Tilia cordata hard pruning

[mrt]

Hi all,
I am quite new to bonsai and I would like to start my own tree.
In my parent's garden they have a small linden tree, Tilia cordata. It is about 1.5m in height and in my opinion, it would be suitable for a bonsai as it does have a good nebari and nice trunk. However, 1.5m is of course much too high! So I planned to dig out this tree in spring, and prune it hard.
Am I correct that I can prune such a Tilia quite hard, even almost down to the trunk, and it bounces back (given it is healthy) ?
For my bonsai experiment I would prune the tree in a height of about 40cm, could that work?

Thanks for hints!

 

[SeanS]

Depends on how tall you want the finished tree to be? 40cm sounds pretty tall for the initial chop, could you post a photo of the tree?

 

[mrt]

Hi,
I forgot to mention it even has multiple stems and is already in a pot, even though it is a quite large one.
Picture is attached. I think this tree is perhaps not ideal, but I don't want to waste too much money for my first plants, because I am unsure whether I will be successful and raising a tree from seed is not an option, it takes far too long.
I would probably cut off al stems except the thick one on the right with the moss on it.

 

[SeanS]

The one on the right with the moss on it is the most uninteresting of the group. You need to clear all the soil off the top of the root ball in spring time and figure out where all those stems originate from. If they all originate from the same plane you could create a very interesting clump

 

[mrt]

cool thanks!
yes a clump could also be a possibility.
Am I correct that such a tree can be cut almost at the stem and will sprout again?

 

[Treefer]

Be very careful with that soil. It's holding a lot of water.

 

[just.wing.it]

I'd those trees are all connected, its buried very deep, way too deep.
Where on our small world are you located?

 

[sorce]

I think it could make a good planting as is.

Welcome to Crazy!

As always with a "forest" type tree('s), allow the current growth to change the differences in trunk sizes before cutting it!

Sorce

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Linden backbud pretty readily, but I wouldnt cut anything on this until you figure out how its structure is. I like the spring repot idea, so that you can get a look at the full structure, where the roots go, where the other trunks originate. Planted at a proper height in a decent training soil mix, you can start to better visualize the tree.

Most deciduous trees can be hard chopped btw. Linden reacts similar to elm and maples.

 

[leatherback]

Linden can be chopped really short and will throw buds as long as you have not chopped below the first node on the trunk (The place where as a seedling the first leaves grew). I do not recall seeing linden throwing buds on roots. Last year I pulled a seedling from my yard, when I had it in my hands the trunk van 5 inches at the base. I trimmed the roots short, cut the trunk back to a few inches tall and plopped it in the growbed. It complained all summer, but now has 5 branches each of about 4 inches with tight internodes, perfect broom starter.

In you edit your profile, you can add your country and/or city and/or USDA climate zone, which helps people on the forum judge the best advice for your climatic conditions

 

[Orion_metalhead]

An example of an excellent Linden:

MIRAI LINDEN

This is a small leaf linden (Tilia Cordata) purchased from Mirai in September 2018. This tree was featured in a couple of Mirai Live streams last year. The tree is estimated to be around 25 years old although the bark already shows great character and color modulations that are typical of older...

www.bonsainut.com