Hapy New Year to all.
So, towards the end of summer last year, my Chinese elm began to struggle. It may have been, in part, due to the heat we had in the UK, but the jury’s still out on that.
Leaves dropped almost entirely, and it was looking a bit sorry for itself. I’ve left it outside since then. Fortunately, we haven’t had any real frost to speak of so it hasn’t needed any protection. I’ve watered it infrequently, just enough to keep the substrate damp, and ( I’m getting to the point ), low and behold, it has already started budding!
This surprised me on two counts: one, I didn’t think this was late enough for this to happen, although we have had a mild winter and little to no frost: two, my natural pessimism led me to think it was dead.
Maybe this thinking was due to the struggle it had shown and also I suspected some dieback was happening. Having only acquired it in the last year or so, I’m not used to the species and still very much learning. So I would say the whitish looking branches that look brittle and dead are probably water deposits (limescale) rather than a dying branch?
That leaves me with a couple of questions:
Can I begin fertilising seeing as the buds have starting opening? Secondly, is it advisable to prune some of the undesirable branches now that it is showing signs o life: did I miss the opportunity while it was dormant?
Anyway, that’s the update. Hopefully it will continue to grow and thrive.
