From gardencenter to The Trophy in Belgium

[Marco B]

This tree has still no topic here. This Elm is one of my first trees, and his journey started in the year 1997. I just started my new hobby, called bonsai, a few years earlier. But at that time there was no internet, no magazines in my own language. Only a few standard books, which i had red from the first till the last page. I was, here in Holland, at a local gardencenter and there I saw this Elm. Never heard of the term "malsai", but is was a real one! I decided the buy the tree, altough I had no clue what to do with this bunch of branches, so the first year I only watered the tree.. The year after, in 1998, that I did the first mayor prune. As you can see at all the photo's below here, it was a try and error: the first years I did the pruning at the wrong way, which resulted in too big branches, and just a few small twiggs....



1997


1998

2003


2006


2006


2007

 

[Marco B]

2012

2013


2014


2015


2017


2018

 

[Wood]

Damn I wish I had mallsai that looked that nice

 

[Marco B]

I thought that it could be a nice idea to put the tree on a show, here in Holland. So in 2019 it prouldy shined at the show "Bonsai van het Westen'. The tree won the second price deciduous trees!


2019 in winter


The year after, the tree was accepted for the biggest bonsai show in Europe, The Trophy in Genk! For me, there was no bigger reward!



The year after that I tree was tired, It hardly grew anymore, so I decided to put him in a bigger wooden box and let hem freely grow...

 

[Jorgens86]

How it looks now?

 

[BrightsideB]

Very cool to see the progression. And congratulations on the award! Also cool you kept the same style for over 25 years around the time you started. Cool to see it become more mature and ramified!

 

[Adamski77]

I thought that it could be a nice idea to put the tree on a show, here in Holland. So in 2019 it prouldy shined at the show "Bonsai van het Westen'. The tree won the second price deciduous trees!View attachment 575464

View attachment 575465
2019 in winter


The year after, the tree was accepted for the biggest bonsai show in Europe, The Trophy in Genk! For me, there was no bigger reward!

View attachment 575466

The year after that I tree was tired, It hardly grew anymore, so I decided to put him in a bigger wooden box and let hem freely grow...

Looking great! So easy to scroll down in a minute or two… and so much work needed over 27 years. Hats off!

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Great progression! Would love to see it now.

 

[Marco B]

Great progression! Would love to see it now.

Thanks! It has had a prune last weekend and it is't back in its old shape. I will upload a 'now' photo later, when I made it. It's still in his wooden pot, and full in leaves..

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Great that it is healthy and growing! Maybe in some time it will reappear at the shows!

 

[Marco B]

Great that it is healthy and growing! Maybe in some time it will reappear at the shows!

haha, who knows. Problem is that there not many shows here in my neighbourhood..

 

[Hartinez]

So good. This really is why I will always hold onto a few of my garden center trees. With time and proper management they can be show winning quality.

 

[Marco B]

How it looks now?

This is the tree at this moment..

 

[Adamski77]

This is the tree at this moment..View attachment 575496

wow wow wow... funny enough wooden box only adds to the age ... at first glance I thought it was a pot

 

[Marco B]

wow wow wow... funny enough wooden box only adds to the age ... at first glance I thought it was a pot

ha no, had to go back in a bigger, wooden box, so why not made from a nice wood?

 

[Michael P]

Great tree and great story!

 

[Carol 83]

Awesome progression.

 

[Jorgens86]

Only thing i dont like on older chinese elms is the bark. I just doesnt look good

 

[Ruddigger]

Only thing i dont like on older chinese elms is the bark. I just doesnt look good

Really? I think it’s the best feature.

 

[JadedEvan]

@Marco B - curious if you would do anything different with the approach on this tree if you had the chance? 27 years is an impressive amount of time to invest on a tree, any advice you would share in hindsight that would benefit those reading on the thread?