White Beech Care Advice wanted please

WHITEPINE

Hi,

I'm going to buy a Japanes white beech, Fagus crenata. However, I was wondering how hardy they are?, and if they come with any particular problems? I live in Manchester, Northwest UK, I believe that we have a similar climate to NE USA.

Any advice would be much appreciated.


Best wishes
Stephen

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Aaron_K

Hi Stephen,

Fagus Crenata eh? Those things don't come cheap, even the small ones. I found a link to Harry Harrington's site that has some information about Japanese White Beech for you.

http://www.bonsai4me.com/SpeciesGuide/Fagus.html

All the best,

Aaron

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Cathie

I think the NE U.S. climate's a bit more severe than yours, even if you get cooler weather than further south in the UK - or do you routinely have winter temps of 10 or more below zero Fahr (and over 100 in the summer)? I think you should be ok where you are unless the crenata is definitely less cold hardy than other fagus in general.

wabashene

No problem with these Stephen even on the wrong side of the Pennines:-)

Beech tend to be slow growers generally.

BTW did your J White Pine survive?

TimR

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WHITEPINE

Hi Tim and everyone,


No, I'm very sorry to say that my pine died. What made it very hard to take, was that it looked as if the tree was recovering, because new growth was sprouting in the damaged areas. However, one day I noticed that the new growth was turning yellow. Then the the yellow gradually travelled to all parts of the pine, then the inevitable happended

To be frank, you haven't heard from me until now because the loss hit me very hard. In fact, I only disposed of the tree 2 weeks ago, even though its been dead for months.

I thought about giving bonsai up all together, but I think its in my blood. Since I still have no idea why the pine died, I'm going to avoid them for the time being, but I hope to get another one some time in the future. However, it must be said, that I was very tempted by a Black Pine that I recently spotted on ebay, but thankfully I managed to resist the temptation.

As for the Beech, you don't see them very oftern and the white bark looks really attractive. From what I can gather, there isn't any particular problems with them, although they can't tolerate temperatures of less than -5 C. I'm just hoping that everything turns out well.

Best wishes
Stephen

Mcspeed

Stephen, pardon the stereotype phrase, but keep the proverbial stiff upper lip my friend, about 5 years ago I managed to kill off about 10 trees, which was most of my collection (my Hardy stuff) and I kind of went south myself. Fortuneately keeping the sub & tropical stuff alive drove me back to the madness.

I will assume that the trauma was due to the magnificant speciman, and your unwillingness (for now) to get another pine. If I might suggest a yearling JBP, and the fine reading on the Evergreen site to boost your moral, confidence, and learning curve.

Welcome back, and hope to see more of you here. we need to remember that learning from our mistakes is a good thing. I do realize the lack of why it happened would be a cause for some concern, but Bonsai on, it'll be good fro you.

Love the look of those beech too, plan on geeting one or a bunch myself, they make beautiful bonsai.

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WHITEPINE

Mcspeed said....
I will assume that the trauma was due to the magnificant speciman, and your unwillingness (for now) to get another pine...whitepine says...

Yes it was a top quality Japanese import. Only about 16" tall, but those things are expensive. However, I couldn't care less about the money, evern though it was a huge amount for me. Anyway, enough said about the pine...its time to look to the future.

Stephen

rockm

"I thought about giving bonsai up all together"

GIve up because you lost a White Pine? EVERYONE loses one of those. They are subject to all kinds of fungal problems. They're not easy. At least not as easy as Black Pine or even native pines.

For what it's worth, I managed to kill off a $400 specimen Scots pine. I never thought of giving up, just to find a way to explain the loss to my wife

also, why are you set on Japanese Beech? Native European beech is hardier and cheaper...

WHITEPINE

Hi,


European beeches don't don't have the white bark, which explains why I'm buying the Japanese variety. My aim is to collect a small group of good quality Japanese trees. Because of the price, this will probably be my one and only purchase for this year.

BTW, Can those of you in the USA buy Japanese imports, or is there a total ban on them?

Stephen