Hello!

First post here as google has failed to come up with a satisfactory answer!

My Chinese elm bonsai has been outside since spring 2020. I live in the UK, and it is on a stand on the decking in my garden. It is next to a fence in a relatively sheltered area behind the house, but gets plenty of sunlight here. Summer was great, it grew very well and all is well.

It is now winter, we have had snow and frost, but it has not dropped its leaves! I did move it into the garage for 5 days from middle of last week, as we had snow and lots of days back to back where it was continually very cold as I got concerned when I saw signs that the soil was frozen.

What should I be doing here? I am worried that because it has not dropped its leaves, it will be more vulnerable to frost should there be another cold snap this winter and also that it wont have had a dormancy period this cycle?

Should I force it into dormancy by leaving it in the garage for a sustained period of time, or trust it and leave it outside where it appears to be doing just fine.

Thanks for any help,

Regards

Chris

nature knows. My chinese elm grows most of winter, stalling when frozen. Only by longer frost does it hesitatingly drop leaves. No worries on my side down to -10c

Right ok, so do I even need to worry about the relatively small pot freezing? Or would it need to be mega cold for a good few days for it to be really bad?

pots freeze. Mine have been frozen solid a few times this winter already.

When temps become subzero for longer periods of time and/or drop well below a light frost, I start moving things around. First onto the ground and out of sun and wind. When it gets to sustained frost and below -10 do I see a need to protect more. At the moment most of my trees are on their benches. Grafted trees, recently wired and repotted trees get a little more care.

Start moving around if it hardens.

What do you mean by moving it around? Putting it in a different spot, like at the other end of the garden? Or putting it in a different climate all together, like the garage/some kind of covered area?

Madeyes88 wrote: What do you mean by moving it around? Putting it in a different spot, like at the other end of the garden? Or putting it in a different climate all together, like the garage/some kind of covered area?

as said:

First onto the ground and out of sun and wind. When it gets to sustained frost and below -10 do I see a need to protect more.