Bought this Chinese Elm

[Kevster]

I was working a little more than an hour away from my house today and stopped in to a little Mom & Pop greenhouse to check if they had anything neat.

I came across this Elm that they were asking $149 for. We talked a while about the trees and some good old friendly chit chat and somehow I ended up talking about how I just found out I will be a daddy in August. That started a whole new conversation. In the end they asked if I wanted the tree. And I said after your lectures on how I need to start saving money I don't think I should buy it. They dropped the price to $75 and said it was a present from them so I ended up coming home with this tree.

Does anyone think this was worth $149 or even the $75 I paid for it?

The rocks on top are not glued. They were put there just to help keep the moisture in but I do plan on removing all that and the very old Bonsai soil in the pot but not for a little while. I want it to acclimate to it's new home.

It was kept in a green house so I am going to continue with keeping it indoors for now but it will become an outside tree and stay outside once the weather is warmer.

 

[Kevster]

Oh and any suggestions would be great.

Thanks B NUTS

 

[JudyB]

Well congrats Kevster, (daddy....)
I would plan on growing this out for awhile, the possibilities for chinese elm are endless. This could be a cascade easily, and an informal upright with some work. Good luck with this, sometimes the meaning of the tree is the day, time, place, and people that the tree comes from. I think this is one of those.

 

[Ang3lfir3]

to answer your questions....

NO and NO ....

..... guess now its up to you to make it worth the money you already spent on it....

 

[edprocoat]

kevster, in my opinion, and you know the old adage about opinions, I think it was a fair price for a nice little tree. You can see it has been trained for a while, it has a decent pot too. I like the style of the tree, the third picture would make a great front side, it has great branching to my eye. I am sure there are others that could point out flaws or come up with some " rule " or other that it breaks. I would ask myself, do " I " like it, and do " I " think its worth the $75, and in all honesty my answer would be a resounding yes. I am not the type to buy expensive trees as I get them stolen quite often with moving and staying in rv parks when working at jobsites, but man thats a nice looking little tree, it has a nice thick trunk for the size of it, and I am a sucker for the smaller trees anyway.

Good luck and enjoy your tree, keep it green.

ed

 

[tanlu]

Whenever I see a post on Chinese elms I always try to comment in honor of my departed mallsai! I'm still looking for one with a decent branch structure at a good price.

I agree with Anglefire. This tree is what you make of it, and keep it an outdoor tree is definitely the way to go! In few years if the right decisions and techniques are applied at the right time it can tripple it's value. I think it has a cool shape, at least it's not that typical mallsai shape! Look at elms in nature for inspiration and you cant go wrong.

T