maple fungus problems

This Japanese maple is wold famous. it is very popular because of it's bright red foliage. Unfortunately the variety 'Deshojo' invariably is attacked by a vicious fungus. A Japanese master said that they don't grow much older than 25 years. The fungus will get them eventually. one branch after the other will die and ruin the crown. So this happened on this tree over the past ten or so years. Every year a smaller or larger branch turned black in summer suddenly. This past summer it was very bad and I considered the tree ruined. Today I cleaned it again and cut off the dead branches. What is left is just a shadow of what the tree was once. This fungus is INCURABLE. It is in the system and no fungicide will kill the fungus. Anyway, I took a closer look at the tree an decided that it could be rescued somewhat by raising on of the smaller trees considerably and changing the front. We'll see.
In the menatime I learned that there might be a chnace to avoid this in the future: A deshojo maple should be positioned so that it is not hit by rain. Only watering by hand is OK. A positon in the greenhouse will be fine. This fungus only grows when the rain hits the crown for a few days and everything is dripping wet.

The first image is as it was two years ago. What a shame !!!

larches with snow

fat zelkova

This Zelkova serrata is in my possession since 13 years. Somehow I am not so fond of it. Yesterday Lena went over it and it looks fine now. It will be under 'offers' for sale or trade.

Zelkova serrata, 45 cm hihg, around 50 years old, training pot

trident brougth one step further

This one I got as stump last year. Now is a good time to work it over and bring it one step further. The green line shows where I see the silhouette in about ten years.

Trident maple, Acer burgerianum, 70 cm high, around 40 years old, from imported stump, pot China

First two images April 2007, the other onese of today.

Bougie and cork bark oak

These two sepecies do not stand freeze if it hits the foliage. Slight freezes don't harm the trees really, though. These two got some freeze last October, just before I placed them indoors. The foliage appeared dead by now and I removed it. This is a good opportunity to see the inner quality of these trees which normally always have foliage. For those who are worried: this is like a total defoliation - not a big deal.

Bougainvillea glabra,45 cm, about 60 years old
Cork bark oak, Quercus suber, 70 cm, about 50 years old, see history in gallery

gallery is back!

Don't think that this was an easy task. My provider has changed the tariff from private to business but has screwed up the actual site and it was not visible for 36 hours. I had to write extremely nasty e-mails to them of which I am almost ashamed now: like 'about to sue you', 'reporting the poor service on all forums', 'no service on weekends', 'you have your higher tariff but I am lonely in the rain' Anyway it helped. They worked on it even on Sunday morning and lost no word about my threats. So the whole thing is forgiven and forgotten.

see the new trees: walter-pall.de/junipersneedlejunuiper_nr__1.jpg.dir/index.html

and walter-pall.de/pinesjapanese_redpine_nr__1dsc_1652ofrv.jpg.dir/index.html

Red pine and needle juniper, the final final images

The owner was here today with his wife to fetch his trees. They seemed to be quite pleased.

gallery link not working

Thanks to those who have bothered to point this out to me. I know since this morning. What happened? My homepage contract is quite generous regarding space and traffic. The recent success of my gallery has however touched the limit quickly. We have overrun the traffic limit for a month. I had to decide to change my account to a business account which has 50 % more traffic allowance. This will be close again, but I don't think that the traffic will continue as it has in the past ten days for obvious reasons. This costs more, of course.
And my wife will ask again, why the costs have risen. And I have to tell her again that my costs have risen because so many folks want to see my gallery. And she will ask why in the world I have to pay for folks to see my gallery. It should be the other way round. And believe me I seriously think about asking an entry fee in the future.
Anyway, I hope my site will be back within a couple of hours.

winter pictures part 24

Two Chinese elms, 'hokkaido' after thinning out
trident maple after the wire was taken off

re-styling of a Japanese red pine #8

The tree was wired just about everywhere. Then the phoitographs wer taken with the tree in the original positon. Then it was taken out of the pot and the position was changed and the pot was turned arond. The tree harldy noticed. Then the final pictures were taken with the new front and the old one being the back now.

old front
old back

new front
new back

re-styling of a needle juniper #5

These are the final pictures now.

re-styling of a needle juniper #4

Here the deadwood after burnig with a small torch and brushing with a hard brass brush. After these shots I have painted the deadwood with a slight dilution of lime sulphur.

re-styling of a needle juniper #4

After deciding about the final outline of the crown, burning deadwood, brushing deadwood, working on live vains with sand paper, repotting.
These are just working pictures to see what we have got now. The final portrait pictures will be made within the next days when the light is just right.
It looks like the result is better than the virtual. This rarely happens. I wonder what the owner will say when he sees his tree.



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re-styling of a needle juniper #4

After cutting out seriously. But the main decisions concerning whole branches are not made yet.

re-styling of a needle juniper #3

Here the intermediate result after the first cleaning phase. The tree should be tilted upright. The crown is triangular. We will have to get rid of the old-fashioned tip of a triangle at the top. The whole crown is too "nice", symmetrical and too wide. The last picture, a virtual, of course, shows what will happen within the next days. This looks like it will be a dramatic change from the beginning.






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