Olive bonsai in New England Advice

[bonsaibandit]

I am interested in ordering an olive bonsai from CA. I live in providence RI but have an unheated attic with a south facing window where temps never get below freezing, where I winter my trees. I was curious if any New Englanders keep olive bonsais and if so how do they fair? Do you winter just above freezing (33-40 degree F) or keep them in your house at room temp?

Also any thought on whether it would be ok to ship now with possible nighttime temps getting as low as 29-30 degrees F? I would of course take indoors and protect from frost once it arrives.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[stewarjm192]

If protected from major frost, they will do fine, but best to wait to buy till spring so it can be slowly acclimated to the cold rather than trying to put it out there now

 

[Dav4]

I assume you're referring to European olive. I've had one from CA for 7-8 years now. When I moved to MI from GA 3 years ago, I over-wintered it in my attached garage under lights where temps stayed in the low 40's to upper 30's. It lost a lot of vigor and branches and barely grew the following summer outside on the benches with my other trees. The following fall, once temperatures fell into the upper 30's outside, I moved it inside under lights and it's performed much better over the last few years.