I’m in a horticultural zone 3a/b here on the northern Great Plains. Put my trees to bed for the winter, ready for those -35C. (-30F.) nights coming in January. Also need to keep the mice from girdling trunks, squirrels away from the pine buds, and deer from the maple shoots!
Phew… only 5 and a half months to the growing season starting in mid May and lasting for about 3-4 months! I’d like to hear a few more complaints from some members that it is too hot where the are to grow some trees! image|375x500
For me, it’s managing the summer heat. My summer temps get into the 120’s (~48°C), from June through most of September. Missing one watering means doom for most of my trees. It also severely limits what I can grow. If it can’t tolerate heat, or if it needs cold winters, I can’t grow it.
On the bright side, I don’t get a single frost all winter, which means tropicals are a breeze.
What are your native trees? Here we have larch, jack pine, and eastern white cedars (Thuja). They generally fair better than the “temperate” trees. And despite the growing conditions, some of our club members have some “world class” trees.
I’m in the Mojave Desert (home of Death Valley), so all those amazing trees that everyone loves (Beech, Jap Maple, almost all maples, Flowering Cherries, Several pines, Azaleas, and many others) we can’t play with.
Where I am we also get freezes, so tropicals, Ports, and other things don’t do well unless you’re into the bonsai shuffles.
I take my hat off to each and every one of you. I’ll never complain about the one or two days at 30 C during the summer or occasional night of -5 C in the winter. I feel very lucky and humble…
Yeah, it sound like I shouldn’t complain too much when compared to Nate_Anderson in the desert! I’ve heard that in Australia that instead of covering their trees with snow to keep them warm in winter as we do here, they cover their trees with bark mulch in the summer to keep them cool.
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Maybe I should bonsai a saguaro… 
