How Much Does A Chinese Elm Bonsai Tree Cost?

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One of the most complex parts when I first started getting interested in bonsai was figuring out how much a bonsai tree cost and, more importantly, if the bonsai nurseries were ripping me off with the prices they gave me for their Chinese elms. With Chinese elm trees quickly being amongst the most popular bonsai tree species available, you are likely asking yourself the same question. So how much does a Chinese elm bonsai tree cost? 

The average cost for a Chinese elm bonsai tree is $49.39 or £39.50. A good price range, however, that most store-bought chinese elm bonsai trees will retail for is $20 to $50. Premium Chinese elm bonsai trees can retail for upwards of $624. 

So what differences can impact the cost of a Chinese elm bonsai? How did I work out these price ranges? And how much is too much to pay for a Chinese Elm bonsai? Keep reading to find out more!

Just a quick heads up, over the past three years of running Plantpaladin, hundreds of people have asked for product recommendations. As such, You can find my favorite indoor bonsai tree here (link takes you to Bonsaiboy), my favorite outdoor bonsai tree (link takes you to Bonsaiboy), or have a look at all the products I recommend here. 

How much does a Chinese Elm bonsai cost?

Now to get to the bottom of exactly how much a Chinese elm bonsai tree costs, I compared 20 different Chinese elm bonsai trees and over 100 bonsai trees of various species. 

I also asked ten plant paladin readers who own Chinese elms how much they paid for them. 

All to ensure you have the most up-to-date/accurate post on how much a Chinese elm bonsai costs. 

To summarize: 

• The average price for a chinese elm bonsai is $49.39 or £39.50
• Most chinese elm bonsai trees are inexpensive and retail between $20 to $50, or £16 to £40. 
• Compared to other bonsai trees, Chinese elms are on the cheaper side of trees, with premium outdoor bonsai such as Pine or cedar bonsai costing significantly more. 
• The cheapest Chinese Elm bonsai trees retail for around $25 (£20). These bonsai are typically small, under 10cm tall ( shohin sized), and five years old or less. 
• Premium Chinese Elm bonsai trees typically retail for $100 to $200 from bonsai nurseries, with the highest quality Chinese Elm bonsai retailing for over $624 ($500). 
• Or most beginners, however, paying more than $50 for an indoor Chinese Elm bonsai tree will be unnecessary. 
• Now while these ranges are accurate, the exact price of your chinese Elm will depend on the overall quality of the tree. 
• The two most significant factors that impact the cost of your chinese elm bonsai tree are age and size. 
• Older, larger bonsai trees will typically cost much more than younger, smaller bonsai, which tend to be a dime a dozen. 

Now this is quite a lot of information, so let’s break it down in more detail. 

Chinese Elm bonsai costs

As mentioned, I compared well over 100 bonsai trees from 22 well-known suppliers to get this information as accurately as possible.

These suppliers were well-known bonsai nurseries such as Herons to massive multinationals like Amazon. 

I compared many popular bonsai species to ensure we could work out if you overpay for your chinese elm bonsai and ensure the averages were accurate. 

I also visited my local botanical gardens to ask if the prices seemed reasonable. 

You can find the complete comparison of chinese elm bonsai trees below: 

How much does a small-sized chinese Elm bonsai cost? 

So first up, how much does a small Chinese elm bonsai tree cost? 

As mentioned earlier, smaller bonsai trees cost significantly less than larger ones. 

On top of this, smaller chinese elm bonsai trees are much more commonplace than their larger counterparts meaning that due to economies of scale, they will also be cheaper. 

Now bonsai trees classified as small typically fall into the shoin category of 10cm or less. 

So how much does a small chinese elm bonsai cost? 

A small chinese elm bonsai, categorized as being in the Shoin style or 0 to 15cm tall, costs $29.16 or £23.38 on average. These bonsai are amongst the cheapest bonsai trees you can purchase due to being commonplace in almost all garden centers/nurseries. 

How much does a medium-sized Chinese Elm bonsai cost? 

Next up, medium-sized chinese elm bonsai. 

Like their smaller-sized counterparts, medium-sized chinese elm bonsai trees are also incredibly commonplace and have less significant a jump in price between small and medium-sized chinese elm bonsai. 

So using the data from the table above, how much does a medium-sized chinese elm bonsai cost? 

A medium-sized chinese elm bonsai tree that falls in the Chohin, Kumono, or Katade-Mochi size categories (20 to 46cm) costs $57.62. This is about $30 more expensive than smaller-sized chinese elm bonsai. 

So we touched on this earlier, but what are size classifications? 

Well, typically, bonsai trees are grown in various sizes, mainly when being grown for competitions. 

The most miniature-sized bonsai trees fall in the Keshitsubo category, which is 1 to 8cm big or 1 to 3 inches tall. 

The largest category is imperial-sized bonsai which can grow as tall as 200cm. 

Typically, the larger a bonsai tree becomes and the higher it moves up a category, the more expensive they become. 

To read more about size classification, check out my post here. 

How much does a large-sized Chinese Elm bonsai cost? 

Finally, we come to sizeable chinese elm bonsai trees. 

Now it is rarer to find nurseries and online stores selling more giant bonsai trees as most retail and sell in auctions, even for commonplace bonsai species like chinese Elm. 

That being said, I did manage to find out the averages of more giant bonsai trees that are over 50cm using the data above: 

The average price of a large chinese elm bonsai tree is $265.19 (£212.19). The larger Chinese elm bonsai become, the more expensive they are, with 20-year-old large bonsai retailing for over $624.  

How much does a 5-year-old Chinese Elm bonsai cost? 

So now that we have considered size, the second central element that can impact the cost of a chinese elm bonsai tree is the tree’s age. 

So does this rung truy for chiens elm bonsai? How much does a chinese elm bonsai cost? 

The average price of a 5-year-old chinese elm bonsai tree is $51.62 (£41.39). The cheapest 5-year-old chinese elm bonsai will cost $24.99 for small shohin-style bonsai. The most expensive 5-year-old chinese elm bonsai will cost $121.88 for trees with an informal upright style.  

How much does a 10-year-old Chinese Elm bonsai cost?

So while 5-year-old bonsai trees are commonplace, do older trees cost more between 5 to ten years? 

The average price for chinese elm bonsai trees between 5 to 10 years old is $46.61 ($37.38). Surprisingly, this is cheaper than 50-year-old chinese elm bonsai trees, with the retailer you purchase your tree from being the most significant factor. 

On top of this, the difference in price does not jump as a bonsai tree gets older. 

Using the data in the table at the start of this post, you can see that chinese elm tres beat the trend of older bonsai trees being more expensive in the 5 to 10-year-old bracket, with price seemingly being dependent on other factors. 

How much does a 20-year-old chinese elm bonsai tree cost? 

So 10-year-old chinese elm bonsai trees cost less than 5-year-old chinese elm bonsai, but is this the case with larger 20-year-old chinese elm bonsai? 

The average price for a 20-year-old chinese elm bonsai is $624.94. This is a significant increase of $570 compared to 5 and 10-year-old bonsai. This extra expense is entirely down to the aesthetic appeal and design of the bonsai. 

Does style impact the cost of a chinese elm bonsai tree? 

So age and size are the two most significant factors that impact the price of a chinese elm bonsai. Does the style of a tree impact the cost of a bonsai? 

After all, bonsai typically fall into multiple style categories for competition, whether broom, cascade, or informal upright. 

Chinese elm bonsai trees with a cascade or multiple trunk design are more expensive than other bonsai styles. Cascade bonsai typically averages $263, and multiple trunk bonsai have an average price of $513. 

In my post on how much a bonsai tree costs, I found that, regardless of species, bonsai trees with a multiple-trunk design or a cascade are significantly more expensive than other styles. 

The main reason for this is the time it takes to grow a bonsai tree with multiple trunks, most of which take 30 to 50 years. 

That said, chinese elm bonsai grown with multiple trunks are also likely to be the most expensive style of tree. 

What is the most you should pay for a chinese elm bonsai?

So having run through the data quite in-depth, what is the price to pay for a chinese elm bonsai tree if you want to pull out all the stops and go for a premium expensive tree? 

The most you should pay for a premium chinese elm bonsai tree is $650. This considers that the tree is relatively large, older than 20 years, and has a significant bonsai style such as cascade or multiple trunk styles. 

You should avoid paying over $700 for chinese elm bonsai trees as there are likely cheaper alternatives available. 

What is a fair price to pay for a chinese elm bonsai? 

A fair price for a chinese elm bonsai tree will be between $20 and $60. This considers that the tree is under ten years old, is no bigger than 35cm, and has a formal upright, broom, or informal upright style. 

If you are a beginner looking for your first bonsai tree, I would stay within the $60 mark. 

Do store-bought or online chinese elm bonsai trees cost more? 

Online chinese elm bonsai trees cost less than directly from a nursery. You can pick up a 30cm Chinese Elm bonsai on Amazon for around $37. From Heron’s bonsai nursery, this is equivalent to $48. 

Now the only caveat to this will be the quality of the tree, with bonsai nurseries much more likely to have higher quality, healthier chinese elm trees in a broader variety of sizes and shapes, which you will be paying a premium for.

What are the other costs associated with a Chinese Elm bonsai? 

So while chinese elm bonsai are relatively inexpensive, like all bonsai trees, they have other costs.

These include: 

• Wire – to help shape your tree – typically between $15 to $25
• Fertilizer – to help feed your tree ‘$80 to $100 for a good quality fertilizer 
• Soil – $10 to $20 
• Pots – to repot and ensure your tree’s roots aren’t squished – $166 on average for a good quality pot. 
• Tools – $40 to $100 for a good bonsai tool set to cut, trim and shape your tree. 
• Turntables – to move your tree when trimming $10 to $20
• Pesticides – $30 to $100 on an excellent pesticide
• Grow lights – $30 to $60, depending on the size. 

How much do chinese elm bonsai seeds cost? 

Chinese elm bonsai tree seeds are inexpensive, costing between $5 and $15. Most seed packs contain multiple seeds, usually between 8 and 50 individual seeds. Bonsai seeds, regardless of species, are relatively inexpensive. 

How expensive are chinese elm bonsai when compared with other bonsai trees? 

So now you know how expensive a bonsai tree cost,s how does this tack up when compared with other bonsai species? 

Well, luckily, I’ve pulled this information to in the table below, but to summarize: 

Chinese elm bonsai trees are among the cheapest bonsai tree species, costing an average of $49.39 per tree. Ficus bonsai ($46.37) and Fukien tea bonsai ($40.43) are the only cheaper species. 

Chinese elm bonsai then are significantly cheaper than hardy outdoor bonsai, such as Scots Pine which can retail for over $1000 per tree. 

How much does a bonsai tree cost – Survey results 

Finally, I asked 20 plant paladin readers how much they bought their Chinese Elm bonsai for. 

To summarise: 

My top picks for the gear you will need!

So like I mentioned earlier, over the past three years of running PlantPaladin, hundreds of people have asked me for my recommendations on the best bonsai gear on the market. 

Having spent thousands of dollars on bonsai items these past few years and tested at least 100 bonsai-specific products, I’ve listed my favorite products below – All of which I highly recommend and think you can get great value. 

They can purchase directly by clicking the link to take them to Amazon. 

Bonsai Tool Set: One of the significant challenges I’ve had is finding a toolset that was not only durable but didn’t break the bank. SOLIGT has recently developed a fantastic bonsai tool set that covers all the tools you need to trim, prune, and repot your trees. – You can grab it here. 

Complete Bonsai Set: Many of you will want to grow your bonsai trees entirely from scratch, but finding the varicose seeds, pots, and other items in one place can be challenging. Leaves and Sole then have created a complete bonsai set that I’ve personally used that ticks all the boxes. You can grab it here. 

Bonsai wire: The number of times I’ve run out of wire for my bonsai or purchased cheap bonsai wire that doesn’t do the job is embarrassing for me to admit. After a lot of trial and error, I found that using Hotop’s aluminum bonsai wire is one of the best options on the market. This can easily be used for both indoor and outdoor bonsai. You can grab it here.