Cornus mas "Attila"

Dogwood bonsai tree is doing well in its new pot so few wires were added to direct the branches into better positions, few guy wires ass well. Now branches are gaining girth so some of the wires were removed already. This season I'm trying not to let the growth untamed, I keep cutting back everything to one nod. Tree will need full wiring, possibly next spring.

Fraxinus ornus "Jan"

The tree was partially defoliated so light can reach inner parts of the crown.

Carpinus betulus No.3 "Gemini"

Let me tell you a few words about this hornbeam and its fate since my last post about it. The tree was sitting in its plastic bowl since 2011 (and I do not remember if the roots were worked since then). 

This spring when I got a few new pots I dedicated one to the Gemini. It was about the right time. As you can see the "before" pictures buds were huge already. The tree was poted into a lighter mix with prevailing Terramol and pumice, as always with rough peat and Osmocote fertiliser directly added to the mix. Roots were edited during the occasion. 

Then it was left untouched to regain strength. It sprouted vigorously right away and was cut back in spring already. Now the tree was edited, mainly the top of the crown of the taller tree, more light should enter inner sections of the crown to enhance back budding. 

The second crown is developing slowly, and as I was writing several times about it, the plan is to have the second tree (which is lower for now) to be a bit higher than the high tree now. Development of the structure takes time but I hope I will get there in about 5 years from now. We will see. 

Larix decidua

The second flush of growth this season, time to cut back.  No burned needles yet so its good, but we are approaching tropical temperatures again, so if the tree is not supplied enough water part of the foliage will burn and eventually fall off. 

Ulmus

This elm was reported in spring, severely root worked. Due to lack of suitable big ceramic pot, it went back to plastic bowl again. Straighten up to have a better position. An improved soil mix with more pumice, Terramoll and lava since it is lighter than my standard mix with prevailing zeolite. Since march growing nicely, several times cutback of the top and peripheral branches. 

Now only one long sacrifice branch left to thicken lowest branch base. As you can see from the pictures it is quite long now. It is consisting of three shots. As always in bonsai, there is a controversy if the sacrifice branch with one shot only thickens faster or one which has side branches as well. I'm in the camp of " more branches, more foliage, faster thickening". But who knows. 

Anyway, for fun, I took a meter and made measurement if the base of sacrifice branch. It has some 17-18 mm as of today. Let's play the game. Try to guess how thick it will be at the end of October this year when I will cut it off. Write your best guess in the comment section below. Who will be closest to the reality is the winner. The winner can send me pictures of his tree and I will asses it and try to propose how I would design it and why, and I can sketch the virtual eventually. To be fair I will not do any reduction to branch and foliage until last day of October 2018. 

Tilia cordata No.2 "Josephine"

This small leaved lime was repotted in March this year into the pot which proved to be too small. I knew that at that time but tree needed repotting desperately, I needed more space on benches and tried to get rid of them as much of the plastic bowls as possible. So I went for it. I had no other more suitable pot back then. Fortunately, a couple of weeks later bunch of pots found its way to my garden. I didn't want to disturb the tree too soon after the repotting, so I gave it time to reestablish its forces. Now, I had the time and weather was good, temperatures dropped down to 20 something degrees. I did not disturb the roots at all so an operation was rather safe. 

Hey, after the work I went for a run and had an idea with the name for the tree, from now on I will call her Josephine.

in the new pot