I chopped off this elm last year, when it was 15 feet/4 meters or so tall, maybe 8-10 years old. I dug it up in February and now am thinking what to do next here.
Plan A is carve the trunk at a sharp angle and wire this branch vertically, removing lower branches and wiring them appropriately.
Plan B is to bend this one down in a broom style. I don't see bending this branch that much without breaking it.
Plan C is to lean it over a little and get some nice angle out of it, proceeding with A or B.

Ideas? Is there any reason not to wire some now?

Hummm... I don't think it will be a nice broom right now. It needs mor girth and perhaps just chopping it down to start all over again will take a long time.
I think plan A seems to be the best in this case.

Chop it again, directly above the first branch. It is way to tall and thin now, ratio is wrong

lucR wrote:

It is way to tall and thin now, ratio is wrong

Yes, even lowering the leader branch will not be of much help. Maybe the long route (chopchopchop) is the better one.

What lucr said..

lucR wrote:

Chop it again, directly above the first branch. It is way to tall and thin now, ratio is wrong

I took it to our local society for ideas and that was one of them. I have been resisting it because I have a year of ramification that would throw away. However, it really does appear that that is the answer.

So, it is June. Leaves have been coming out since early March and won't drop until early November. Do I chop it now? I chopped it off last year when it was in the ground in late July, so the tree took it once. Do it again or wait?

You dont have to wait. Chop it down or make a air layer, if you want two trees.

Hansen wrote:

You dont have to wait. Chop it down or make a air layer, if you want two trees.

The perfect solution. I get to keep the year's worth of growth and I get one more tree.

Next I can airlayer the benches and have more space to put trees.

A question of timing. If I air layer now and then go out of town for three weeks, would the air layering soil dry out and this kill the top of the tree? I have a kid coming by to water the trees but taking care of the air layering might be a stretch of responsibility.

Several years ago I air layered a cherry tree in the yard, ignored it, and found birds had pecked holes in the plastic bag and the inside had completely dried out.

I setup an airlayer 2 months ago with wet spaghnum moss and Saran wrap, tied at each end with twine. It's still plenty moist and I have not tinkered with it at all. Granted, we have and a particularly wet spring.