As the night time temperatures begin to fall below freezing in my garden, it is a reminder that I will have to bring the remainder of my trees into the greenhouse very soon. Most of the tender species are already inside but a few of the hardier ones are still braving the elements. Before I bring them inside, I like to clean them up and remove all unnecessary growth.
Today, I found the time to work on this boxwood. Buxus grow quite slowly when cultivated in a pot and only need pruning once a year.
This is how it looked from the front before todays’ work.
And this is how it looks at the moment.
When viewed from the right you can see that most of this seasons growth has occurred at the back of the tree. I think this has happened because I forgot to turn it as often as I should have.
Before
After todays’ work
This is the earliest picture I have of this tree, taken in 2005, shortly after it was collected from my garden.
Robert Nocher Shohin Bonsai 
Reblogged this on Wolf's Birding and Bonsai Blog.
That is a lovely little tree now Robert, what a difference from its collected state, just shows the value of keeping a photographic record. I have just recently dug up a variegated box from our garden where I was thickening the trunk, but it seems to have quite a lot of branches low down, will sort it out in the spring when it has recovered.
Out of interest what is your set-up for photographing your trees, I see you have a graded, plain background, is it a special sheet? Only 2 of our members have a special set up for photographing trees and I am about to get mine fixed up in a summerhouse. Any advice would be helpful, thanks. Dilly
Thanks Dilly
I use a printed backdrop on vinyl coated paper, made by Calumet Photographic Ltd. I take most of my photographs outside in the greenhouse, to make use of the natural light. I find this is better and cheaper than using artificial lights.
Thank you Robert, it is very successful. I have recently bought a small summerhouse mostly for photographing things, it has windows on 3 sides. I am fixing a window blind up on the back wall which will drape down and over a shelf (yet to be fixed) so that I can get a smooth transition between back and under the stand/bonsai. One of my friends has something similar, but always good to get a wide range of views. Thank you for yours.