by George Buehler

It's hard to believe that the year is almost half over, and of course the growing season is also approaching the half way mark. All of my trees are doing well so far, but we are getting to the really tough time of July and August. Preparing now for the high heat we will get will benefit your trees.

I made my first insect inspection recently and saw only one lady bug. I know that won't be the case later this month. We all need to be vigilant for these little rascals. I remember two years ago when I had my Jacqueline Heller Elm defoliated in two days by some insect. It's amazing how fast these guys can work. If only we could get our trees to work as fast as the insects - just imagine!

This month I have included four informative articles. The article on leaf pruning caught my eye when I remembered that I had purchased a Persian Ironwood at Hidden Hills two years ago and found that the leaves were extremely big for a bonsai and there were not many limbs. After reading the article, I decided to give it a try on the Ironwood. As with a lot of articles by Dave Bogan, the results were just as he described. After I cut off all the leaves, it only took two weeks for signs of new green growth. It is still a little early to make a firm conclusion, but it appears that the leaves will be smaller and more importantly there seems to more limbs growing. I then decided to try it on a Willow Leaf Oak. Once again a little early but all indications are that the leaves will be smaller and more limbs. I see no adverse effects on either tree. On the contrary, it appears that a number of the dormant buds have sprouted and I now have more leaves on the trees than I did previously. One word of caution - as you read this we are getting to the end of the time when this technique can be safely performed. It can still be done on a number of trees if it is done quickly. If you don't want to take a chance but have a tree that needs more branches and smaller leaves, you should put it on the list of things to do next year.

The second article on pot heat is a reminder on taking care of our trees as the outside temperature starts approaching 90's. I've advocated for years watering my trees in the early afternoon, not only to give them the needed water, but also to help cool the pots. I'm trying to figure out how I can document the temperature before and after watering along with the size and color of the pot. Hopefully, I will be able to report on this in an article later this year.

The third article on forests is informative and gives all the information needed to put together a forest. When I bring my forests to eye level, I can easily visualize a real forest and see myself walking among real trees. If you have never put together a forest planting, you should try it. All the instructions are in Pauline's article.

The fourth article by our webmaster John Callaway describes his new area for working on his bonsai. He has come up with some great ideas, and it should give us all reason to think about where we work on our trees.

The garden tour should be a great time to see the trees other club members have and how they have them placed. Try not to miss it. Madge, Tom, and Earl have gone to a lot of trouble sprucing up for this tour, and it would be a shame to only have a few members participate.