Celtis in a Baobab style.

This Celtis Africana grew as a self sown seedling in this bag that had another plant in it(died) for about three years. October 2008, when I started in bonsai, I did a "trunk chop" my way and it survived.

JULY 2009

It had a few big roots growing out of the holes in the bag which I cut off.

It has grown well through all the torture- all the growth you see was grown in 7 months.

The trunk of the tree stands about 17cm high.

I cut of only one third of the roots the following spring because I did not know if there were enough fine roots and Iplanted the tree in a bigger but shallower container- I wanted to grow out that ugly scar.
I also cut back the existing branches to get better ramification and  lowered the lowest branches.

At that stage the only way I see for this tree was a broomstyle.

This is the tree October 2009:

The nebari:

The apex was too high and I was starting to think of the tree in a Baobab style. Here is the tree August 2010 after the apex was chopped:

Here are the possible fronts to the tree in February 2011:

Here is the tree(September 2011) after I had cut back the twigs to the first or the second leaf. There were a few thin twigs that have died back but no major problem:

The nebari is covered up by horse manure to give the tree the chance to recover from winter and to encourage more fine surface roots.

When new buds emerge I am going to remove all the remaining leaves to help reduce the leaf size. I still need some of the branches to fill out but I believe this will be a "finished" tree by December.

Here is the tree in it's winter silhouette:

  The tree is coming along very nicely as a Baoabab style bonsai tree.

January 2013:

I have defoliated the tree today and have chopped the apex to keep a more rounded look. Will wire the tree again and work on the leaf reduction.

(I really think I must try and get a bend into the lowest right hand branch!)

Oktober 2013.

The tree was left to grow out freely after the winter rest:

 Without looking at the branch structure I determined a few fronts that I like and marked them. To examine the branch structure again and to start this seasons refinement I defoliated the tree:

From the top:

I removed all the downward growing branches and twigs, all the upward growing ones as well as those growing in the inside of bends and the ones to close to the trunk:

The branch with the leaves on is going to be developed into a new branch to fill up the open area. Here is the tree from the top after cleaning it up:

The tree will be left to bud out now but will be pinched after every second leaf to promote twiggy growth and small leaves.

Some pics July 2014:
 (Sorry, quality of pics not so good.)

An update: July 2015. The new branch have thickened up nicely. Another season of free growth will make a big differance.