Prune - Chinese Elm [5]

After pondering over the design options for this tree over the last 6 months, I decided to go ahead with a hard prune to force more buds on the trunk. If you're stuck with design options for a tree, I find it helps to have a play around with it on paint: cutting down the trunk, drawing on new leaders, adding branches and foliage until you have a design you are happy with. You can then base your design work on this design. Here is my original virtual for this tree that drove me towards the removal of large straight section on the side of the trunk and helped me chose which apex to keep or not.

Front Virtual

Having this design in mind, I went ahead removing all the foliage on the large straight section on the side of the trunk, getting ready for it's removal in early summer. I decided to cut back hard on the branches that wouldn't be included in the final design to force buds that I could use in the future. Here is the before and after photos of the prune.

Front and Close up of Trunk - before prune

The chalk shows where and what I will be removing in early summer to ensure a clean heal.

Front - after hard prune

I then made a virt from the picture with all the leaves removed so I could get a clearer picture of what I will be aiming for. There are still two apexes left at the top as I am still deciding on which one to remove.

Front Virt

This will now be allowed a full seasons growth ready for wiring and pruning in autumn/winter.