This little Juniper has been in my collection for many years. Last year it became weak due to it being very pot bound. I transferred it into this larger pot and changed the angle. All I was hoping for was an increase in foliage and health and it looks like this has been achieved. Today I pinched it out to retain the shape until a proper restyle at it’s new angle next year.

Sorry about the blurred photo, I should be ashamed of myself!

and after pinching

Heading out the door to Windsor Park to watch N.Ireland Vs Faroe Islands.

Surely to goodness we can score tonight!!

UPDATE 11/8/11: Northern Ireland 4 Faroe Islands 0

I gave my Scottie Pine a bit of a tidy up today. It was slower to bud after the repot this year but is looking great now. It still needs a few tweaks here and there with the next rewiring but for the moment it is back budding nicely and seems to be in great health.

The history of this tree can be viewed HERE.

and the tree today.

I decided that my Juniperus Rigeda or ‘Tosho’ as they call them in Japan, needed a trim today. I had planned to leave it as long as possible after getting advice from Peter Snart. Extension allows the wood to lignify and therefore be capable to hold it’s own weight of foliage. What I wasn’t expecting was the vigorous growth it put out over the last 2 months. This has stiffened the branches in the required places and I decided to plough ahead.

I had read the Tosho 1&2 posts on Peter Tea’s blog last night and found these very interesting. Peter has recently moved his blog over to WordPress. This can be viewed here http://peterteabonsai.wordpress.com/

Here’s my Tosho before trimming.

and this is it after shortening of some shoots. A few have been left long and many of the new buds have remained un-pinched to get the desired growth.

OK, Didn’t take as long as I thought. I have started a new Page for the NIBS on Facebook. To Visit the page click on the image below. For updates just click the like button when you get there. Sorry for all the hassle.

I was checking into our clubs Facebook Group Page last night only to find it gone!!

No clue why, it’s just disappeared of the face of the earth. I’m always hearing nightmare stories about Facebook but this is the first problem I’ve had. As far as I know, you can’t actually close a group page unless all the members leave, so that’s not an option!

I’ll take this as an opportunity to make a new ‘page’ as opposed to a ‘group’.

If anyone finds the old one down the back of the sofa, let me know!!

Had my usual walk this morning. Today we opted to do the Comber Greenway, a seven mile walk into Belfast along an old railway line. Not much in the way of tree inspiration but some nice wild flowers and many signs of an Autumn fast approaching. Didn’t take many photos as my dog took a dizzy turn for some reason and I was too concerned about him to take snaps. He seems ok now.

View towards Scrabo Tower in Ards.

 The fields of County Down.

Wild Flowers a plenty.

An old Evergreen Oak. Wheat has been harvested and the pigeons and clearing up the remains.

Seed maturing on an Ash Tree.