It’s another hot dry day here at the Arboretum, a mature plant nursery in the heart of West Sussex. I must admit the heat is good for my aches and pains, but I wish it would rain, as the ground is so dry. Rainwater is so much better for stock, and gardens are starting to suffer. I’ve noticed lawns losing their lush green appearance being replaced by a straw like tone and texture.
Still, we have just taken delivery here at our mature plant nursery of our Japanese Maples in from New Zealand. This new stock should be ready for sale in March 2016. I was not there to pot them this season – but my colleagues did such a good job. If we keep the moisture levels right, they should start to leaf up in three to four weeks time. As they came in from New Zealand, and it is their winter, the trees come in bare root (with no soil on the roots), so it was important to get them potted as soon as possible to stop dehydration to the root system.
All the new stock was potted on the day of arrival, and they are now in our polytunnel where it is important to position them correctly, so that they are not in “hot spots” and they have an even temperature as much as possible to enhance their growth. I take the growing part of my job very seriously (as I do everything else on the nursery), and will always make sure our stock is of the optimum quality, and receives the utmost care and attention.
Once they have started to come out into leaf, I will take some photographs of the fresh foliage to give an idea of the varieties that we will have available next year. They will look very different to the photographs you can see now!
