Local Species Awareness Program.

[sorce]

So far the only shimpaku I've lost was due to voles.
I've 3 out there now. One I've had for going on 4 years now.

Nice!

I am really only worried about this period between now and real spring, afraid of it starts to go purple or whatever color, or won't want to wake back up in 2 weeks!

Messin with its rhythm.

I did mulch it down into an old Michigan nursery pot! (BHS from Leo)

Makes me feel good about next winter!

Thanks!

Sorce

 

[CasAH]

Barberry. I officially have no idea what those things want. Maybe a Luis Vuitton product and a gift card to Koehler? I'm done with those.

They seem to like it a little wetter. Barberry going in the uplands in the woods are relatively easier to kill. If they are growing in a little wetter environment they are harder to kill by cutting and herbiciding or with fire.

 

[Anthony]

Here's an odd one for the Sorce-meister,

Hackberry's from root now living in the grow trough, in the western exposure, with an asphalted front yard.
and needing no winter.
Hah, stay tuned.

Local species wise, we just let nature do. So a few have turned red, have no leaves, and others are just growing.

Wonder if some of these - locals - came here by bird and poop ?
Keep on being curious.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[sorce]

bird and poop ?

Nice!

Spending a lot of time by rivers...

I often think of how many trees may have come from somewhere up stream.

I think it would take quite the constipated bird to make it all the way down there!

And it seems many berries "aid in digestion".

Interesting thoughts!

Sorce

 

[M. Frary]

They seem to like it a little wetter. Barberry going in the uplands in the woods are relatively easier to kill. If they are growing in a little wetter environment they are harder to kill by cutting and herbiciding or with fire.

You're just not using the correct herbicide.
I have some stuff that will take the leaves off of a folding table in 3 days or less.

 

[erb.75]

just got a new large sized red oak. Pictures will follow eventually on this thread!

 

[Anthony]

Sorce,

this is how close we are to Venezuelan Mountains and heights over 4000 feet.
http://www.howardmodels.com/0-topographic/landform-maps-models/venezuela/venezuela8-xlg.jpg


So a bird can feed and fly and poop on us with exotic trees [ which may survive and become local ]
At 4000 feet plus it becomes --------

http://geo-mexico.com/?p=3843

So you can now move to any tropical country and still chill some what ------------- all of the above written as a tease.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[CasAH]

You're just not using the correct herbicide.
I have some stuff that will take the leaves off of a folding table in 3 days or less.

I am working in a state nature preserve. The top 1% of natural areas left in Illinois. I am limited as to what herbicides I can use.

 

[Steve Kudela]

You're just not using the correct herbicide.
I have some stuff that will take the leaves off of a folding table in 3 days or less.

Stay away from sw ga and don't spray in the wind.........................yuk,yuk, yuk!...............that was really bad

 

[music~maker]

Did this make this thread too intimidating, or somehow misunderstood?

It shouldn't have.

There are a lot more of us.
From many countries.

Many states and Climates within states to scratch off the list.

I realized the other day at THG, well you see, I was hoping to find some stuff that was COLDY COLD hardy, you know, WP style, set it on the ground and that's it.
Everything is kept above freezing.

But Damn, I do extreme even worse than than WP. I set up a "wind block", and moved everything to all shade this year for the first time.
Remember before was just third story outside window sills.

I don't get reliable snow cover..
And even "wind blocked", which honestly is just a piece of "ugly" more than anything, I leave these rough 4x5x5 baskets of mostly fine roots just exposed.
View attachment 135053
Purple J.Crack.
Yellow Dog pee!

Anyway....

I want to present this so you know how NFG (no fucks given) you can get without worrying, with Local Local material.

I have elms in year 6-7.
An Amur in year 3-4 and 3 more on year 2.
My J.cracks, which have been nothing short of tortured are a couple years cold.
Forsythia, which has had every mistake I've ever made thrown at it, 6 years in.
Buckthorn 5-6 years.
The one year hops (oyster vagina) going green fat.
That little unidentified shrub thing is seemingly capable of growing in space.
Red maples, year 3.

Everything from 5-6 years old, and all the amurs were collected locally in leaf.
Unidentified shrub was too.

Check the "nursery plant list".

Has made it through a repot and winter.

Mugo Pine.

Short Fucking list!

Dead list....
Barberry. 4
Burning bush. 2
Every Procumbens nana.
Boxwood. 3-4
Hokkaido elm. 1


All of which have been treated just as, or more delicately than my locals, repotted at the "right time" with no more root reduction than I've seen work for everyone else.

I have 5 dwarf Alberta now, 2 I know are done. 3 to try to pot.
My Black Hills spruce from MI are dead,
But my HD one still lives.

The chances of these making it all the way threw a repot and winter with me are sooooo slim.

But these local things, and that one MUGO!

Gangster as shit.

I haven't treated any of these trees any different. I am quite sure I know why I have lost a few local ones.

Repotting too early.

Ahem....

Repotting when the "buds swell"!

Straight Bullshit.

Going on week 3 with "swelling buds" and the ground has frozen solid and thawed at least 3 Times since.

We have to understand our changing climate....

But hey,

I'm not the guy that Will lose anything more than my time.

Pretty sure I am solidly done spending $ on trees anymore ever.

$100 says that Shimpaku dies!



Love Local.

Don't blind eye the Climate.

Sorce

fwiw, I think you may be losing trees because they're too exposed to the wind the way you have them. If you can better protect the roots, you might have better luck. No reason why you shouldn't be able to get the things on your "dead list" through your winters. I'm in a similar zone to you, and manage JPN and boxwood just fine, and while I don't have any hokkaido elm, people do grow it here, and I have some seiju elm and regular chinese elm that does fine.

Granted, your point that locals can handle your climate better is correct, but I would re-evaluate your wintering strategy before giving up on some perfectly workable species.

And on the point about re-potting when buds swell ... that is still the optimal time to do it, but you then have to protect the tree from freezing, which is understandably challenging this time of year, especially when spring temps happen too early. I keep all the trees that I either want to work on in late winter or that might be a bit more sensitive in a shed instead of outside, and I move them into the basement if they're starting to wake up and it's going to be super-cold again. Even for trees I normally keep outside, once I do work on them, I'm a little extra protective.

 

[sorce]

I think you may be losing trees because they're too exposed to the wind the way you have them. If you can better protect the roots

Here's the thing....
All them there in the small baskets really blasted by the wind are the locals.

And they all made it!

The nursery can stuff is huddled together there at the bottom just like I've heard works!

On top of that, the previous years, big nursery can stuff was huddled together below a parapet wall above the doorway of my very well protected apartment courtyard.

I realized this afternoon, while moving stuff to the garden....

That my "don't salute the sargent" sargenti, that I ripped roots off of with my hands and threw in a small basket, got attacked by mites till near white last year and got left overnight underwater to cure....
That Motherfucker is alive!

So 2 on the alive list!

Oh Damn! 3...one Blue Rug that I tortured too! In a basket with 8822.

Got about 4 other Blue rugs made it thru winter in nursery pots...of course...
The BS lives!

It seems like fate.

Then again...I only paid like $1.77 for those at you know where!

Swear to God if I spend any real $ on it it is doomed!

Except that Mugo!

But hell...

Amur for a maple.
Elm for a D.
Buckthorn for (shitty) flowers but cool berry interest!
Mugo for Pine.

I don't feel too limited.

My god...I killed my Cotoneaster being stupid, but IT had scale for days when I bought it and ended up fine!

Every other nursery joint I've picked up has been in good to great health!

WTF really!

It makes absolutely no sense at all!

Sorce

 

[StoneCloud]

Here is a local to Florida I picked up today for $8 at the nursery

Dwarf Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria 'Nana')

 

[silversara]

Going to be watching this thread to see if anyone close to my area (Oregon/ Washington) with more experience will end up posting.

 

[GailC]

I'm in the North Idaho panhandle, elevation 2,139. Zone maps say 6a but most local gardeners would say 5 just to be on the safe side.

Not a lot of suitable native deciduous, vine maple is the only one I can really think of but we do have naturalized species that are do very well like amur maple, mountain ash and crab apple.

We do have softer wood deciduous but its my understanding that don't do as well as bonsai. Cottonwood, aspen, birch.

What we do have here is a good selection of conifers: ponderosa pine, western larch, pacific yew, lodgepole pine, doug fir, engelmann spruce, hemlock, cedar, to name a few. Too bad I'm not into conifers.

Nursery mugo seems to do well, I see them growing at business quite a lot.

 

[Borg]

I'm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana now and am learning our locals. But here's the list I can think of currently that I've seen.

Chinese Elm (used as a roadside tree downtown, there are thousands of seedlings along the sidewalks right now.)
Bald Cypress

And as far as the evergreen goes;
Yaupon Holly are everywhere (just dug two from my grandparents property.)
Also azalea are quite common.

 

[Bavarian Raven]

Vancouver area BC. Low elevation.

Vine maple is a native that does well and can easily be wired. Nice fall colours. Easy to find and work with.

Yellow cedars (chamaecyparis nootkatensus). Beautiful wood and mostly disease resistant. Doesn't like to dry out though.

Grand fir (abies grandiflora). Grows well and fast. Can tolerate some drought. Easy to wire when young. Nice bark when older. Millions of wild seedlings if you know where to look.

My two local favs that do well here.

 

[Josh88]

Going to be watching this thread to see if anyone close to my area (Oregon/ Washington) with more experience will end up posting.

What part of the gorge do you live in? At the western end of the gorge (Portland/Vancouver) we have a ton of introduced species that grow well without a lot of fuss or need for protection, and some great native species to work with as well. If you are up in the high desert out east it will be a different list I'm sure.

 

[silversara]

What part of the gorge do you live in? At the western end of the gorge (Portland/Vancouver) we have a ton of introduced species that grow well without a lot of fuss or need for protection, and some great native species to work with as well. If you are up in the high desert out east it will be a different list I'm sure.

Thank you for replying! But yes, I do live out east in the high desert area. We definitely see a lot less rain than Portland

 

[Josh88]

Thank you for replying! But yes, I do live out east in the high desert area. We definitely see a lot less rain than Portland

You should be able to find Ponderosa Pine, Lodgepole Pine, Mountain Hemlock, Western Juniper, and Engelmann Spruce all growing native in Eastern Oregon. These are all used pretty commonly in bonsai in this neck of the woods. There is also a Western Larch native to the area, but it seems difficult to find much info on it's bonsai cultivation.

 

[A. Gorilla]

In terms of dealing with hot sticky summers, weird winters, and with regard to easy accommodations, I have these in mind for northern illinois:

Naturalized invasive weeds:

• Chinese Elm
• Callery Pear
• Crab apples
• Mulberry

Ubiquitous local landscape plants which aren't grafted:

• Euonymous
• Yew
• White cedar
• Junipers
• European black pine
• Scots Pine
• Amur maple
• Hawthorne (not grafted, right?)
• White spruce
• Blue spruce

Regional natives (or at least quasi regional):

• American Hornbeam
• American Elm
• Larch (I can think of three in my area, and they are just so randomly placed, I can't imagine who decided to plant them there or why. They are huge and thriving though)

Those are the ones which appear to commonly take life by the horns, unassisted, in this climate of ours which so closely resembles satan's a-hole.