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I like to share another progression of one of my trees. Its a Zelkova Serrata, THE classic species for a Hokidachi, or broomstyle.

The story started in 2010, when I saw a 'normal' young Zelkova tree in a local gardencenter. It was about one meter in height and the trunk was about 2-3 cm in diameter. The nebari of that tree was bad, so I decided to place a marcot.

In 2011 I separated the upper part from the lower part. Unfortunately I have no pictures of the tree that time, but the marcot had developed roots at all directions of the trunk. I placed it in a big pot to strengthen the fresh roots.

The Hokidachi style tree I wanted to make couldn't become too high, because of the thickness of the trunk; 45cm in height for the finished tree was a nice size in my opinion. The ideal trunk height for this style has a ratio of 1 to 3, so I chopped the trunk at a height of 15 cm. I did that one year later, in 2012.


2013- New shoot were formed, and I selected 2 to become stronger. I also wired the base of the shoots to minimalise the expanding of the outer part of the base of the shoots.


Here the trunk in 2014, after the first prune.

2015- He had grown well, especially one of the two branches.


2016- Time to do some rootwork: Some of his own roots grafting at another place.


After that I placed the tree in a wooden crate.


2017- Before the hard prune in spring, and after. This to promote more branches. I also covered the rootbase with some roofing. That gives some higher temperatures under it when the sun is shining. This to promote more and faster rootgrowth.

2018- no picture, but the picture made in 2019 shows that it had made a lot more branches.


2020 - I did some wiring to spread out the branches. I also removed the fatter branches in the tree.


The next picture was winter 2020/21, before pruning back.


In my opinion the fundamental of the tree was ready, so it was time for a nice bonsai pot. From now on the refinement can start and I hope that will become better and better! I like it!

Oh that's nice Marco!
First time I see this V shape technique.
It's awesome to see it evolving tru' time, the tree looks amazing, thanks for sharing it, and congrats.

Wonderful progression, Marco.
It became a very nice broom, and I love the new pot!
Congrats, your work on this tree is perfect.

Bravo Marco! thank you for sharing!!

Wow! Really beautiful, it might sound stupid but this is exactly what I wanted to see as an example of a growing tree from a cut. This is definitely something I will try as soon as snow leaves.

Again, really nice work!

Last weekend, I visited a bonsai nursery in Saitama countryside (far away from Omiya bonsai villgage). They had a very similar Zelkova broom style tree, but the trunk diameter was something like 30cm! It was work in progress, but they had done exactly the same as Marco Didn't ask them how many years the stump had been in training, but I would assume they have been working on it for a while, as some of the branches were as thick as the trunk on Marco's tree.

The Zelkova in my Tokonoma....

It IS beautiful, isn't it?
Tokonoma, accent plant and broom Zelkova, wonderful match!