Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

A little while ago, I wrote about the plight of one of my bonsai. In many ways, this one is my favourite, due to the intense colour of its foliage. Most of my acers tend to change their colour, either in the Spring or the autumn. This one never changes, and I love the constancy…

such a glorious colour…

This dark red acer has been so unlucky. Two years ago, something, probably a bug of some kind, attacked it and one of the main branches withered and died.

I worried that more destruction would follow, but it rallied and carried on as usual.

It looked lopsided, but I didn’t mind how it looked, I was just glad it didn’t end up dying.

Imagine my despair when it suddenly began to wilt the other day.

Due to the constant rainfall earlier this year, several of my collection of small trees failed to drain properly and had become waterlogged. It was only the speedy repotting into a better free draining compost that saved their lives. So when the red acer wilted, I hoped it was waterlogging and not the bug from before.

Unfortunately, repotting didn’t solve the problem, and the poor tree slowly died.

such a sorry image…

It has been a long time since I lost one of my trees. Although these things do happen, I can’t help thinking I might have failed this one somehow…