Well I think I’m preparing myself for major disappointment as the New Years Spring slowly draws in
I probabably moved to fast and bought to many expensive trees only to discover Mirai live when the proposed damage was done
I’ll take it as a learning curve and Learn from my mistakes
Hopefully the pale junipers and other trees I’ve mutilated will pull through and show thier true Beauty once Spring is in full force
The first year in a new climate has been a huge learning curve
Yeah, this spring hasn’t been a good one…a bit of teasing sunshine early on, then frosts after that…i’m also hoping most of my trees lasted. It was the first year i really tried to protect some trees, as i did a fair bit of work last year.
Have yours started pushing buds yet? This coming week is looking good, so you should know soon.
Its not been a good one so far all of my trees apart from my larch have been late this year, most of my trees have started now apart from my jbp but im thinking the last couple of days may have woken it up, hopefully we are going to have some consistent good weather now.
My maples are in full swing , my junipers are showing colour change and growth but my beech are still sleeping along with my acacias
This week should be the turning point as temps rise
Yes, i’ve had a look, and it should be nice til at least saturday. It’s funny how you pay attention to the weather now when there’s good tree growing at stake… I didnt even used to know it was raining until I stepped outside, back in the day.
My maples have opened up mostly now, and some of my junipers too. Not seeing much on my little sabina though…i think i left it a bit sparse last year so need to give it all the growth i can.
No losses so far but the season is still very young
Probably won’t see casualties until late spring
My Sabinas are looking good and hopefully go from strength to strength
I still have some sleeping plants. The late winter snow blast did not help for sure. A few of my prunus mume are still sleeping but the majority of the plants pushing nicely now (jbp, larch, maples, azaleas and junipers … sabina’s been slow but this is their first winter / spring in UK). I’m on the south coast so the weather is pretty good.
With so many sunny days last year making it perfect I guess the weather decided to give plants out there a proper slap so we can still call this country Britain
My chinese pepper paid the price after ‘the beast from the east’ had freezing party here otherwise all good esp since all of a sudden there are rather summer temperatures this week. Same issues with Beech tho… It’s always the last one to wake up but at least is shows some signs at this time like buds getting bigger and that is not happening at all. I was checking beeches in parks and they all have leafs already, mine is still properly asleep but seems fine.
I hope there is no other weather extreme this year.
Btw: have you noticed fruit trees having not many flowers in general or is it just me?? Pear locked in between large junipers in our garden is definitely not as white as last year and already going green.
I wasn’t expecting that last blast of snow so I took down my temporary winter cover and then I didn’t have time to put it back up , but everything seems to have survived
It truly is amazing how as soon as the weather warms up the plants jump into overdrive
Everything just looks so much healthier with some sun
With regards to beech , I haven’t noticed any leafs on the local beeches around me
But my beeches are Definately starting to swell, planning a repot in the next few days
Haha… and now its back to raining. Britain is definitely back to normal.
Yep I lost a few of my small deciduous (all just practice nursery stock, but still…once you’ve worked on them they become “your trees”) to the beast / combined with over stressing in the last season.
I guess you learn, and the trees that survive are the ones with that bit more endurance.
I was tempted by a beech last year, what are they like to work with?
Beech tree is good for training your patience due to being one of extremely slowly growing trees hahhaha
I personally love them for the appearance and got one Copper Beech from bonsai nursery garden in Nottingham. There is so much clear information out there ab this tree and if you check ‘beech forest’ streem from archive you will just fall in love with this tree I definitely recommend!
Yeah that beech forest was fantastic. I think maybe my concern would be the fragile bark which is part of the appeal. I’m a bit heavy-handed at times… but maybe that’d just be the challenge eh?
Something really important to remember with deciduous trees in the U.K. especially those with fleshy roots like Japanese maples. Do not grow them in just pure Akadama!!! The cold winters and frosts will rage havoc with the roots and you will for sure loose trees unless you can keep them frost free. I need to credit Peter Adams for the above information way back
I sent you a personal message with a link a good resource in the U.K. hope it helps. I wasn’t sure if this was the correct place to provide a link to a business in the U.K.
I used pure akadama on my maples in the UK for many years. It was good quality, well sieved and I never had an issue. It’s only in recent years that I’ve modified that. Peter Adams used to absolutely hammer akadama it’s true but I think some of that was that what he saw when repotting trees from Japan was soil that was already breaking down as it wasn’t fresh. Be aware with tridents that they can struggle with a bad winter here. The 2 a few years back took a number of tridents from people that had got used to our winter pattern, not had an issue previously and then wham we got 2 bad ones. Trident roots are very fleshy and don’t enjoy a freeze.
otherwise all good esp since all of a sudden there are rather summer temperatures this week. Same issues with Beech tho… It’s always the last one to wake up but at least is shows some signs at this time like buds getting bigger and that is not happening at all. I was checking beeches in parks and they all have leafs already, mine is still properly asleep but seems fine.
I definitely recommend!