Clinton's Jobs

June

* The cooler weather is now in full swing. Preparation should be made to protect Figs from the frost if you live in a frost prone area. Placing them under shade cloth or under a larger tree in the garden will give them the protection they require. If you only have a couple you might then want to shift them inside the house, verandah or any other protected position on selected nights when frost looks likely to develop. Cloudless still nights are the ones that usually promote a ripper of a Jack Frost! Figs are also susceptible to black spot over cold wet Winters so you may want to contain the amount of spread by spraying with Baycor.

* Not much will be happening on the majority of your trees over the next couple of months. Deciduous trees will be providing you with dramatic silhouettes and possibly highlighting areas of your tree to work on for the following season. A lot of Conifers will get a bronze tinge to their foliage and other Evergreens such as Cotoneasters and Azaleas may get some red and orange colouring depending on how cold it gets this Winter. Some of these changes can really worry people, but I can assure you it is completely normal for the trees to be looking this way through Winter.

* Re-potting of all Evergreen trees should have well and truly ceased by now. Your preparations for re-potting should now be focused on your deciduous trees. Preparations can take the form of deciding what trees need potting on, which trees are deserving of a Bonsai pot, seeking out training pots such as squat plastic pots or Mica pots or sorting out the different potting mixes for different species if you vary your mix depending on the species.

* Ideally most of your trees should be re-potted prior to bud swell. However if you have many deciduous trees to be re-potted, time constraints can make this ideal approach near impossible. So you may want to start re-potting some early shooting or Winter Flowering trees in June/early July. Trees that should come under consideration for early re-potting are; Mulberry, Chinese Elm, Acer ginnala, Japanese Flowering Cherry, Japanese Flowering Apricot, Japanese Flowering Quince, Chinese Quince, Pomegranate, Prunus blireana and Manchurian pear. This should ease up some of the congestion later in July/August for the rest of the deciduous trees.

* You may have collected some seeds during Autumn and a wondering when is the best time to put them in. Some trees you may have been able to collect from include Figs, Liquidambars, Maples and Elms. Liquidambar seed capsules should be picked before they open and placed in a paper bag to wait for them to dry out and open with tiny black seeds. They are best stored in a paper bag till Spring and sown then. Elm seeds are best sown as soon as possible in May/June. This small flat papery seed has a low germination rate so you might want to collect a reasonable quantity. With the various Maple seeds you may collect some extra preparation is advised. Firstly place seeds in a plastic bag with some moist but not soaking wet peat moss and store in the crisper compartment of the fridge for 2 to 3 weeks. (The peat moss will prevent the seeds from dehydrating.) The seeds can then be taken out and sown to a depth of around 1 to 2cm in a well drained mix in June/July. The longer you wait after this period dramatically decreases your chances of any significant germination. Brown plump Fig seeds can be collected and opened up exposing thousands of seeds. Leave out in the Sun until the flesh gets crumbly. Store in a paper bag until the warmer weather for sowing. It is very important that the seeds are only sprinkled on top of a moist seed raising mixture and not buried. Lightly tamp down with a lid or other firm object so contact is made with the potting media. Once they start shooting out they must be given protection from snails who love just love munching on the soft foliage.

* Finally, just a reminder that we are in an ideal time to do wiring on Evergreen or Deciduous trees. With the foliage disappearing from deciduous trees it makes it exceptionally easy to see the branch structure and wire to an organised shape. Because of the lack of growth on our trees the wire can stay on longer and therefore have a greater chance of successful shaping.

Clinton Nesci         (Ray Nesci Bonsai Nursary)