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hi everyone ive had my chinese elm for about a month now and its started popping out new shoots allready. After researching on the net regarding when to prune ive joined this site for some advice! Looking at my picture, i have an image of how i want my tree look, and to be honest im scared of pruning allready. What would you advise?

Many thanks ben

Hi Villicus,

Welcome to our forum!

Good to see your new tree is doing well and to see all those new shoots, that's a good sign that the tree is healthy and likes his new home!

About the pruning:

Just prune back the unwanting shoots, the tree is already in shape, but some new shoots don't fit in the design like most of the new shoots above the tree. Just prune these back to the place you want.

Don't be scared, just prune back everything that don't fit in the design!

Please post a picture after the pruning!

Good luck

thanks for the reply Youri, much appreciated! That photo was taken 2 days ago and theres lots more shoots! I'm happy that my tree enjoys its new home!

I will start pruning tomorrow as I want to trim it own a bit so that I can see the tree clearer and visualise my design. I have today started stratification of some black pine, juniper and hornbeam seeds so I hope they come to life!

Ill put some pics up tomorrow of the freshly pruned elm, thanks again

villicus,
I always get anxious when I prune a tree as well.I don't know why. what's funny is that(so far) I haven't made any gigantic mistakes.
Have fun with it.

:lol: I think we all get nervous when pruning our trees. The last is probably as bad as the first.

Nice looking elm, villicus.

Looking forward to seeing her after the pruning.

Hi Villicus,

Welcome to the forum.

Although Youri is of course right that you can just prune away any shout that does not fit the design, I would say that this is a tree which is only in it's early stages as a bonsai. Putting a bit more thought into pruning the tree bak may acturally improve the tree, I think.

However, you would have to consider what you want to get out of the tree. When pruning consider that you would ideally have no crossing branches in the canopy. You want the outer layer of the canopy to be somewhat open, so that the inside gets enough light to also keep foliage. And you would have to try and create leaves at different levels. The the moment it is just a little ball of foliage. Consider whether you want to grow another layer on top, or whether you would want to pull some of the lower branchlets down a little.

I would personally not start trimming right away but give the trees esign a bit of thought and research.

Don't worry about pruning: Trees can withstand a lot of clipping IF they are healthy

thanks for all the replies guys so helpful! I havent had chance to prune the elm today but I have started stratification of my seeds! I put some of each seed into peat pellets and put them in zip lock bags into the fridge for the next three months so i hope that they germinate well. The black pine seeds had me concerned as only two were fully submerged in the water after 48 hours and the rest were still floating so I hope there ok, looks like I must be patient now

PATIENCE is the hard part.

I have Japanese Firethorn stratifying until 13 February and Red Maple stratifying untile 14 March. I have Chinese Elm germinating in a paper towel - heard they can take up to 30 days to germinate.

My Eucalyptus Gunni have begun to grow. Hopefully I will have some good saplings by the end of the Summer. Strong enough to survive the Missouri winter.

I find that typically nature know sbest.. PLanting the seeds in fall outside, with some protection against birds etc will do the trick. In spring when the temperatures rise, the seeds will germinate

Finally had time to prune my elm! I have gone a bit mad, maybe a bit too mad. I wanted to prune a fair bit so that I could see the trees inner characteristics and visualize how I want it to look. I will wire the branches in certain ways to gain the overall shape I desire, I just hope I haven't gone too deep with the pruning! Yes aklister from what I read it does take a fair while for seeds to germinate but it will all be worth it one day, wow missouri, i bet our winters are like your autumn!

Well here are the pictures...