Spring is here. Time to assess the casualties of winter. Although I check on my trees every few days throughout the winter,trees still die. I have learned to accept it. All of my established trees made it through just fine.My willow cuttings did not fare as well. I lost all but one. That one has some die back on it but it'll survive.I'll just start more this year. I have 2 willows in my back yard.
My soft wood hydrangea cuttings made it. I can see buds starting to swell. The hard wood cutting didn't pull through.
I rooted the softwood in water and the hard wood in soil.....
Other than that my trees did pretty well this winter.
How did everyone else's trees do?

Well our weather has been awesome this spring! Mid March and our temperatures are in the 70s and 80s - So I have been out doing some checking - this is bizarre for our area - we usually have lots of snow on the ground till mid April - so basically my trees are 2 - 2 1/2 months ahead of themselves.

Although a bit early to tell on some trees I collected last autumn it looks like several red pine made it through, and cuttings from black pine, hawthorn, and elm look like they may make it.

The rabbits gnarled back a couple of my elm and maple which isn't to bad as they did a pretty good job of punning lol this is the third year they have munched back long growth - this fall I will have to build a wire fence round them to protect them.

I'm very happy a Japanese maple I started from seed 2 years ago survived and is budding nicely

And today I started planting my tree seeds - various white pine, black pine, larch, cotoneaster, etc.. I took them out of the fridge and was very pleased to see many are sprouting.

But my biggest thrill was seeing that 65 seeds of a local-growing Japanese Maple - Bloodgood that I collected last fall have all sprouted, and are now nicely planted in starter pots!! I collected 70 seeds lol

Unfortunately I lost a white cedar I collected from an alvar in the fall - which is too bad as it was a very nice old stunted tree from the wild.

All in all it was a good winter, with very little damage.

I'm so Happy to be out working in the bonsai yard so early!!

I have yet to find a tree that did not make it through winter. Surprising, as we had a flash-frost dropping down to -18C from +12C within a few days over february. In the garden I lost a few established graden plants (Passion fruit, American Sering ETC). But my

bonsai & cuttings seem to all have made it.



All the hardwood cutting taken late november seem to love it (Buds swelling everywhere). I have collected Beech and Cratyeagus from hedgerows the last weeks, and they are struggling. The digging had to be done without planning: Someone decides to change their garden, typically they post a notice that you can get the plants for free, but they have to be gone by the weekend. So I am guessing half of these will not live past summer.

well last year i had rabits that killed 2 and damaged 3 ...this year i had a vole chew up 3 ...lesson learned voles can get through chicken wire ie. i need smaller holed wire to protect my trees .they are doing ok and sprouting nicely. i guess its just natural pruning. as for the others they are all doing great and comeing back to life

living in a tropic is a real treasure...good luck guys

Tropical would be nice, but have you ever seen the seasons change in Maine? The colors the trees display are amazing.