I potted up this Water-elm that we’d collected last July back in February. It’s a pretty cool little twin-trunk, featuring dead wood on both trunks as well as a “flying root” on the right side. You wouldn’t ordinarily want a root like that, but I thought it added to the character of the tree rather than detracting from it. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was going to be proven right.
I’ve been planning for a while to do some additional carving on the dead wood, then to treat everything with lime sulfur. That was one of the chores I tended to on this long weekend. In this photo you can see most of the result. This tree is definitely getting better.
How’s this for a surprise! I was digging around at the base of the right-hand trunk, and discovered that there was a hollow filled with mud that I hadn’t managed to clean out last summer when the tree first came home. The more I dug, the farther I went – until I came out the back! It’s a see-through trunk. So I cleaned it up and then treated everything with lime sulfur. And I think the flying root is now indispensable to the character of this bonsai. The tree just wouldn’t be the same without it.
You’ve got yourself a very unusual tree. This will be an interesting adventure.
Thank you, Shirley.
Fabulous!
Thank you, Sue.
Art
Much appreciated!
We like it. We have a little elm, the very first thing we ever collected, and it had a root like that. For two years we’ve threatened to cut it, and finally this weekend we did. In our case there was no hole through, so probably we did the right thing, and should have done it long ago. But your example shows what art is so subtle, because it definitely does improve the overall effect to have that flying root in your case. Thanks, Michael and Carolyn
Thank you, Michael and Carolyn!