Bonsai Nut
Nuttier than your average Nut
I know many of you have purchased trees online from MrMaple.com. Today was their Labor Day Open House, and I was there to check out their trees, snap photos, and say "hi" to a few friends. Here are some pics:
UTV's were available to drive people around the extensive grounds. I think there were 28(?) shade houses, plus extensive outdoor grow areas.
They had an wide selection of larger landscape trees, though the majority of their nursery inventory was in the 1-5 gallon range, which is no surprise since they need to be able to ship the majority of their trees.
They had quite a selection of ornamental conifers. Lots of Japanese white pines and a couple Japanese black pines, Eastern white pines, Mugo pines, Austrian pines. Lots of spruces, cypresses, bald cypress, dawn redwoods, hemlocks, etc. Some Hinoki cypresses, but not too many.
And of course shade house after shade house of Japanese maples. Their organization was a little haphazard in that you could sometimes find the same cultivar in several different locations, or for that matter, a few lonely cultivars that were not listed on their web site. But if part of the fun of the visit was searching for those diamonds in the rough... you would be in nirvana.
It was easy to become overwhelmed - even if you were organized and knew what you were looking for. Many of the trees that I picked up today were listed as "sold out" on their web site. Two weren't even listed.
I give them a big thumbs up for friendliness, organization, and thoughtfulness. I appreciate that they had porta-potties and a food truck, a sheriff to help with traffic and provide a general sense of calm and security to something that might have gotten overwhelmingly busy, and plenty of staff available - not just at check-out, but to help move product from the shade houses to the check-out area, and then to help you get your trees from check-out to the car. I was there for three hours, and still left knowing that I had not seen everything. One of the trees I purchased, an Acer oliveriana 'Hot Sauce' was rare enough that the staff were even surprised I found one. "Wow, we get calls for this all the time - where did you find it?" When I told them I grabbed the last one, they knowingly said "you should sell it on eBay!"
UTV's were available to drive people around the extensive grounds. I think there were 28(?) shade houses, plus extensive outdoor grow areas.
They had an wide selection of larger landscape trees, though the majority of their nursery inventory was in the 1-5 gallon range, which is no surprise since they need to be able to ship the majority of their trees.
They had quite a selection of ornamental conifers. Lots of Japanese white pines and a couple Japanese black pines, Eastern white pines, Mugo pines, Austrian pines. Lots of spruces, cypresses, bald cypress, dawn redwoods, hemlocks, etc. Some Hinoki cypresses, but not too many.
And of course shade house after shade house of Japanese maples. Their organization was a little haphazard in that you could sometimes find the same cultivar in several different locations, or for that matter, a few lonely cultivars that were not listed on their web site. But if part of the fun of the visit was searching for those diamonds in the rough... you would be in nirvana.
It was easy to become overwhelmed - even if you were organized and knew what you were looking for. Many of the trees that I picked up today were listed as "sold out" on their web site. Two weren't even listed.
I give them a big thumbs up for friendliness, organization, and thoughtfulness. I appreciate that they had porta-potties and a food truck, a sheriff to help with traffic and provide a general sense of calm and security to something that might have gotten overwhelmingly busy, and plenty of staff available - not just at check-out, but to help move product from the shade houses to the check-out area, and then to help you get your trees from check-out to the car. I was there for three hours, and still left knowing that I had not seen everything. One of the trees I purchased, an Acer oliveriana 'Hot Sauce' was rare enough that the staff were even surprised I found one. "Wow, we get calls for this all the time - where did you find it?" When I told them I grabbed the last one, they knowingly said "you should sell it on eBay!"
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