Kirk, Oh, the LOVE of BB's! You did find a really cool one. Those swirly marbelized/glitter ones are the neatest! I had one that was a burnt orange/red swirly so I left it as is in the garden. It WAS shiny too. Eventually the shine lost it's lustre and it did crack. I was so dissappointed but didn;t know what else to do. SO, #1 son, Sean, and I took a chisel and a hammer to it! I wanted to see it's insides. Did you know that a BB will bounce on concrete? It took some effort but we did crack the egg open! :-) The top layers were a polyethylene plastic material. The inside had a composite plastic/light concrete/foam like center shaped like a barbell. From expereince the older balls are made with rubber and wood. I had my FIL drill a hole through the center of two balls. One is still sitting in the garage. The other became a fountain bubbler in my bathroom. Getting back to care---you may want to avoid the extreme temps with your BB. Ours would get the 100 and teens plus temps in the summer and down to the teen temps in the winter. Whatever bowlers use to put a nice shine on their balls would be what I would use to keep it shiny. If you ignore it it will eventually lose it's shine.... You had some NICE neighbors to give you that wonderful eagle! The BB is it's golden pearl! BTW, we need to see your rain chain! :-) Hope you have an excellent weekend. Three day weekend for you? Yep, us too! It's nice to NOT be a banana sandwich on a weekeday! TTYL Love, Jules Here is a link that might be useful: BB in the garden

I LOVE my Mr Bowling Ball, it looks similar to TJ's Hetz Midget but is perfectly round, only about 2' X 2' after 2-3 years. Maybe I started with a bigger plant? Looks like HM can take less sun, I need to get one so I can compare it. If HM is less vigorous than Mr Bowling Ball I can still use it. I have Mr Bowling Ball planted with a red-twigged dogwood (Alleman's Compact)and a compact cranberrybush viburnum in one corner of my yard. I plan to put another evergreen with my Elegantissima dogwood and other compact cranberrybush viburnum kitty-corner to that. I have a long, rectangular yard, and am hoping to tie them together. This combination makes a nice four-season grouping. If you have another viburnum to pollinate the cranberrybush, you'll get red berries beginning in summer on the viburnum, red twigs on the dogwood in winter, creamy-white spring flowers on both deciduous shrubs, and soft green foliage all year on the evergreen. I have tall day lilies and bee balm too, for seasonal color in part-shade.

Clearly the tight balls on the Lake County web site are the result of close shearing and not how the plant grows on its own. Those I have seen here were fluffy pyramidal juvenile foliage forms; I am not surprised to hear about this falling over or splaying open, in the manner of similar forms of other species. That's too bad as it is rather appealing looking otherwise - in garden center sizes anyway. It isn't a matter of 'Bobazam' being a "correct" name and Mr. Bowling Ball then being therefore incorrect. The two names are instead two different things, Mr. Bowling Ball being a registered trademark used to sell the 'Bobazam' cultivar. During these days of large production nurseries in particular using trademarks and patents to assure profits being made on their plant introductions this combination of a memorable selling name (as these are called in Britain) and a jawbreaker cultivar name is common. Often the cultivar names in these instances are combinations of syllables that actually convey information, in this case the cultivar name surely stands for 'Bowling ball zam'pini - the last being the name of the principal of Lake County nursery. Here is a link that might be useful: [Mr. Bowling Ball] = 'Bobazam' Fact Sheet from Lake County nursery This post was edited by bboy on Fri, Aug 1, 14 at 22:34

Coming in a bit late to the party but I'd agree that these trees are most likely exhibiting various degrees of drought stress. By default, just because of their structure and elevation, raised beds or berms drain more rapidly and retain less moisture than does a level, inground planting surface. More frequent watering under even normal weather conditions is usually required for these sitings. And NJ did experience a hot, dry summer. Even now (1/7/16), there are areas of NJ that are still under a drought 'watch' designation. I agree with Mike that some periodic deep watering (low and slow) during the summer months would have been very appropriate. And very likely would have prevented this discoloration and drying you are seeing now. And Ken, you are correct in your assumptions about root growth in winter. Root growth is very seasonal, generally presenting in two surges - prior to shoot growth in spring and and later in the summer after the cessation of shoot growth. Soil temps do have a bearing on root development and both root elongation and the development of new roots comes to a halt when soil temps drop below around 40F. So the ground doesn't even need to come close to freezing before root growth stops for the season.