Quiet time

All is quiet at the bonsai front; Time to kick back and enjoy.
Just the basic maintenance of  feeding, watering, weeding and pinching to be done.

My Deshojo maple is coming back in to leaf after defoliation and is once again showing the bright red spring colour.
Pines are being fed heavily in preparation for next months candle cutting.  Most have been left to fully extend and will be cut back fully in mid August to start with needle reduction.

The weather has been reasonably warm, but not much sun.  That is ideal weather for mildew to develop, so I am keeping an eye out for any signs of the disease and have my fungicide ready just in case.

Wind Damage

The strong winds here in Leicestershire over the last two days has caused some damage in my Bonsai garden. Two of the taller trees were blown over, leaving the roots exposed for at least a day and my little Spirea was blown clean of the shelves and two of the major branches have snapped off.

Winds have now died down and I will have to check all of the trees to make sure no other damage has occured.

All change

After the hot and windy spell last week the weather has now turned around. and we had more or less solid rain for the last week.  Good for the garden, but not so nice to be outside looking at your bonsai, so I leave tnem to look after themselves for the time being.
I took some time to tidy up the greenhouse and pot up cutting I took earlier this year.  The lonicera, elm and trident maple cuttings have produced good roots and have now been transferred in to small plastic pots to grow on for the rest of the season.  They will go into the growing bed next spring to put on some bulk.

The Japanese maple and azalea cutting are not quite ready yet, so they will stay under cover for a while yet.

I have started a groundlayer on a small collected elm and  I have filmed the process.

Hot and windy

Due to the hot and windy weather, watering is done early morning and late evening.  I also check the smaller trees and anything in very shallow containers around midday and apply water directly to the soil to maintain the soil moist throughout the day.

My Hornbeams really don't like this weather and are suffering from leaf burn even though I have moved them to a sheltered part of the garden.

Feeding continues on a weekly basis with balanced fertiliser, as does the daily pinching of new shoots on Junipers and elms.

The large Japanese Maple which was defoliated in early June is now back in full leaf, giving a second showing the vibrant spring colour.