Elm 03
Seiju Elm [Ulmus parvifolia ‘Seiju’]

MARCH 19, 2023. This one got a repot last week, but nothing has really changed. I cleaned up the roots, did a little pruning and shaping, and tried to lower the trunk in the soil a little. It had gotten pushed up to the point the originally buried roots were exposed for about a half an inch. Looked untidy at best. That should be better now. Or it will be when I get moss showing.

August 6, 2022

March 15, 2022.  Once again I’ve not kept up my notes on this one. That’s not good. I haven’t repotted it in two years, and I won’t change anything this year. Last year, though, I did change the profile quite a bit, without doing anything other than pruning. I was getting to the point that all I could see was a flat line across the top of the tree, parallel to the table top. That made the tree itself looked like it just fell over and landed at that angle. I must have been so interested in making the trunk follow the line of the shell that I didn’t pay attention to the overall composition. With the new profile/silhouette I’m trying to made a more rounded shape that reflects the rounded, bowl shape of the part of the container the tree actually sits in. I hope it doesn’t turn out looking like a strange double balloon or dumbbells. We’ll see.

And I’ll add a proper photo when it’s leafed out in a month or so.

April 10, 2020

April 10, 2020. Portrait day. It’s a shame I didn’t take this one down to the piano for the photo. Overall I’m happy with the way things look.

February 9, 2020. Repotted yesterday at the ABS Saturday workshop. It looks better because I changed the angle the way I should have two years ago. Now I have to do some serious pruning on what used to get more sun, and encourage a little more even growth in the new position. I lost a branch last year while doing some wiring carelessly, so that’s another element that needs some growth this year. New photos (front and back) below.

February 26, 2018. I repotted the little tree today, and it really needed it. It’s a little bit off center and also a little bit unsteady. So tomorrow I need to add a guy line of sorts to move it over a bit and stabilize it in this pot. Before repotting I did clean up some of the out-of-line growth. It’ll be lovely I’m sure.

February 25, 2018

February 25, 2018. I got this one yesterday from the sale of Mike Lee’s legacy trees. I paid $185 for it in an Iker pot. Really nice. It’s hard to show the curves in the main trunk with a photo. John Walker said he thinks the corky trunk indicates this was grown from a root cutting, and that the corky part is the original root. Interesting, but I have no idea if he’s right or not.

It needs to be repotted, and I want to move it back in the pot, closer to the tall tortoise-back section. And it clearly needs a bit of cleanup to get rid of some of the crossing branches. I’m also a little concerned about the one straight section of the trunk. If that part of the trunk corks up some, that would help, but it that doesn’t happen I’ll have to either try to hide it with branches or scar it up some. Or maybe both. I’ll start with trying to hide it some with branches right after I repot it this week.

Photos