Asking style advice

[LindaPat]

Here is an elm with a sacrifice branch low down. Which should be the front? Based on nebari, i marked a front with a wire, but I think I can make some new roots grow by making a little hole and putting rooting hormone in it. How would you style this then, with any choice of front?

 

[0soyoung]

I commend you for thinking about this stuff now, but there is still a number of years to go before your tree is ready to be a bonsai or bonsais. Nevertheless, thinking about the aesthetic points helps immensely with developing a plan to get there.

Indeed you want the front to present the best nebari, but it is unlikely that you are going to grow roots simply by making a little hole in the bark and stuffing it with rooting hormone. Most likely the hole will just grow closed. Nevertheless, keep this idea on your list (I too am a big fan of just finding things out). A better way is to layer the tree at some point(s) along the trunk. There is a high probability of getting roots radially all around the trunk, especially if the trunk runs (very) close to vertically at the point you cut the girdle.

Back to the design aesthetics: The basic guideline for bonsai is that one wants the trunk thickness to be something like 1/6th to 1/12th the height of the bonsai. I found this very hard to accept in the beginning, but after wasting a few years realized that violating the rule was a large part of why my trees just didn't 'work' artistically. Let's say your tree's trunk is a 1-inch caliper. The rule suggests that you should be thinking of a bonsai that is 6 inches to 1 foot tall. That is roughly halfway or all the way to your lowest branch, in my estimation.

Also, one generally should want a trunk line with movement (as opposed to a predictable, maybe straight, line). Of course, unusually arrow-straight can be cool when it is exceptional as in the formal upright style. And, of course, long skinny trunks that wander all over the place are cool too = literati, but your tree doesn't have either of these characters, though pieces of it might and/or you might grow it to be such. Lest I forget, there is also the idea of a forest or group planting. IMHO, the crappier a tree is as a stand-alone bonsai, the better suited it is to a forest/group - you just need several with different calipers.


Elms generally root well as air-layers and even as cuttings, so you could begin pursuing any one or all of these options. Personally I would be planning to make at least two air-layers next year with one girdle just above that lowest branch and another above the pair of branches that are next up. The foliage on these two branches will feed/drive rooting of the lowest girdle and that lowest branch will be feeding the roots that keep the whole tree going. There is some interesting movement just above that branch pair, so you might choose a point a little higher instead, so that the trunk section above has some interesting movement. Before the end of the 2022 growing season I should have at least three separate trees, two of which have new air-layer roots. The following spring (2023) I would repot them (removing sphagnum if that was used) after removing the branch stubs below and screwing them onto a board/tile (which will help to make nice nebari). Likely later in the season (2023) I would trim back their initial surge of growth (June-ish) and will try to root those cuttings. Otherwise, I'm just tending to their needs (the original trunk piece and two layers as well as the cuttings) while just letting them all grow (bigger).

There are resources and threads on air-layering here on BNut as well as many discussions of rooting cuttings (cmeg1 is doing some interesting stuff with rooting cuttings that you may want to try).

Then I would be re-evaluating my desires and what comes next. Do I want to ground layer the bottom trunk piece? Has I sprouted below that one branch? Being so straight it might make into a good broom-style tree. Do I want a shohin broom or do I want to keep growing it to make something bigger? Do I just want to chop it down and see what happens (elms are pretty good in this regard)? Do I have decent radial roots on the two (or more) air layers? Do any of them seem to offer something interesting that I want to spend 5 more years pursuing? If yes, what and make a plan to get there. If no, maybe make a group/forest planting and see how it goes (it can always be disassembled sometime into the future). Yada, yada, yada. This is the fun!


enjoy

 

[Shibui]

I agree with @0soyoung This tree is really too young to be worrying about design features. So much will change as it grows and matures so decisions made now may change over time. The good thing is that trees do grow and change so it will still be possible to restyle to take advantage of changes as it grows. One of the biggest reasons for beginners not being able to decide on what to cut and what to leave is that the trees have so little to give. Most beginner trees benefit from chopping hard and leaving them to grow out for a year or 2. So much depends on your aims and ambitions for the tree and its future.

For now I would just pick the best trunk line with the best branch placement and make a tree using what you have.
Do not try to use the whole tree. Bonsai relies heavily on reduction pruning, especially for developing stock. Your masking of branches or part branches shows that you understand that concept. Reduction pruning at this stage often takes the tree way back to a few sticks. Knowing that it will respond with lots of new growth and imagining that new growth helps make decisions.

For a short term simple bonsai elm I'd keep the lower branch. Removing it will yield a too tall skinny tree. Chop everything back by about half and cross fingers for good regrowth in useful places.
i do not know Philly climate so check with local growers if now is a good time to do reduction pruning in your area. It may be better to defer such work until spring.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Some great advice given. One thing I will add, which is optional for you to follow, is to consider the species. Elms have a very specific growth pattern - to the extent that there is even a style referred to as "elm style" bonsai. It is not absolute, and not all elms in the wild grow with the same shape, but you might want to keep it in the back of your mind as you style your tree. It is very easy, when first starting out, to style all your trees the same way - as an informal oak. You end up with a garden of trees that all look similar even though they are different species and sizes, because you follow the same styling "rules" with all. With smaller trees it is easy to fall into this trap because they have so much more development in their future, versus for example an old yamadori where you work with what the tree gives you. Try to make your elms look like elms, and oaks look like oaks... and your bonsai may end up being more "believable" because people have an image in their mind (perhaps subliminal) of what an elm tree should look like.

 

[LindaPat]

I love the kindness in this advice! I feel learning going on at last. Youtube videos only go so far. And folks in my club have big old trees beyond my means. So now I’ll have three trees! (I hope: not all air layers have worked fo me, but some have).

I love the elm pic. Yes, this is what an elm once meant to me. Getting from here to there is…. Barely imaginable. But it’s a fun idea to play with

thank you!

 

[LindaPat]

Since I wrote a complaint about my bonsai club, my club has decided to pair inexperienced (such as me) with experienced folks. So pleased that I now have no need to complain!
I am planning to layer this tree after the leaves harden off, and excited to see what will develop.