Ulmus Pumila – Siberian Elm Bonsai – Colorado Rocky Mountain Bonsai

Ulmus Pumila – Siberian Elm is generally considered a weed tree in the United States now. In some areas of the country they are actually outlawed and you cannot plant them on your property. However they are actually growing all over the United States and they can make excellent Bonsai trees. There are some great examples of them over in Europe. In the US Siberians are excellent starter trees to learn on. In fact you can actually go out and collect seeds and start your own trees and will have a really nice smaller Bonsai tree in a short amount of time. This is a very good way of getting into Bonsai. The tree below was started by Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society (RMBS) member David McPeters from a seed collected off the ground somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. David nourished this little seedling on for a number of years and transplanted it into its current plastic Bonsai pot. David gave the tree its first styling and shaping. He continued to fertilize it and care for it for a number of years. David finally brought the tree home to a RMBS event where the tree was put up for auction/sale. The tree was in the very early stages of being a Bonsai tree and you have to take that into consideration when deciding if you want the tree. I thought the little tree had potential and so I bid on the tree and won. I brought the tree and promptly ignored the tree for a few years. I did fertilize the tree once a year and watered it but that’s about it. I did cut it back numerous times. I finally decided to do something with it a couple of years ago. So it was now being fertilized several times a year with Plant Tone and moved under 30% shade cloth. The tree responded with lots of new growth, branch die back stopped, the tree was looking much better. After a few years of this the trunk girth almost doubled and mature bark was now forming on the trunk. The tree was styled in 2018 and allowed to grow. Wire was removed in 2019 and rewired again. Finally in 2020 the tree was allowed to grow then cut back to pairs of leaves to finally start the ramification of the existing branches. This was done several times during the growing season. This is a small tree and you can easily carry it around with one hand if you want. I really like this little tree now that it actually looks like a Bonsai. Is it the best Elm Bonsai in the world, no not by a long shot. Is it a fun Elm Bonsai that will make an artist happy? Yes it is, real happy. Maybe in a few years it will be time to move it into a nice Bonsai pot and perhaps some day enter it into a show?

More information shown below the following galleries.

Updated 05-22-2021:

The tree was recently cut back and new growth and some old growth was wired and rewired. Numerous tiny little branches died and were also removed. No major work was done on the tree. Mature bark continues to form on the trunk now which is very exciting. Lots of holes were filled in with growth. The tree still probably needs another 3-4 years worth of work on it. Cutting back to pairs of leaves will begin for the rest of the summer after letting them extend for a while. This is very important for the health of the tree.

After Gallery 05-22-2021: