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It is a Siberian elm grown from seed, and had been growing in open ground for six years before being potted up in early spring a year ago. These are vigorous trees and are ideal for this method of styling.

You can start by developing a good trunk with an interesting line and pronounced taper. The next step is to add the branches. As you can see you have plenty of choice. Many of the older branches are too thick to bend next to the trunk so you will concentrate on the young, thinner ones.

The best time to tackle a project like this is in mid-summer, while the tree still has plenty of time to put on a lot more growth before autumn. If you do it too late in the year the new growth will not be fully hardened before the frosts begin and it will wither. If you try this while the tree is dormant frost may enter the hairline cracks caused when the branches are bent and this may result in die-back of entire branches, which means back to square one!

When positioning the basic branch structure you should avoid straight lines (unless you are producing a formal upright style) and try to bend the branch at each point where a side shoot emerges.

Remember to introduce vertical curves as horizontal ones.

Feed the tree well to encourage new growth but reduce the nitrogen content towards late summer in order to harden off any tender young shoots.

Allow all the new shoots which emerge from the branches to grow unchecked in order to thicket’ the host branches.

Apply the wire fairly loosely because the branches will thicken and set rapidly.

Check the wiring after three weeks and then every few days after that. As soon as it appears too tight renew it immediately.

Next spring the long shoots can be pruned back and selected ones wired into position to form the secondary branches. New growth from these should be allowed to esteemed to six or seven leaf nodes, and then trimmed back to two or three. These too can be loosely wired into position. Feeding heavily will mean that you will need to repeat this ‘grow and clip’ cycle several times throughout the season. In a year or two this tree can be planted in a display pot and the refinement stage can begin.