Gypsy Camp Blog

For the sake of thousands of trees – particularly Junipers, which might actually have a hope of surviving, I think it’s time to kill the myth of the indoor tree. Trees are supposed to live outdoors. That’s what they like.

Just because a tree is not cold tolerant enough to survive without protection from the elements, it doesn’t mean that it belongs inside. it just needs some temporary protection. Depending on the type of tree you have and where exactly you live, that degree of cold protection will vary.

When you’re looking at “indoor” bonsai trees you need to try and learn a little more about them than that. Tropical trees don’t have warm and cold seasons, but they do have wet and dry seasons. They have times of active growth, flowering, fruiting and they have a time that they rest. Many warm weather trees are not leafed out year round. The Barbados Cherry (Malpighia pendiculata) for example, will drop its leaves in the winter. What no tree has is a natural environment that mirrors a coffee table in a dimly lit room.

Now you have the same problems with outdoor trees too. And they can be even more perplexing. A Siberian Crabapple will survive in Zone 2- which makes Toronto’s zone 6B look positively balmy, but left to sit on the deck over the winter it would die. The roots you see have no protection sitting in those little pots. But the trees NEED a cooler winter or they won’t get the rest.

But back to the warm weather trees. Do them a favor this year and let them spend as much of the summer outdoors as will be reasonably possible. you will need to do a little more work. You’ll absolutely need to take careful steps to manage the twice-a-year transition from one environment to another and you’ll need o be sure that out of sight is not out of mind.

Taking a tree like a Chinese elm outside for the summer and allowing it to run through the fall, pretty much guarantees that it will drop its leaves and go dormant for the winter. On the other hand, left indoors all year round your Chinese Elm will be evergreen, but it won’t have the vigor that the deciduous version enjoys. Another tree that is regularly brutalized by being seen as an indoor bonsai is the ubiquitous Juniper procumbens bonsai. They can survive inside for a long time with the right care, but for the most part they’re slowly dying from the minute they’re brought into the average home which is hot, dry with bad air circulation and not nearly enough light.

The biggest problem with thinking of your tree as an indoor bonsai is that it implies that dozens of different trees – from a tropical Ficus to a semi-desert loving mini jade and anything in between all like the same conditions. And that just isn’t so. Treat your tropical divas like divas and they’ll thrive. Treat your desert dwellers like the scrappy little survivors that they are. Let them bathe in real sun (once you acclimate them), but don’t forget to bring them back inside before it gets too cold.

Here’s another great gift tree, the Large Fukien Tea It’s a very popular bonsai choice although not as well known as the Juniper Bonsai You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

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