Zelkova Schneideriana or Elm As Bonsai

The zelkova is a genius of the elm family of plants and there are about six trees in this family and they are deciduous. The zelkova is common in North America and Northern Europe and of course East Asia.

The name zelkova is derived from one of the languages of Caucasus.

These plants occur in woodland thickets and hedge groves in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iran, and Asia. They have an ovate to elliptic type leaf and they produce a fantastic display of fall color if left out doors they will eventually completely defoliate and loose all of there leaves until the next spring.

Many of these elms have been acclimated over the years to grow indoors as bonsai. However this plant will do much better out doors but you can grow zelkova indoors if reasonable care is taken.

The most common of the elms is the Japanese Gray bark and it is well known and grown through out the world as bonsai.

However there is no reason that some of these other species can not be grown as well and also do just as well as a bonsai.

If you do decide to grow one of these plants indoors then find a well lit and fairly cool position for it and place it on a humidity tray and mist as often as you can.

If you prefer that your plant be deciduous and loose its leaves and have a slight dormant period then try to keep the plant out side during the regular season from may till early Autumn and then begin to bring it back indoors after it has dropped its leaves.

If you prefer to grow your zelkova outdoors then you’ll want to provide it some protection from frost and extreme cold once the plant has lost its leaves it can be wintered in garages or out buildings as they do not require light once leaf drop has occurred.

Watering will be much more critical indoors than outdoors as it will tend to dry out much quicker because of a lack of humidity unless you can provide it with some sort of green house affect.

Feeding of your plant will require a fertilizer high in nitrogen early in the spring when leaf bud is forming for at least about a month then you can drop back to just a well balanced feed for the rest of the season about every two weeks or so.

Pruning of your zelkova will certainly help it to become more compact and grow much nicer for you. I always wait and allow the shoots to grow out to about four nodes and then I prune back to about one or two leaves to get a more compact look.

The zelkova will respond very well to the broom style of bonsai as this tends to be its natural growing habit anyway.

However they can be trained in nearly any style that you desire so just decide on how you want your plant to look and then just work at it till you get what you want.

You can propagate this plant by seeds or green cuttings in the summer and hardwood cuttings in the winter and air layering after the spring growth has hardened off.

Plants that have been planed in pots or trained as bonsai are pretty safe from the well known Dutch elm disease. But you may want to watch out for aphids and leafhoppers and gall mites and you’ll want to be aware of leafspot.

You can wire your elm for shape and style but be aware that the bark will scare easily and care should be taken when you wire this tree.

Thanks, for reading and viewing.

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