestions as how would be best to style them?
For the Chinese Elm i was thinking of a formal upright or broom style, i like the straight trunk and the roots (Nebari).
For the Fukien Tea i do not have any ideas, i do like the way the trunk looks but i do not have any ideas on how to style it.

Both the Chinese Elm and Fukien Tea trees are kept outside at the moment (i will bring the Fukien Tea tree inside at the begining of the fall).

The soil in both trees drains well (the Chinese Elm seems to have a little less earth but it drains well) and do not require repotting at this point, if i see any problems i will take the trees out of the pot to have a look at the root system. In the mean time they seem to be doing ok given that they were moved 2 days ago.

What do you think?

Another question: i bought the trees for ~ 8 eur, i do not know of any bonsai nurseries in my area and i was wandering if they look good for training, and if you think it would be a good idea to get more trees from there .

PS: i know the Fukien Tea tree is not a great pick given that i live in a temperate continental climate but i wanted to learn more about trees, how to grow them, style them, etc.

Thanks,
Dan

Well, at least you did not pay a lot for them. They are just the usual cheap un styled plants sold as bonsai. The Chinese Elm should be out but the other one inside. Both need pruning to thin out the tops which are overgrown. There are guides on this site to help.

m5eaygeoff wrote:

The Chinese Elm should be out but the other one inside.

Depends on where he/she lives

Madartej21 wrote:

m5eaygeoff wrote:

The Chinese Elm should be out but the other one inside.

Depends on where he/she lives

Nevermind, I went over the climate part

Thanks for the responses.
As i said i got them as a means to learn and train them to eventually (several years later) say that they are bonsai.
I wanted your opinion about styling them (what type) and if for the price i payed they are worth it as training material.
Thanks

I would not bother with the fukien tea. You can not provide good circumstances to it in your climate. Try to keep it as a house plant but don't look at it as anything with potential.

The elm on the other hand could be a good material to learn on. You want it to get a nice girth first ideally planted in the ground.

You have plenty of time so just try to keep it healthy, don't do anything radical and read up a lot of articles before doing anything to it.

Great sources could be:

www.bonsai4me.com/

bonsaitonight.com/

www.evergreengardenworks.com/articles.htm

www.growingbonsai.net/

You might also be interest in a tree of one of the forum members:

www.bonsaiempire.com/forum/progressions/...96-2018?limitstart=0

Thanks for the replies. The tree from the progression looks awesome. I have read several articles and watched several videos on Chinese Elms and i saw a lot of interesting things.

It's been about 2 weeks since i got the trees. The Chinese Elm seems to be doing really well, it has a lot of new growth and a lot of new buds, it's been fertilised once a week, watered when needed.
I was thinking of transfering the tree to a bigger pot. I got a square plastic pot that is deep and wide and has a lot of space for the tree to grow. I do not have the option to plant it in the ground, but the bigger pot could be a solution.

Do you think the bigger pot would help with the growing?
Also, i think i need to prune it, how much of the foliage can i remove? All the branches are crossing each other and i have 2 wider branches (they are almost the widest) going strait up from the trunk.