This was one of the first 2 trees that I got to work on. It was a Simple Chinese elm, shohin in a 15 cm blue bonsai pot.

Initially I looked at adjusting the potting angle as I felt it was potted in a strange angle as you can see from the only image that I got of the plant, off ebay.

Original cost of the plant was a total of £16.00

Initially, as with everything other tree, after delivery I let it grow and invigorate a bit and then I start by working on the root structure first. This one was plainly potted from a seedling or cutting with a thick and wrangling tap root that was pushing it up from the pot and was circling.

The root was used as a cutting and it is now currently forming the structure of a new bonsai. Though it took close to 3 months for the root cutting to take, it did eventually take and so did some other cuttings that are currently in development.

I chose a slightly bigger pot for it to let it develop, adjusted the potting angle and I have kept up with clipping it back. The other thing that was lacking was an apex for the tree which I'm currently trying to develop.

I also had spidermite infestation on the tree so I had to fight it. I'm also working on trying slowly to heal some of the wounds and scars. I need to allow for another couple of years of growth and hopefully it will be a tree worth looking at.

Still a long way to go but the basis of a decent tree is there.