Kent, Great looking pictures...its so beautiful to see some great photo's like that...it makes me miss home! Although, the chicago is awefully flat...I mean I miss the U.S.! I went to Mt. Fuji the other day and took some similiar pictures I will share when I get home at then end of the month. My time here at Mr. Kunio Kobayashi's bonsai museum, 'shunka-en' has been very nice, but I do miss home very much. Soon enough! And Zube, I would have to say that one day you crossed my mind for a moment as you I was repotting several large satsuki after they were done flowering. Kobayashi is very well known for satsuki, so we have to work on them often. Will be sure to post some pics when I get back, I got permission from him..so its ok. Well...take care, thought I would drop in say hello..its been a few months. Hope everyones bonsai is growing well! Matthew Ouwinga

Thanks to you both! I don't know if we were pruning the buds off before, since we're not that conscientious about pruning and I don't think we ever pruned the other two trees. But it's possible. I was thinking maybe it was the weird winter weather this year that had something to do with it.

you better hope the ID above is 100% correct.. before you go self medicating on the basis of a strangers opinion ... and also.. that there are not divergent plants within the species that may not be appropriate to said usage ... or look alikes ... if you want to try it.. i suggest you find a good herbal store... and experiment with the true remedy .... ken

After researching on the internet I guess we are zone 6a from a PA state zone map. My husband doesn't like to mess around with possible problems that can't be treated reliably. And now we can get another one that is exactly the same genus as our other ones from a trusted nursery where over the last 12 years we have bought all bushes/trees that have never had problems that are not related to weather or animals. Buying this now made sense as we had to rent a truck to get a tree from them and then could just use that for this bush also. We only have small cars and could not easily get the bush at another time - if it was available - without a bigger vehicle The present bush I bought at a nursery close by that we haven't really bought anything from before. But I kept hoping for good results these last two years. I am the one who usually gets concerned about possible plant problems. I'm slowly learning to not get too paranoid about things. My husband is too busy with structural maintenance in the yard to notice much. We have a huge yard. We are looking forward to some time in the future moving to a smaller house with a FLAT yard. This one has 3 tiers in the back that my husband built himself with 80-50 lb. blocks [in the end he estimated that he moved a million lbs - reason why no one wanted to be hired for the job], plus other structural things. PLUS a few minor tiers in the front built with natural stone slate. Everybody thinks it is beautiful and should get pictures in Home and Garden, but it is so much maintenance that we as senior citizens are having a very hard time keeping it up. We have tried to sell this house 3 times over the last 4-5 years and so far no takers. They love the house BUT are intimidated by the yard. So last year we gave away whole areas of the high maintenance flowering plants [which were beautiful BUT...] for a few hardy low maintenance bushes [which all over wintered beautifully :)] to make it look more reasonable for future buyers and mostly now for ourselves. Another reason to not mess around too much when it is easier to just replace.