This hunk of wood is a Zelkova Serrata that was field grown and neglected for 8 years during this time it grew to 25 feet tall and was a bitch to get out of the ground. It was transferred into this blue tub were it has resided for the last 4 years or so. It weighs a tonne and I wanted to start to try and make a tree out of it. I needed to examine the nebari such as it is to determine the best option for the tree.

On Wednesday night, ably assisted by Alan I managed to get it out of the pot and removed the branches that would definitely not be required in any future design.

Alan and I then repotted the tree and managed to get it down in size to a mica training pot. I would have liked to have made it slightly more upright but the roots and pot wouldn’t allow this this time around. It’s not going to be a pretty Zelkova like many you see but it will have a certain rugged charm in about 10 years time. It’s a big tree as you can see below. It’ll have rotted deadwood features and a rather ugly nebari but powerful in it’s own nasty way 🙂

Some more pruning and wiring required to set it on the right path but it’s an interesting project. The big one in the middle was it in the growing field back in 2003!