Chinese Elm bonsai (Ulmus parvifolia) purchased from Obi in June 2023. I’m excited to document its progress here as I develop it into a more refined bonsai.

05-06-2023 first pruning and moved my Elm to a bigger pot. Visible is the big, horizontal cut on the trunk.

27-06-2023 I’m refining the cut with a concave cutter, making it at a sharper angle. I’m also developing a sacrificial branch to help close the wound.

10-10-2024 the cut is starting to heal over. I’m using two sacrificial branches to thicken the top of the stump. One of them was used for a thread graft to add a new branch on the lower part of the trunk.

06-11-2024 I’ve switched the wound sealant to a putty type.
The pot with the elm is placed in a large basket filled with soil (to encourage root growth and faster development), along with other plants, which makes it difficult to take a good photo. In the spring, I plan to do a ground layer to improve the currently very unattractive nebari.

04-12-2024 I helped the tree a bit by removing all the autumn leaves. I will leave these two long branches for part of the season to support further healing of the wounds (there is also one large one in the middle of the trunk). Hopefully, this will also help the root flare (after ground layering) develop better… The nebari looks terrible at the moment. It’s hard to capture it in photos, but the trunk seems to split into two thick roots.
Since I plan to create a ground layer next season, the trunk will be slightly shortened. I received a suggestion that the newly grafted first branch is probably placed a bit too low. Well, we’ll see how everything looks once it’s on the final roots. If necessary, it will only serve to thicken the trunk, and later it can be cut off or a new branch can be grafted in the correct position.

In 2025, I performed a ground layering technique. I removed the top layer of soil and made an incision around the bark. Two diverging roots are now clearly visible. I hope I scraped off all the cambium properly to prevent bridging. I applied Clonex to the cut site and covered everything with sphagnum, vermiculite, and other materials I had on hand.

It can be considered a partial success. So far, only one root has formed. I lightly pruned the tips and removed the original roots, hoping this will stimulate the development of new roots on other sides of the nebari. I’ll check again in the spring during the next repotting. Photos show the tree before the procedure, after removing the old roots, and a view from below.

This is a fairly demanding procedure for the plant. Before planting, I pruned and removed the largest branch at the apex. The tree was placed in a production pot with a well-draining, 100% inorganic substrate, and for the first two weeks, I kept it under a plastic bag to reduce transpiration. After a few weeks, the first shoots appeared. Now the root tips are visible in the drainage holes. I’m curious whether new roots will appear in other places around the base of the trunk by spring.

16.03.2026 — Repotting update, placed it back into the same pot. Over the autumn and winter it developed a nice amount of new roots, practically all around the trunk, and I’m really happy with the progress — right after cutting off the ground layer there were very few roots to work with. I reduced the root mass quite a bit this time, hoping this will be the beginning of a good nebari.
The thread-graft is looking promising as well. The buds are swelling, so with a bit of luck it might finally take this season.