Wintering ??

JillofWindyHill

Hello, this is a great forum, very well done. The many pix of trees are incredible. I only hope to have one that looks so good.

I'm totally new to bonsai, but have pored over 2 library books, and had the pleasure of watching Walter Pall redesign a tree during a demo that dh and I stumbled into whilst shopping at the local bonsai store. It wasn't til I was home and looked him up on the net that I realized what a treat that was. We liked him a lot - no nonsense, but witty.

My 15 yr old son and I are getting excited about doing bonsai, and have picked up three hopeful nursery shrubs on sale: a cotoneaster, a common boxwood ( with many orangy-bumply leaves which I hope is just windburn ), and a Bergman's Gem oriental spruce. I put the cotoneaster in the ground about 2 weeks ago, against a wall, but the 2 other shrubs are still in their pots.

We're in zone 6, and here are my questions:

1. Should I put the others in the ground too, even though it's getting rather chilly now, highs 55-60/ lows about 45?

2. Whatever is in the ground, how much should I water throughout the winter?

3. If it's too late to put the other 2 in the ground, what should I do with them? I have a balcony to keep them on, rather protected from wind. Should I pack them in a box full of mulch? If so, how often should I water them?

4. Someone recently told me that winter is the time to thin out the roots. How does one do this? Is it OK to dig it out of the ground, cut away some roots, then put it back in? I'm a little worried about doing that. Perhaps he meant doing that with potted trees.

Thanks!

Jill

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Joanie

Welcome to the forum, Jill! Always nice to see another gal join our ranks! Take a moment please to fill out your location and zones in the UserCP in the upper left corner of the banner. You can find your zones by googling "usda growing zones" and "heat zones" and looking on the map.

Here are some good links to get you started understanding winter protection. You will find that in this forum there is always more than one way to do something, and it pays to read up on things like this. You will find out things that you didn't even think of! Good luck! If you read these and still have questions, come back to this post and reply to it. Someone will help you!

http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthread.php?t=13802

Joanie

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