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Greetings O Awesome Tree Growers!

I have a Chinese Elm and a Fukian Tea.

Both have some shoots. So, I'll take them one at a time and try to add photos.

The Tea Tree is well formed and full. I think I just need to keep the shoots snipped back so that they blend in with the basic shape of the tree. How far back and when do I snip the shoots?

The Elm is not well shaped. I can best describe it as wadded up. It has a kink in the trunk so whoever started it did some grooming. The branches go every which way. There are very obvious shoots on this one.

I know they should be trimmed back but how do I go about making this scrambled up tree into something pleasing to look at? Should the branches slope up or down or horizontal? Should I wire them into place? Can I sort of lift one by putting a stick under it so it is encouraged to grow straighter? When should I snip the new one? They are quite long on this one.

Any comment is a welcome comment.

I've had these about 2 weeks. I just sent a previous Tea tree that caught some bad bad home to my daughter's house. So my bonsai thumb is brown.

Thank You! Sally

The best time to do pruning would be spring. There is much much more info on google i can definetely say that but the rest i would say that depens on the taste of the person. You can put a stick under it i guess but you could guy wire it. Be quick and you can snip and pinch small shoots. As i say i may be wrong and google has lodes of stuff.

Hope this helps.

also it would be good to research some pruning techniques:

Thanks for the reply.

I am almost confident enough to at least prune the strays. If all works well and I don't kill the tree I suspect I'll have plenty of time to shape it.

Sally

Make sure you do big pruning (branchs) in spring. I think you could create a nice ramification by pinching growing apical buds. You could try defoliating next year in late spring if you want smaller leaves if you want. When you prune the strays always leave at least 2 leaves on the strays Unless you do not want all of the stray.

Use clean scissors(sharp) or even better clean secateaurs or shears.

First decide what you want to get out of the tree, where do you want to take it. Only then can you decide whether to prune, and what.

Pruning:
Maintenance prune (trimming growth away that does not fit the existings canopy). Always let a branch grow out a couple of leaves before pruning back: Growth is required to stay healthy. I personally do this whenever it fits me, with whichever tools I have at hand
Styling pruning in order to get the tree into a specific style. You may have to remove complete branches. Timing is crucial, and species-specific. I have no experience with eiter of your species.

If these were mine, I would probably change the trees quite drastically, so I would be the wrong person to ask for maintenance trims..

bob wrote: You could try defoliating next year in late spring if you want smaller leaves if you want.

Unless you know what you are doing, just don't defoliate. It can kill a tree if done at the wrong time.

It is only done with very far-developed trees, OR with trees that are very healthy and strong, in assistence of refining branching. The plant you show is hurt more than helped by defoliating.

I have experience with elms, the thing i like is that they can tolerate a lot of stress so style pruning will be fine as long as you do not take off all the branches at the same time.you could go on google images and type bonsai styles and choose what you waant first as leatherback said.

bob wrote: I have experience with elms,

Really? And 9 months ago you did not even know . Interesting what you call experience.

leatherback wrote:

bob wrote: I have experience with elms,

Really? And 9 months ago you did not even know . Interesting what you call experience.

He has read a book, LB!