Spring Pictures

I thought I’d share a few spring pictures of my trees. I’m actually down to only 8 trees if you can believe it. I’m taking the quality over quantity approach. I still have some tropicals but they are still in winter storage. 

First up, the Japanese maple arakawa that wakes up with a vengeance every year. It needs a haircut and a direction. 

 

This Japanese maple forest always looks good in spring. It needs some work to be less top heavy still, hoping to get to it soon. 

  

My RMJ also looks happy and healthy and I might work on it this year. 

  

The itoigawa needs another haircut and styling this spring as well. 

  

My silver berry flowered again. Even on its sacrifice first branch. Might look into air layering the top this spring. 

   

 

My Japanese maple Bloodgood looks ok but not as vigorous as my other maples again. 

  

The Korean hornbeam needs a trim and some wire. It’s coming along nicely and there will be another post soon. 

  

This Chickasaw plum ended up flowering this year but I didn’t see it. I plan to give it a directional prime this spring. 

   

 

And that’s it! I don’t plan on adding trees to the collection but focusing on the ones that I have. Stay tuned more posts to come! 

Year in Review : Itoigawa Shimpaku

This update is going to feel very similar to a post I wrote in August, but I thought I would provide a few updated photos. The tree has regained vigor after a repot this spring into better soil. The tree was weak this spring after being attacked by a fungus, or maybe the beginning of root rot, the preceding fall.

After repotting into better soil.

The tree growing healthy until the middle of the summer.

After widening the shari.

And finding the possible front and angle.

The most recent picture after removing the wire and adding lime sulfur. I am hoping to start some more work on this next summer after I know it continues to get healthy. Some more branches need to be eliminated, but probably eliminated in stages to add interest to the jins. Maybe next year I can do another styling and start defining pads.

The next round of updates will be a couple of deciduous trees. Leaves have just started falling so I will need to do some cutback, and possibly a little wiring before those reviews are posted.

Itoigawa Update

I thought I would provide an update of my itoigawa shimpaku juniper that was mentioned in this post last year. It hit a bit of a rough patch last fall that I attribute to overwatering. I did not repot last year and I think the nursery soil was holding too much water. I repotted this year to make sure the soil was well draining because I wasn’t so sure it was going to make it with the old soil. This picture is in May of this year.

I fed it well and gave it sun, and it certainly rebounded. This photo in August will show that the tree is again happy and healthy.

It was healthy enough that I decided to widen the shari as I was hoping this year. It certainly changes the look.

I can see pretty much how I want this tree to go now and think it has progressed well in the year and a few months I have had it. I plan to just feed and water it, and make sure I don’t overwater when the cooler fall weather is here. Thanks for reading!