Hi Kitsune,

I have 15 year old Chinese Elms from seed. The ones that remained in
pots are under 10mm in diameter. The ones that were planted out in the
ground four years ago are now 8M high and 120mm diameter at the base
with excellent coarse orange bark. This year I'm doing multiple air
layers working my way down the tree until I can remove the stump. And
this in cold, wet Wales ;-)

Cheers

Kev Bailey
Vale Of Clwyd, North Wales, UK


Depends on how old you are. If you have a lot of time
the experience of growing from seed gives you control
over root placement and trunk progress. This means
you don't just plant seeds and wait. You have to
watch, transplant, check root structure, cull, cut
back, add/remove sacrifical brances, have losses, and
repeat until you have suitable material for bonsai.

With nursery stock you have to accept the nebari that
comes with the tree and work around that.

I have found Chinese elms are very slow growing even
from cuttings. I have 15 year old cuttings that are
now about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter.

Kitsune Miko

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