06 | April | 2011 | Bonsai Eejit

Every year my Common Juniper gets it’s usual flowering of rust fungus. It usually occures in February. Last year it got a major dose of fungicide and I had crossed my fingers for this year.

This was it yesterday. 😦 It’s just starting and hasn’t got to that jelly like state yet. I have kept it in the tunnel and on the dry side. It usually goes nuts after a heavy shower.

The general health of the tree is very good. It was repotted in the Autumn and spent the Winter in the poly tunnel. The problem with the rust is that it seems to cause the tree to throw the odd branch. Here’s an example.

Guess I’ll keep trying different fungicides and keep my fingers crossed.

This is my Coral Bark Maple ‘Sango Kaku’. It was my first Maple bonsai attempt going back to 1994.

I bought it as a garden centre tree that was very root bound and probably over worked it in it’s first few years in my care. It was slow to grow and weak on many branches. It sat in a corner for a year or so and then it was planted out into open ground for about 8 years. Even in open ground it didn’t do much for a long time. It was just starting to gain vigour when I had to clear the ground.

In ground 2004

Two years later and this is where I’m at with it. It is overly tall at the moment but I plan to increase the overall width of the tree. I’m building up the branch structure from the inside to ensure short inter-nodal length and good ramification. I’m not after a quick fix bonsai maple . You see these all the time and when they’re bought the new owner ends up not being able to live with the faults and cuts all the branches off and starts again.