Bonsaify | Fall Foliage Fun with a Chinese Cork Bark Elm Bonsai Tree

This is Eric’s favorite time of year for this Chinese Cork bark elm. He walks through the work he does at this time of year, and a few scenarios.

0:29 A 360 degree view of the tree. The colors in leaves are variable, yellow and golds. Leaves will start browning and falling off. In late summer, Eric lets deciduous trees grow without pruning them back. Initially, Eric cleans up the silhouette and trims back some shoots that are poking out, so he can get a good picture of the tree in fall foliage.

1:36 Eric cleans up the soil surface and puts the surface he uses for photos down...so he can show some of the beautiful fall foliage having fallen onto that surface.

2:38 Eric continues removing leaves to clean up the tree even further, to get to the point when the tree has a lacy feeling where some of the leaves are on the ground, and some are still on the tree. Eric gives banging the table a try (spoiler: that didn't work) and then moves on to explaining which leaves he removes first, to enhance the look he's going for at this time.

4:18 This exercise is just for fun, really, and to take a photo. Do you agree with Eric that the tree looks more interesting in this photo? Let us know in the comments? Eric moves on to removing more leaves to reveal even more of the tree's structure.

5:34 Photo #2

5:40 Timing of this tree's prime fall color and the 2022 bonsai show Eric wants to enter this tree into (https://www.pacificbonsaiexpo.com/) may be off by a week or two, but that won't stop Eric from pulling all the leaves off and taking another photo to enter the tree for consideration!

7:00 Photo #3

7:24 The tree has transitioned more into a winter look. Eric stops to look at the tree with some leaves intact, to see more of the branching structure and to retain that look of fleeting fall color, before continuing to remove foliage.

8:45 All leaves removed (and did you know that a hairdryer can serve as a great bonsai leaf blower?) and Eric takes a few more photos.

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Music by Bensound.com