San Diego Bonsai Club Blog

Friday, October 28, 2005

Winter Tree Care in San Diego

Recently, someone contacted me through the web site and asked about how to care for certain temperate trees in San Diego. As you may know, some trees need to "feel" the winter in order to flower or produce fruit. As a result, if the temperature doesn't drop below freezing, then you may not see the desired results.

In my response to this inquiry, I started off by pointing out that San Diego winters are fairly mild. Coastal areas in particular will usually never drop below freezing. Inland areas do sometimes drop below freezing, but not too much below.

I don't personally do anything special for my trees in the winter. I've read that you can try a refrigeration method, if you want to try and produce a colder winter artificially. However, this method seems a bit risky to me. Does anyone use a refrigeration method and have any tips or ideas? Any other comments on how to handle temperate trees in the San Diego area?

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Welcome to the San Diego Bonsai Club blog!

My name is Graham Hellewell and I am the webmaster for the San Diego Bonsai Club web site. I usually receive quite a few email messages via the web site from people asking general questions about bonsai. Usually I can answer any questions on my own. However, there are times when I seek out other club members for assistance and expertise. It occurred to me today that a blog would be the perfect way to communicate with people who might have questions or who just want to talk about bonsai.

In addition, I think this blog will provide a useful tool for club members who want to share some piece of news with the group. Of course, people will need to visit this blog web site in order to read these news items. Hopefully, at least some club members will find this a useful tool for communication with other members of the club. Are you interested in posting to this blog? Just let me know! After doing so, I will send you an invitation with further directions about how to participate in this blog.

This blog could turn out to be quite fun. Imagine someone posting something about the most amazing tree that they saw the other day. Please feel free to contact me if you have any comments or questions about this site or the San Diego Bonsai Club. Thanks!