December

DECEMBER IS HERE... Time for Santa and family get togethers. Hope you are giving enough hints on that new tool, tree, or special pot you want. We have, along with our regular selection of pots, some very nice Japanese Houtoku pots for that special tree, also we still have available a nice selection of bonsai for Christmas. Can't think of or know what to get your bonsai friend? We do offer D&L Nursery gift cards.

WHAT’S NEW... We now have D&L Nursery T-Shirts for sale.

WE WANT TO THANK... everyone that came to the Mount Dora Plant & Garden Festival. Overall the crowd was down this year probably from the cloudy skies and winds, but we still had a great time. We were able to socialize with all the people that have come in the past and met quite a few new people. A lot of them signed up for the newsletter and a few showed up for the November BYOT. Welcome aboard.
Mary Miller did a great demo on Saturday and so did Mike Rogers on Sunday. We raffled Mary’s tree which led to a pretty good story. A guy came up from South Florida, after not being able to obtain one of Mary’s trees from her auction, in hopes of getting one, well luck was with him! He won the raffle.

NOVEMBER HAS BEEN... Wetter, then an early cold snap and then warmer than normal towards the end of the month, some of our deciduous trees haven’t quite figured out what to do. I was up in the NW part of Marion County, next to our own neck of the woods the best part of the county for some older growth trees and some pretty good fall color, not so much this year, some deciduous trees are still green while others that got hit by the early frost are brown.

During cold weather with low humidity and windy days be careful on watering. A cool, dry and windy day can dry out the leaves rather quickly, sometimes even quicker than a hot sunny day, so protection from the wind is a must. With the cooler temperatures the tree roots are not as active, so moisture going to the leaves has slowed. Also if you are bringing your tropical trees in at night, the humidity in your house is low.

AS WE GO... into winter a lot of the tropicals I put in the greenhouse will have their leaves turn yellow and fall off due to cooler temperatures and shorter days. This will not hurt them, just be careful not to over water them. Keep soil moderately damp, not wet. They will probably take most of the winter before they start coming back, this is good, don't try to rush it by feeding them. No fertilizer till spring if they don’t have any leaves. The longer they take, the smaller the leaves will be next year. This is a great opportunity to get a good look at branching. I will also take this time to wire my secondary and tertiary branches. Watch trees you've wired, in spring the wires will get tight quick.

NOW IS WHEN... we can start styling our Maples, Dawn Redwoods and other deciduous varieties. Your conifers can be done now. Still no potting of these trees yet. It is a good time to go in the woods and scout out possible trees for collection, they will still have some leaves on them for easier identification. Remember though for all collected trees you must have the landowner’s permission. Sometimes permission can be provided for the state and federal lands. Trust me you do not want to get caught collecting a tree illegally. But to make it easier for you I will be going collecting again this year, so we will have more trees available for you. I collected some very sweet Cypress last year that will be available this spring, I am talking about some nice Cypress with big bases. Now is when you pluck off last years needles on Pines. You can prune your tropicals some now, but nothing major.

HEADS UP on the upcoming Kawa Bonsai Convention January 13th-15th Suthin is the headliner, he no longer will be doing any traveling so this may be the last time you may get to learn from this amazing artist. They have some excellent workshops lined up so you might want to sign up early to assure a spot.