AusBonsai

Hey AB

My partner and I have bought a house in the blue mountains near Lawson. I am planning on moving my collection up there when we have finished some renovations in the house and done a heap of clearing in the backyard (no trees just undergrowth and grass)

Any advice on how some of my plants will react in a colder climate, some of my bonsai are:
Ficus, I will need to put my figs in a green house?
Kunzia
Casuarina
Crepe myrtle
Junipers
Gums
Pyracantha
Elm
Japanese maple
Trident maple

Any advice or comments are more than welcome!

Cheers
Matt

Ah Lawson,

I spent many holidays and weekends at my grandmothers house on the highway on the way out of Lawson, many years ago of course. It can snow ( although very unlikely) at Lawson and especially the next town Bullaburra so be prepared for the cold.

The figs will/could need some protection ( I keep mine in the house near a double glazed, north facing window for about 5 months)but everything else should be OK when acclimatised and now is the perfect time of year to move as far as bonsai are concerned.

Grant

I agree with Grant.
Figs will need a good greenhouse, not one of those little plastic things from the green shed. They need to stay above freezing temp every night. Small plastic frames just do not hold enough heat to keep things warm all night when it gets really cold. You may get by with keeping them close to the walls of the house depending on the construction and how much heat it absorbs/leaks but I think the best would be to follow Grant's advice and keep them inside for the winter. Figs are one of the few that do not mind inside a house.
All other species you have listed will be fine outside and the deciduous ones will actually enjoy the cooler winters up there. You may need to adjust your timing and techniques but the trees will be fine.

Nice, buy more deciduous trees and revel in the autumn colour!

Grant Bowie wrote:Ah Lawson,

I spent many holidays and weekends at my grandmothers house on the highway on the way out of Lawson, many years ago of course. It can snow ( although very unlikely) at Lawson and especially the next town Bullaburra so be prepared for the cold.

The figs will/could need some protection ( I keep mine in the house near a double glazed, north facing window for about 5 months)but everything else should be OK when acclimatised and now is the perfect time of year to move as far as bonsai are concerned.

Grant

Thanks for the feedback, as a matter of fact my new house is in Bullaburra! I said near Lawson because most people haven't heard of Bullaburra haha. When you say especially Bullaburra did you mean it would potentially snow?

shibui wrote:I agree with Grant.
Figs will need a good greenhouse, not one of those little plastic things from the green shed. They need to stay above freezing temp every night. Small plastic frames just do not hold enough heat to keep things warm all night when it gets really cold. You may get by with keeping them close to the walls of the house depending on the construction and how much heat it absorbs/leaks but I think the best would be to follow Grant's advice and keep them inside for the winter. Figs are one of the few that do not mind inside a house.
All other species you have listed will be fine outside and the deciduous ones will actually enjoy the cooler winters up there. You may need to adjust your timing and techniques but the trees will be fine.

Great advice as always Shibui, I don't really know a lot about green houses, though that may change if i plan on making one. Is there a minimum dimension a green house must be to work efficiently?

Re snow at Bulaburra.

My memory as a 10 year old or so was of a very heavy snow dump one winter. No snow in Lawson, a fine dusting at Bullaburra but no real snow till over Bonnington Hill,snow ball fight at Wentworth Falls , very heavy snow at Blackheath where we had to abandon the car at the shopping centre( no chains) and catch the train back to Lawson.

A very memorable day or two as a child.

Grant

Matty-J we will be neighbors soon enough ! I'm currently in Wentworth Falls and saw snow a couple years ago but nothing this year as it has been bone dry but still cold as buggery. One suggestion that I had to employ was to setup a hot house/green house for your figs as they will suffer (speaking from experience). As I had moved from a somewhat more temperate climate (Springwood/Winmalee) I observed some more subtle changes during winter to the junipers (really browned off), maples (awesome autumn colour as long as you gave them a sunny position during autumn), elms actually dropped all of their leaves and the Crepe Myrtles just kept on keeping on

Is there a minimum dimension a green house must be to work efficiently?

no, probably no set size. Much depends on how cold the area gets. Also on whether you can add heat. A friend used a small (2mx2mx2m) plastic house successfully but he had an incandescent light on all night to add a little heat. Mine is a bit larger around 5mx4mx3m and uses plastic drums full of water as thermal mass to absorb heat during the day. Thermal mass stores heat when it is warm and releases it when it gets cooler - water, concrete, masonry, etc are all good for thermal mass. Some covers hold heat better than others too. A double skin should be far more effective than the usual single skin covering of plastic or glass.
Small traditional glass houses were usually about 1.8mx2.4mx2m. My gut feeling is that would be a minimum to effectively store enough heat and would probably still need additional heating in cool areas. Much easier and less expensive to just keep a few figs inside the main house in winter.