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.

Well, over the last 2 days, Josh has been retrieving his bonsai from my garden and returning them to there proper home. I can’t really take any credit for their care as I wasn’t here either 🙂 All thanks goes to Brian, Stan, Phil and Sam on the watering crew.

Before he collected them I took a few quick snaps to share here. Some of them are seen here for the first time as they were only dug out of the garden in the Spring.

The new guys from the ground, a big hornbeam, a beech, a root over rock Chamaecyparis and a Scots Pine.

Improvisation ?

Chamaecyparis Obtusa

Blue Cedar

Wych Elm Raft front and back.

Yew Front and Back

Turkey Oak

Another Hornbeam

and a Little Lonicera.

I now have space on my benches again 🙂

I managed to trim a few other trees as well. Here’s a few before and after shots.

Dancing Hawthorn before

Lovely fine growth on this Hawthorn and this is the 3rd trimming this year.

Cork Bark Elms

and another one that Stephen trimmed for me.

and my Silver Birch.

I probably trimmed back another 10 today!! No photos 🙂

I decided to have a peep at a few of my air layers. No sign of roots on the oak but I had better luck on the Cork Bark Elm and Cotoneaster. I decided that I would go ahead and remove the layers to give them time to establish roots before the Winter.

This is the Cork Bark Elm.   ORIGINAL POST

It was an easy decision to remove this one. Not only had it filled the moss, it was sending roots up and down the trunk as well!

The unveiling …

The separation….

The Cotoneaster hadn’t issued as many roots but as I was too worried about it anyway, I opted to go ahead and remove it any way. ORIGINAL POST

The parent Tree needed some adjustments to create a new apex. This will need a few months to fill out.

This is the 3rd major trimming for this Cork Bark Elm Forest. It just loves life in the Poly Tunnel. Here was the tree when I lifted it out with Stephen’s help yesterday.

One of my frogs was rather reluctant to leave his little forest and had to be lifted off and returned to the tunnel. He has also doubled in size during July. I noticed that I had a fair amount of caterpillars eating away at my Elm leaves and these were removed. I also noticed that the wood at the base of the main tree was being eaten. I found a few little white grubs and about 3 earth worms that where working their way up underneath the bark.

Stephen removing a few bits of wire.

and here it is after the trimming. As it was only put together in the Spring, I’m happy with it.

See this Forest’s story so far here.

I have 3 oaks on my training benches and two of them have got a bad case of Powdery Mildew during July. Hot and humid weather has helped to get a grip. I’ll be spraying with a fungicide to treat the trees.