yellow hornbeam

This Hornbeam has been yellow all summer long. It was a vigorous tree up until I re-potted it in April. 

At that time I used Cat Litter as a potting medium as I had heard that it was a possible cheap alternative to Akadama. It seemed ideal, apart from the pale colour. What I didn't foresee was the way it would degrade into a sludgy mess, which not only was reducung drainage to nil, but also I fear creating a toxic environment for the roots. Ironically I had used it before diluted down in a peaty compost and I just didn't notice how bad it was.

So I removed it from it's pot and stripped away as much compost as I dared (basically back to the original peaty core)

I repotted into a new pot with lots of grit and topdressed with some chicken manure after I had it well watered in. Hopefully it will forgive me.

air layer attempt (late)

 So it's probably way too late but I finally got my hands on some moss ad decided to try my hand at an air-layer. A Japanese Maple with a couple of low branches was an obvious choice so I selected one and set to it using the method Phil demo'd in Mark's garden early this year (at the correct time of year that is). It'll be no great loss if it doesn't work out, but fingers crossed for some magic...