Desert Living

Chameleon

i currently have a baby monkey pod growing (fast little growers they are) and i'm planing to get my korean hornbeam, chinese juniper, temple juniper and bald cypress seeds going after there done going through there germination periods. but my question would be what would u suggest for the extreme weather out here (110 degrees highs in summer and 15-30 degrees lows in the winter)

thanks guys for any suggestions!!


Shawn

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Tony

Most desert growers use shade cloth. It's available at Home Depot type stores and comes in different degrees of sun block. Anything you can do to raise the humidity of the air around the trees should help too.

Tony

RWillieK

You could always move

Robbie

rockm

Any tree that requires lower light and lots of humidity is going to be a problem in the desert. The Korean Hornbeam has trouble with extreme heat, especially in places that don't cool below 70 at night--which often time happens in the desert in the summer-regardless of shadecloth. It is a temperate understory tree used to cool, humid forest floors and will probably croak a few weeks afer sprouting there.

The bald cypress is also going to be a problem, since they are very thirsty trees that also like a great deal of humidity. They can take alot of heat, but not low humidity.

Consider concentrating on native conifers-- or at least tougher conifers as your tree of choice. Collected landscape juniper, ponderora pine, california juniper and the like will probably yield better results for you. Bougainvillea is a tough heat-loving plant that will also probably do well.

Check out phoenixbonsai.com for the Phoenix Arizona club. It has some pretty well done FAQs on desert bonsai.