This summer has been quite hot and sunny providing excellent growing weather. But, it’s soon coming to an end. Some of the maples are already beginning to show autumn color, many of the pines have big buds developing for next year’s growth and the fruit on the bonsai is continuing to enlarge and mature.

My garden is a beautiful sea of different shades of green, with several different textures. Many of the bonsai tables have large leaf Boston Ivy growing on the ground, climbing up the concrete blocks. The bold green shapes provide a prominent contrast to the delicate maple leaves, plus they will soon be turning red and orange. The Boston Ivy hides the concrete blocks and also adds humidity to the area. Additionally, the vining trunks continue to get fat…. Someday they will be in pots.

Today I was preparing and photographing bonsai for my new program “Bonsai Refinement, Evaluation & Display Preparation.” The world premier of the new program will be at the 42nd Mid-America Bonsai Exhibit on Saturday, August 17th at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Some valuable tips and handy new information on the topics and an insight to bonsai evaluation in America, China and Japan will be presented before working on a large Dwarf Hinoki Cypress bonsai. The photos below were taken last week. I’ve already spent over 10 hours wiring and thinning out the tree. No need to sit through a boring wire demo for the audience. It looks quite a bit different now.

Diane and a student were washing the fat trunks of my 3 gal. pot Tiger Bark Fig workshop trees. In addition to the professional Japanese pressure washer, Diane got a handy new tool, an electric toothbrush! She purchased it on sale for only $6 including two brush heads, of course I’ve spent considerably more for bonsai tools. The electric toothbrush is great for getting into small areas.