Good start, Ryan. I was pruning my Weeping Willows this morning, and thought of yours...how are they? Generally, I wouldn't do much work on maples that have leafed out already. So let your maple recuperate in the shade for a couple weeks. Direct sun will blast it. It might lag for a month or so, but by season's end it ought to be back on track...and then some. Don't fertilize for a couple weeks. Josh

Hi - Absolutely the first thing you need to do is get it outdoors - for life - because it won't last a week inside. But put it in light shade vs full sun and somewhere that it won't get rained on beyond a light mist because until it's switched into proper bonsai 'grit' (fast draining stuff - more on it later) it'll drown in that goop it's in. Maples need to get dry almost all the way through the pot between waterings but it looks like yours is in potting soil - which is full of peat and acts like a one-way sponge (soaks it up but won't let it go and then roots rot). Your tree, in fact, will do light years better, and grow much faster - giving you lots more styling options for the future - if you plant it into the ground for 3 yrs. Sounds drastic to a newbie, but what you have now is not a bonsai but a stick in a pot. You want the trunk to thicken up and eventually you'll lop off the whole top half of the tree (not this year) and new smaller branches will grow in which, together with the fatter trunk will give the illusion of an old tree. There's a lot more to it, and you need to find out about the mix it should be in (but do NOT repot now as it's not at all a good time of year, so you'll have to be careful about watering - enough when you do do it, but only when it's needed (and water-loggedness can look just like dryness when leaves curl if you've already given it too much). Go to bonsai4me.com and start reading there plus most of the forums on bonsaisite.com for better input (more people).

That is great about your LL hydranga re-appearing!!! YEAH!!! I was introduced to the squash bug last year in my zuccini plants. OMG I have never seen such a damaging bug in my life...well, next to the tomato worms. Nothing I did to stop the damage worked...I ended up just ripping them out. We have moved since then and I planted some zuccini and yellow crooknecks a few weeks ago.....they are growing well and I'm crossing my fingers that the squash bug doesn't come here. We just began our warmer summer weather so that will help everything grow. I'm just hope that everything will be okay. On a low note I think that an iceberg rose bush is kicking. I don't understand why...the other one is doing great. But, like you said-gardening is full of highs and lows. Beca

I love the title/theme/idea of this thread. That is exactly what I think as I walk through the garden. One of my new roses bloomed for the first time this year, beautiful bush shape and lovely fragrant blooms . . . BUT it is not the rose I ordered. I wanted a dark colour for my dark garden and this is light pink. The verbascum nigra that I wintersowed and I thought died last year is absolutely huge, healthy and just starting to open it's flowers . . . BUT it looks like it is going to bloom white which means it is not nigra but another variety. The white Liatris that I thought died last year right after I planted it seems to have made a comeback . . . BUT the beautiful pink lupines that I posted photos of have been attacked by the worst aphid infestation I've ever seen in the space of several days and look like they might not make it through the rest of summer. The sunflowers that reseeded and that I planted look straight and healthy . . . BUT most of the ones that were supposed to be dwarf or mini clearly aren't and are almost as tall as I am right near the front of the border! The daylilies look like they're starting to form flower buds which is very exciting, as I love the daylily show . . . BUT I'm disappointed by my lillies which are barely 6 inches tall right now. Everyone else has tall lillies that are either beginning to bloom or putting up flower buds at least. Wondering why mine are so behind the times :) And we've gotten huge amounts of rain so far, which the roses seem to revel in . . . BUT I think it has drowned about half of my small tomato and pepper plants that I start indoors and planted out at the end of May. They were still fairly small when our "rainy season" began, and at least half have succumbed.