At 03:21 AM 6/24/04 +0000, Robert Campbell wrote:
Hi:
My family owns undeveloped property outside of Visalia, California. I
asked Mom (the owner)
if I could put some pre-bonsia in the ground. She thinks that the trees
would die due to lack
of attention ( it's 6 hours away).
It's hot in the summer and may get some snow in winter. My plan to put
hardy local types up
there (oak, pepper, juniper, pine, sequoia, etc) that have nice rootballs
in well prepared
beds. I could visit 2-4 times a year. Certainly, I need to do much more
research ...
What does the group thinks my chances of success might be?
Bob
Put me in the near zero chance group. If you don't have any way to actively
irrigate these plants on a regular basis, they will almost certainly die.
Even native plants have strategies for survival that you probably won't be
able to duplicate. Native plants in our arid climate have very narrow
environmental ranges and even hundreds of them die for every one that succeeds.
It truly remarkable that anything survives around here in the summer. We
are talking about daytime summer temperatures that are rarely below 80 and
can go as high as 115, with low humidity, endless sun, and the kicker is
that there is usually NO measureable rainfall from June (and sometimes even
March!) until November. Soil can be bone dry to 20 feet down by late summer.
I'm not real familiar with Visalia, but I don't think they get snow there,
at least not more a spot or two of wet snow that is gone within hours. With
irrigation, and someone around to make sure it is working, you could of
course grow a lot plants that could tolerate that level of sunlight.
Brent in Northern California
Evergreen Gardenworks USDA Zone 8 Sunset Zone 14
http://www.EvergreenGardenworks.com
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