FAST & EASY Pruning Bonsai Trees for Beginners – How to Prune a Chinese Elm Bonsai Tree

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This is the fastest and easiest way To prune a chinese and bonsai for Beginners So you decided to get into bansai as a Raw beginner you went out Purchased your chinese album or Something similar it was looking really Good Really nice shape to it and you’ve been Doing an excellent job Of keeping that tree happy healthy it’s Produced Miles and miles of healthy vigorous Shoots and it’s grown Way beyond the shape of that bonsai tree It now looks like a scruffy bush in a Small pot You pick up your scissors or your shears You’re about to do that first cut and Then you start doubting yourself What if you make the wrong choice what If you cut something off and it Dies back i’ve been there i know what it Feels like i still get doubts when i’m Pruning and that’s why i’m going to show You this really quick Really easy technique what’s happening Everybody i’m darren And today i’m going to show you the Easiest And fastest way to prune your chinese Ambon side For the first time also in the future I’m going to make some videos

Showing the application of more advanced Techniques that are going to continue to Move the quality of this tree forward So if that sounds like something that Might be useful to you i highly Recommend you subscribe to the grow Bonsai channel And hit the bell icon to ensure that you Get notifications when those videos come Out Before we continue it’s important to Consider why We want to prune our bonsai trees the First And most obvious reason that we prune Our bonsai trees Is to reinstate or maintain the style Of our bonsai the second reason we prune Is To increase the quality and refinement Of the branching On our tree over time in an ideal world We don’t want the Quality of the tree to remain the same Or even to Decrease ideally we’d like it to Increase and the reason i point that Out is because there is actually a Disadvantage to pruning Bonsai in the way that i’m going to show You long term But i’ll talk a bit more about that a Little bit later All right so the technique that we’re

Going to use is as follows We’re going to identify the ideal Silhouette Of our tree and we’re simply going to Prune off Any shoots that extend beyond that ideal Silhouette So one of two cases might apply to your Tree either It had a very well-defined silhouette And it Sent out the hairy shoot you can still See Where that silhouette is so it’s easy Enough to prune back The second case which is what we’ve got Here is that the tree Doesn’t really have a well-defined Silhouette anymore I might have left this one a little bit Long to prune and so if your tree Doesn’t have an obvious Well-defined silhouette like my tree Here You’re gonna have to use a little bit of Imagination to decide where you want That silhouette to be Once you’ve defined where the ideal Silhouette should be You can simply prune off all the shoots That go beyond It is literally that simple i’m going to Define my silhouette now and i’m going To take into account such things as the

Thickness of the trunk The height of the trunk how high And how wide i’d like the crown of Foliage to become I’d like the silhouette to be somewhere Around this width And then height wise i don’t want it too Much higher than that So that’s going to be my guideline for Pruning And i’m simply going to come in i’m Going to grab Shoots that go beyond the silhouette That i’m working with I’m going to prune them So height wise somewhere around there For that shoot These shoots the same A good technique to make this even Faster is to grab A bunch of shoots that should all be Roughly the same height I’m just going to cut through all of Them in one go now bunch them up Slice through again i’m going to bunch Those up Slice through this branch here is Actually grown quite far out of the Silhouette and it’s become thick Too thick for my shears so i’m going to Get the branch cutters on the loose I’m going to find a suitable place to Cut it back to And we’ll take that off there

There we go take some of these shoots Like a wee bit This one’s still a bit long that one’s a Bit high don’t need it coming all the Way up there so i’m just gonna Roughly cut that out we’ve got this nice Long piece coming from here We can cut that back Easy there we go so it’s looking a lot Less hairy now A little bit more like a bonsai but We’re not quite there yet Let’s take a real quick break from Pruning our chinese and bonsai It’s time for kusamono corner kusamono Is the japanese art of creating Plantings from grasses and other Seasonal plants and the kusamona are Used as accent plants To bonsai displays i’m an accent plant Kusamono raw beginner bakusamona corner Is going to look at my attempts To create kusumono or accent plants in The hope that i inspire you To do similar and by the way all tips And suggestions for species Are much appreciated so hit me a comment Down below if you’ve got any ideas So this mini accent plant or kusimono Is planted in the jackson con accent pot The species is rhodohypoxis variety Hebron Farm cerise it’s got grass-like Foliage and these beautiful profuse

Flowers that have been so far been Flowering all through the summer i just Think these are just the most gorgeous Little things in the world Every time i look at them they brighten Up my day care of rhodohypoxis is pretty Simple They like to be kept moist but fairly Well draining in the summer They like plenty of sunshine and then Just let them go they’re glorious Over winter i’m told that they like to Be kept dry And they’re also not fully frost hardy And it’s really as simple as that This little thing definitely has pride Of place on my bonsai bench I created this planting in the spring of 2020 It just absolutely grew away and i’ve Had no problems with it I have since in the summer tried Planting some of these And they just really struggled wilted Most of them have survived but not all Of them As opposed to this which just flew from The spring If you’re going to create planting with These my recommendation Is to do it in the spring just as they Start to grow And it’s really easy to create them as Well i simply took this root ball

Out of the pot just as the green tip Started to poke up above the soil Used a chopstick to prize some of the Bulbs and as much root as i could get Away dividing it up planted them in just Any old soil that i had lying around i Think it’s a bit of acadama Compost it doesn’t didn’t seem to matter Too much although i do believe they Prefer it on the acidic side But planted it up a bit of moss and away They went Dead simple give it a try they’re just Beautiful How can you not love that come on now um Beautiful down here we’ve got our first Branch And it’s got a wide spread of growth It’s crossing over the trunk here it’s Going right around the back and up Quite high here and come in and remove One or two Shoots that just aren’t necessary the First one is this branch because it’s Cutting right across the trunk There the branch comes out this way and It was going back that way didn’t look Good This piece here is much taller than i Need and it’s you know it’s reaching for The apex Up here i don’t necessarily want it to Go That high so i’m going to come

Cut it back a little bit Again we’ve still got some shoots coming Right around That side cut these back a little bit And then we’ve got two shoots coming Quite straight upwards don’t Really like those much Up towards the top of the tree here We’ve got this branch that’s coming Right out it’s crossing over the main Trunk line that’s cleaned up this area Now a little bit I think this uh this area is just still A little bit heavy For the silhouette that i’m aiming for There we go that’s much better Earlier i mentioned that there is a Disadvantage to Quickly pruning to the silhouette of a Bonsai tree and the disadvantage Is this if you continue long term over The course of a year Two three years to prune to the Silhouette of the tree Interior branches will grow out to the Silhouette be pruned to the silhouette And over time the overall silhouette Will become more and more dense But more and more uniform and so what You end up with is More of a topiary caricature of what a Bonsai looks like Rather than an actual bonsai tree the Difference is the quality

Of the foliage pads or the quality of The The ramification of those branches a More highly refined bonsai Will have interior growth it’ll have Exterior growth it’ll have Body to those billowy pads uh It won’t be uniform it won’t be you know Tightly clipped in a fine line it will Be more of a More of a natural free-flowing shape There will be visibility into places There’ll be negative space If you get to a stage where you find That you’re dissatisfied with the Appearance Of your tree that you’ve been pruning to The silhouette At the end of this video i’m going to Put a couple of links that are going to Show you Some more advanced techniques to really Improve the quality of your tree Via pruning and also in the future i’ll Be making more videos with this tree Specifically and other similar trees To really build on the quality of your Tree so if that sounds like something You could be into I highly recommend subscribing to the Channel And hit the bell so that you’re notified When those new videos do come out By the way if you’ve got any questions

Or if you think there’s anything i can Help with Feel free to drop a comment down below Or you can send a dm Over on instagram it’s at growbonsai Or you can hit me up on facebook my page Is grow bonsai And there’s also a group that you can Join and post any questions in there to Get help from the grove onsite community Right so i’m all done for the work for This tree today Don’t forget to subscribe if you got any Value from this video i’d really Appreciate it if you could smash that Like button I’m darren thanks ever so much for Watching i’ll speak to you next time Take care