Broom style elm

[Clorgan]

Don't think I ever started a thread on this on so here we go!

First project I'm starting up again after a few years break is this lil Chinese elm. Purchased in 2020, began working on a broom styling. Neglected for the last few years but jumping right back into it!

First two photos are it now, third was it before I gave it a little prune this morning, the rest are when I first bought it and the bit of work I did on it shortly after. Think I'm going to cut the longer branches shorter but want to do some cuttings and need to dig out some pots & soil.

Considering it's been given very little attention over the last few years, apart from the odd rough prune, I'm quite pleased with how it's looking! Needs a repot & straightening up next spring.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Right now the design is a little confusing (at least to me) because you are keeping that long central leader. With broom style, you want to start with branches all leaving the trunk at the same level, and then they all split at the same level (into two more branches) and then split again at the same level (to two more) and so on. Broom style is a type of formal upright style where symmetry and balance are critical - no single part of the canopy should be stronger than another.

 

[bwaynef]

@bonsainut https://www.thebonsaiproject.com/bonsai-design/styles/broom/ <-- Next to the heading "Trunk continuation" it shows a broom w/ a central leader.

 

[bwaynef]

For that matter, https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/the-zelkova.53128/.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

@bonsainut https://www.thebonsaiproject.com/bonsai-design/styles/broom/ <-- Next to the heading "Trunk continuation" it shows a broom w/ a central leader.

I guess it's all in a name, but I consider that tree a formal upright. Just because a tree has a ton of ramification doesn't (in my mind) make it a broom. Likewise the tree above it on the same page is a standard informal upright. There is nothing about it that says "broom style" to me. It is ironic that that web page defines broom style correctly as "a straight trunk that divides a third up the tree into multiple branches growing diagonally upward from the trunk like a fan" and then proceeds to show photos that don't meet this criteria

For that matter, https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/the-zelkova.53128/.

@Adair's zelkova doesn't have a central leader that I recall. The photo makes it look like there is a central trunk in there, but I believe it is just superimposing several smaller trunks on top of each other (in the photo).

 

[Clorgan]

Right now the design is a little confusing (at least to me) because you are keeping that long central leader. With broom style, you want to start with branches all leaving the trunk at the same level, and then they all split at the same level (into two more branches) and then split again at the same level (to two more) and so on. Broom style is a type of formal upright style where symmetry and balance are critical - no single part of the canopy should be stronger than another.


View attachment 600337

Yeah I chopped it yesterday, was just waiting till I had the time to dig out some soil for the cuttings

Not ideal that it's growing slightly towards the centre but hoping it'll be less obvious with some ramification?

Probably going to shorten that left branch too

 

[bwaynef]

@Adair's zelkova doesn't have a central leader that I recall. The photo makes it look like there is a central trunk in there, but I believe it is just superimposing several smaller trunks on top of each other (in the photo).

 

[BobbyLane]

(left) Classic formal broom and (right) a variation of the classic formal broom

Styling: The Basic Forms of Bonsai – Bonsai4Me

bonsai4me.com

 

[misfit11]

Looks like a broom style in the making to me, an informal one at the very least. I think we sometimes get too caught up in the rules and nomenclature.

FWIW I appreciate you not naming this thread "The Chinese Elm". I think that is pretty arrogant regardless of how nice your tree is or what it's provenance is.

Nice start to this. Keep us updated on it's progress.

BTW, Eric Schrader posted a great video on broom Zelcovas recently that has some good pointers. His "Broom" has a central leader and he explains how this is another form of broom style that is utilized in Japan.

 

[bwaynef]

I just need to say, @Eric Schrader, I LOVE your hoodie in that YT video. (Isn't your hoodie's figure 13 supposed to be figure 15 though? Admittedly, it doesn't line up exactly with any figure 13 or 15 from my wiring diagrams, but I think it might be inverted figure 15.)

 

[Carol 83]

@Adair's zelkova doesn't have a central leader that I recall. The photo makes it look like there is a central trunk in there, but I believe it is just superimposing several smaller trunks on top of each other (in the photo).

Here is is last year at a show near me.

 

[Clorgan]

Looks like a broom style in the making to me, an informal one at the very least. I think we sometimes get too caught up in the rules and nomenclature.

FWIW I appreciate you not naming this thread "The Chinese Elm". I think that is pretty arrogant regardless of how nice your tree is or what it's provenance is.

Nice start to this. Keep us updated on it's progress.

BTW, Eric Schrader posted a great video on broom Zelcovas recently that has some good pointers. His "Broom" has a central leader and he explains how this is another form of broom style that is utilized in Japan.

Haha I certainly don't have the status to name the thread that

Thanks for the kind words & video, will give that a watch this eve!

 

[Clorgan]

Here is is last year at a show near me. View attachment 600395View attachment 600396

Wow! A lot bigger than I imagined from the other photo!

 

[misfit11]

Looks like Kimura calls this tree a broom that seems to have a central leader. I think I'll take his word for it

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Looks like Kimura calls this tree a broom that seems to have a central leader. I think I'll take his word for it
View attachment 600398

Where exactly do you see Kimura referring to this bonsai as a broom style?

 

[misfit11]

Where exactly do you see Kimura referring to this bonsai as a broom style?

It's linked on the page that BWayneF shared previously. An account of someone who visited Kimura's garden

My Trip to Japan | Wattos Bonsai Blog

 

[MGTT]

I think @Eric Schrader really hit on the head when he said a broom is harder than it looks. My first attempt was pathetic, but I learned a lot. (It reminds me of @Walter Pall - the expertise required to make a natural tree look‘natural’ - an incredible skill which he is a master of)

Love his videos, great info and a delivery that works for me. I need to order some trees from him.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

It's linked on the page that BWayneF shared previously. An account of someone who visited Kimura's garden

My Trip to Japan | Wattos Bonsai Blog

Exactly. That is the problem with the Internet. Someone posts a link to a link to a link, and the next thing we know some guy in Australia who took some pictures on a bonsai tour is calling one of Kimura's trees a "broom style tree". What do we know about "Watto"? Nothing. Do a search on the name and bonsai - and all we know is that he is some guy that had a bonsai blog that has been dead for four years. And yet now people are using him as a reputable source for defining a bonsai style just because he posted a photo on the Internet. I wonder if someone asked Kimura how he would respond. "Broom style? No - that is a formal upright!" Of course most tours of Kimura's garden never meet Kimura... and only see the front "museum" part of the garden, not the working areas.

 

[misfit11]

Exactly. That is the problem with the Internet. Someone posts a link to a link to a link, and the next thing we know some guy in Australia who took some pictures on a bonsai tour is calling one of Kimura's trees a "broom style tree". What do we know about "Watto"? Nothing. Do a search on the name and bonsai - and all we know is that he is some guy that had a bonsai blog that has been dead for four years. And yet now people are using him as a reputable source for defining a bonsai style just because he posted a photo on the Internet. I wonder if someone asked Kimura how he would respond. "Broom style? No - that is a formal upright!" Of course most tours of Kimura's garden never meet Kimura... and only see the front "museum" part of the garden, not the working areas.

I agree with you about the link of a link thing. We can go down rabbit holes on the internet and can find virtually any talking point that agrees with and supports our own. The conspiracy theory crowd has proven this point to a tee.

As far as the broom with a central leader thing is concerned, I would have agreed with you that they are not really brooms up until I saw Eric Schrader's (I posted it above) a few weeks ago. I had the belief that a true broom has all the primary branches emanating from one point on the trunk. After watching his video, I stood corrected and was able to adjust my rigid thinking. He explains in the video that although this informal structure with a central leader isn't typically what people think of when talking about broom bonsai, these are still brooms, nonetheless. He also provides support in the form of a Japanese bonsai book with photos that illustrate the point. So, are brooms in this style the traditional formal ones we typically think of? No, but they are an informal broom.

I realize that this guy, Watto, doesn't necessarily have credibility, but I think Eric does. What do you think?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

He explains in the video that although this informal structure with a central leader isn't typically what people think of when talking about broom bonsai, these are still brooms, nonetheless.

I agree with the central leader question - since to me a broom is all about a ring of branches (at least five) all leaving the trunk at the primary branch level - which is more or less the exact opposite of what you would want to do with any other style. Additionally many of these trees are created with an extreme trunk chop, and the large center trunk may help solve the issue of scar healing.