The really cold winter weather is slowly going away and it’s time to get my hardy trees back on the bench!
The winter days are slowly disappearing and we’re getting into a bit more spring-like weather our overnight lows are kind of in the range of minus five to minus 10 degrees celsius so i think i can bring my trees out from the greenhouse and put them on the benches so let’s go it’s a high of four degrees celsius today it feels really warm out here with the sun there’s not much wind so let’s go into the greenhouse now and check out the trees if i leave the trees in the greenhouse too long they’ll start breaking dormancy the buds will start swelling and they may start to leaf out so it’s best to get them outside here on the benches where they get a really low nighttime temperature and it warms up in the daytime that gets the sap flowing in the trees there’s a lot of ice down here i may have to get a shovel or something and break the ice so i can get the door open i don’t think it’ll open up very easily it looks like the frost here has heaved one of my paving stones up a bit i don’t know if i’ll be able to get the door open very far that’s not bad that’s wide enough to get the trees out i do need to replace the wood on this bench it’s starting to get a bit rotted it’ll hold the trees up but uh i’ll have to do that this spring is replace all the pieces the two by fours across here so i better get the bench cleared off of all the snow and ice i got to have somewhere to put the trees i’ll start getting the trees out now be very exciting okay it’s a heavy one this is the one with the elephants the fuji trees [Music] the male elephants tipped over there so is the baby okay there’s one forest outside everything looks good branches are nice and flexible the foliage is nice and flexible it’s in those winter kind of bronze colors once the sap starts flowing they’ll green up probably not for another maybe even a month from now but they’ll get there the sedum looks like it over winter just fine it’s nice and green it looks like it actually grew a bit in the winter pretty tough stuff that’s seen them i’ll only be taking my most hearty trees out on the benches the more sensitive trees can stay in the greenhouse here this will clear my aisle way out so i can get in here and water them and i’ll keep monitoring them i’ll check for you know buds breaking and if they look like they’re going to break i’ll bring them outside on the benches also put shanny’s pot out here this is one of my most favorite days bringing all the trees back outside on the benches the best day though is when i bring the tropicals out from the plant room in spring and all my trees are out here on the benches together it’s it’s nice to have them all in one one place i’m bringing out the witches tree now my fuja occidentalis that’s growing over top of a rock oh this one right here so let’s get it out it’s heavy it’s got a lot of stones in here i’ll look forward to the day where i can remove all those stones i have around it that are holding the roots in place and it’ll be a lot lighter than that’s heavy that planting is really heavy let’s continue if it looks like the weather outside is going to get really cold at night again i can always bring the trees back here into the greenhouse but you know they should be okay they can go down to like minus 15 no problem the hardy trees so i don’t expect those kind of temperatures i hope anyway we’ll see i’m going to bring out the larch forest next everything looks good on them all the trees look healthy all right so here i go i leave all the needles on the forest floor it’s kind of like a blanket insulating blanket for the winter it helps a little bit later on in spring when the weather’s quite nice i’ll remove them all and expose the moss below all right out comes the austrian pine it looks really good it looks like it over wintered really nicely even the moss looks nice and green all right i can go right up here like that i’m going to bring out the avatar grove next the thuja occidentalis forest so here i go there we go a good heavy one there we go okay heavy devil ah there we go looking good just the odd little twig has a little die back but not much looks quite good awesome now i’m going to do some rearranging i’m going to move my douglas firs over to the bench here to clear out the center aisleway so here i go like that and then i can take this table out of the middle here and that gives me access to my other fuji down there my large one my cathedral style fuja so i can get that out let me just rearrange things here a bit this overwintered really nicely yeah looks really really healthy that’s good [Music] i left my thuja clump style out on the bench all winter and so far it looks really good the branches are still nice and flexible yeah i don’t think that’s a problem having that out in the cold weather it looks like it’s done really well it’ll be season three with my osage orange seedlings i sure hope they make it i really like these trees they look good they look flexible yeah i’m very excited about growing this forest i’ll bring my scots pine outside next all right out it comes i’m having a look around now to see what is in here that’s still hardy a lot of these aren’t no douglas first can stay in i’ve got a maple here that can probably stay in a little longer although i don’t want the buds to break dormancy that may go outside my little spruce here could go outside um my fuja there my little one that could go outside and then there’s just a few other little trees in here like some tuja seedlings that’s about it [Music] that’s my beech tree there yeah the rest are the rest can stay in here here’s my little pine seedlings from last summer they look like they survived the winter really nicely these are douglas fir seedlings but the needles are very yellow on them i got a few a few elms but i don’t know if they’re winter hardy enough to survive i don’t know we’ll see it’s a test with them these are my oaks my royal oaks they look like they’re doing really well yeah so just a few food just to come out and my spruce here and i think that’ll be it maybe that maple too i think i will and the rest can stay in i think i’m going to keep the studio in the greenhouse it’s in a ceramic pot and i don’t really want it cracking out in the cold so i’ll leave that one in and maybe my little you know my fuji seedlings i’ll keep those inside here too i don’t think it’ll harm them at all i will bring out my bird’s nest bruce though i think that’s it yeah i was checking the weather forecast and it looks like we’ve got some warmer days coming highs of like eight degrees celsius which is pretty spring-like for us at this time of the year so that’ll be really nice i’ll make sure i get all the trees watered i’ll check them every day and make sure they’re doing well it sure is nice to be back here in the greenhouse i’m dreaming of spring already it’s going to be a busy year coming up i got to finish the plant room i got to build my greenhouse i gotta maintain all my trees i got to get the truck fixed up more i got to get the porsche out it’s going to be a really busy summer but i’m looking forward to it it’s going to be a lot of fun the little birds over there are already checking out the trees they’re in the pots looking for worms i think there they are it’s time to close the greenhouse back [Music] up i was just looking this bench over here has no green on it at all except for a bit of moss and the bench over here has lots of green so it’s kind of nice to see some color out here it’s nice to see the indoor trees are getting some sun today too the snow is melted off my truck so it’ll be time to start thinking about getting that back on the road once the you know they stop salting the roads out there this coming fall the truck will be turning 50 years old and the matrix is a 2004 so that’ll be turning 18 years old wow it’s hard to believe i’ll keep a close eye on my trees make sure they get watered and if it gets too cold at night they go back in the greenhouse and that’s all for today i’m nigel saunders thanks for joining me in the bonsai zone
