Nellb
Sapling
A quick story about my recent Cold Stream Farms experience for anyone who is interested.
A little less then a month ago, I found myself desperatly wanting a new pre-bonsai tree to work with, that also can survive this bipolar weather that New England is always getting. The issue was, being brand new to bonsai, I had no clue what to get or where to start, and had the novel beginner idea I wanted to grow something from a seed or sapling. After sifting through endless posts here and websites, I decided to getting an American Larch. Since at the time there was a solid 5-6 feet of snow on the ground, and I was getting antsy, yamadori was out of the question, and I am on a limited budget, so buying+shipping a prebonsai larch was to rich for my blood. I began my search for another alternative, and found Cold Stream Farms.
For those that don’t know, this is a whole sale bare root trees nursary that sells many different types of trees, with no minimum order amount. Cold Stream lets you pick a size of the tree (<1’, 1-2’, 2-3’, etc.) and will ship it to anywhere in the continental US when they deem appropriate for your area of the country (depending on several factors listed on their website).
After browsing the site (which was simple to navigate and had a large assortment of trees) I decided on an American Larch and an Amur Maple sappling, both of the 1-2’ range, and placed my order on March 10th. The trees cost me $12 total, and the shipping was $11, but they will ship more trees for the same price. I received an invoice through email a day later to confirm everything, and sent them a response inquiring when the aproximate ship date would be. A day later their customer service responded saying that my order would ship on March 23rd and could change the date if needed, then it was a waiting game.
I received the trees today, in a nice package.
The trees were secured to the box, and the roots were contained nicely in plastic bags with wet soil in them. While the trees were a bit twigy, I was very happy with everything as a whole.
(larch on the left, maple on the right)
Removal was easy, and then it came down to potting the trees.
Amur Maple roots
Larch roots
Due to my current situation in a second floor appartment, I cannot plant them in the ground, so I decided on a large plastic colander. I made a 1-1-1 soil mix of chicken grit, a 50/50 pumice/Napa 8822 mix, and a 75/25 pine bark/soil mix after getting some advice from people here and also a local bonsai grower.
I thoroughly soaked them, and decided to bring them in for the night because the temperature will drop down to about 30F tonight, but starting tomorrow morning they will be permanantly located on a table on my porch facing SW, with any luck they will start budding soon.
Thanks for reading, I would love to hear any questions, comments, or concerns about what you all think!
Dan
A little less then a month ago, I found myself desperatly wanting a new pre-bonsai tree to work with, that also can survive this bipolar weather that New England is always getting. The issue was, being brand new to bonsai, I had no clue what to get or where to start, and had the novel beginner idea I wanted to grow something from a seed or sapling. After sifting through endless posts here and websites, I decided to getting an American Larch. Since at the time there was a solid 5-6 feet of snow on the ground, and I was getting antsy, yamadori was out of the question, and I am on a limited budget, so buying+shipping a prebonsai larch was to rich for my blood. I began my search for another alternative, and found Cold Stream Farms.
For those that don’t know, this is a whole sale bare root trees nursary that sells many different types of trees, with no minimum order amount. Cold Stream lets you pick a size of the tree (<1’, 1-2’, 2-3’, etc.) and will ship it to anywhere in the continental US when they deem appropriate for your area of the country (depending on several factors listed on their website).
After browsing the site (which was simple to navigate and had a large assortment of trees) I decided on an American Larch and an Amur Maple sappling, both of the 1-2’ range, and placed my order on March 10th. The trees cost me $12 total, and the shipping was $11, but they will ship more trees for the same price. I received an invoice through email a day later to confirm everything, and sent them a response inquiring when the aproximate ship date would be. A day later their customer service responded saying that my order would ship on March 23rd and could change the date if needed, then it was a waiting game.
I received the trees today, in a nice package.
The trees were secured to the box, and the roots were contained nicely in plastic bags with wet soil in them. While the trees were a bit twigy, I was very happy with everything as a whole.
(larch on the left, maple on the right)Removal was easy, and then it came down to potting the trees.
Amur Maple roots
Larch roots
Due to my current situation in a second floor appartment, I cannot plant them in the ground, so I decided on a large plastic colander. I made a 1-1-1 soil mix of chicken grit, a 50/50 pumice/Napa 8822 mix, and a 75/25 pine bark/soil mix after getting some advice from people here and also a local bonsai grower.
I thoroughly soaked them, and decided to bring them in for the night because the temperature will drop down to about 30F tonight, but starting tomorrow morning they will be permanantly located on a table on my porch facing SW, with any luck they will start budding soon.
Thanks for reading, I would love to hear any questions, comments, or concerns about what you all think!
Dan
As a cool bonus in a few short seasons you will have enough stock to consider some mixed forest arrangements as well. There are a lot of ways to go and obtaining species and keeping them alive is the basis of it all. Good luck with your new journey and feel free to pipe in with questions if you cannot find the answers in our search engine!
