Pray for my tree
This Elm was one of the first trees I ever bought as rough nursery stock, and the oldest that is still alive. I almost killed it once and then put it in a big pot with bagged potting soil and mostly forgot about it for almost 4 years. It escaped the pot, rooted hard to the ground, and was more bush than tree.
I originally intended to just free it from the ground and do a repot with minimal root work. But once I started freeing it from the soil I saw just how extreme the situation was. I had to cut three different finger-thick roots running straight down just to flatten the root mass out enough to get it into a better training pot. So I decided to lean in and try to get some nice nebari structure established. There was a big gap on one side but also a nice flare so i draped some long, thick roots over a big chunk of red lava. The tip is just visible. Eventually I'd like to have it standing on exposed roots and leaning on the rock, like a hillside eroded out from under it.
And of course I also reduced the foliage heavily (took a bunch of cuttings). I think there's a good balance to what fine feeder roots I was able to preserve but it's definitely a bit late in the season (USA Zone 9a) for this kind of heavy work. I'll baby it for a month or so but I know I pushed it too hard.
First photos are now, the rest are before and the roots before and after (I wanted to take more pics but my hands were a little full lol)