May 9 2011

Flowering Cotoneaster

This Cotoneaster has been in my collection since I dug it out of a garden in 1995. It’s nothing special really and I’m not overly happy with the shape of it. I even consider removing all branches and starting again. What I do like about it is the flowers and the deadwood I’ve created.

This was it back in a garden in 1995.

And here in 1996.

and again in 1998. Shortly after this photo a root died causing a narrowing of the live vein and the death of a few lower branches.

May 9 2011

Beech Loving Wasp

I spotted this little fella on my Beech today. Not a common wasp, may not even be a wasp but it sure looks like one. He was oblivious to me and the camera. I was wondering if it was one of those leaf cutting ones but he never got around to it. Pretty in his own way.

I also have about 20 million of these feckers in the garden at the minute. They do there very best to land on bare skin or fly into your mouth!!

May 9 2011

A little bit every day

Jamie commented on one of my posts yesterday and asked if I worked on trees every day. I replied that it felt like it at the moment and that it mostly depended on my work getting in the way.

This got me thinking about what is required to keep on top of a collection. I’m the first to admit that I have far too much sitting about the place and sometimes my better trees miss out on that next step of refinement. I find the best way to stay on top is to do that little task every day. I’ll water everything and then look for something to do that fits the time I have available.

Today I trimmed back a Cork Bark Chinese Elm, trimmed a few extension shoots from my Korean Hornbeam, shortened in the second flush of shoots on a hawthorn and took a few photos of my Cotoneaster in Flower.

Here’s a few photos from today.