Dorky_gearhead
Shohin
Me and my wife have been kicking around the idea of moving to Alaska. The land is super cheap (compared to california) as well as just everything else. Anybody here thats in alaska? What are your favorite trees to bonsai?
Me and my wife have been kicking around the idea of moving to Alaska. The land is super cheap (compared to california) as well as just everything else. Anybody here thats in alaska? What are your favorite trees to bonsai?
I don’t know about Alaska, but the crime rate has been through the roof the last couple of years. Lots of people can’t handle the short days, the cold, being indoors 99% of the time, overly curious neighbors, to name a few things and turn to drugs. A lot of seasonal work leads to a lot of unemployment in the winter. Drugs and unemployment turn into crime. Lots of crime. 8 murders last year in a territory that has 40,000 people.You get what you pay for - trust me on this, the crime is ridiculous by any standards...
Grimmy
My kind of place.it was -40 F
It’s one thing for them to grow in the ground. It’s completely another for them growing in a pot. The roots don’t get more then a couple degrees below freezing in the ground, even at -40°. Extended freeze thaw cycles in spring and fall would be difficult to contend with, water one nice spring day and wake up the next morning to half your pots broken because they all froze unexpectedly to -10° C that night. Weather forecasts don’t mean too much up there with the weather stations being spaced so much further apart then down south.Well Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, yellow cedar, mtn hemlock, sitka spruce etc would all do well in the gulf of alaska area (and are mostly native there), and all make great bonsai IMHO
All very true. You'd have to keep your pots insulated etc against the cold, etc. (Being on the coast would help a lot ). But it can be done.It’s one thing for them to grow in the ground. It’s completely another for them growing in a pot. The roots don’t get more then a couple degrees below freezing in the ground, even at -40°. Extended freeze thaw cycles in spring and fall would be difficult to contend with, water one nice spring day and wake up the next morning to half your pots broken because they all froze unexpectedly to -10° C that night. Weather forecasts don’t mean too much up there with the weather stations being spaced so much further apart then down south.
A few years ago my wife and I considered moving to the Yukon. My final consensus was that the amount of money it would take wasn’t worth the results. I relegated myself to finding some nice trees to bring back south when we eventually moved. We never went because property is too expensive and the internet sucks and is WAY to expensive for my usage.
I gave a talk on growing orchids under lights to the Anchorage Orchid Society. One of their members was a member of the Anchorage Bonsai Society. A small group of maybe 35 people. If you live relatively close to the ocean, the climate is not wildly different than Chicago. I was there in February. By the way, land in Anchorage is expensive, because so much is tied up with military bases, the land open for homes and development is limited. Bonsai is possible in Anchorage, many do tropicals under lights, spruce is popular for outdoor bonsai.
The Alaska interior is another matter. While it was +15F in Anchorage, it was -40 F in Fairbanks. Not many doing bonsai.
Juneau has a fairly mild Pacific Northwest climate. Bonsai would be possible and fairly similar to Seattle or Vancouver scenes.
I was there last 2 weeks of February, locals had begun wearing shorts. My host commented that "it was so nice to feel the slight warmth of the sun on your face" in December and January the brief couple hours the sun is up, you don't even feel the heat.Ah, you must have been there during the warm part of winter... or the place has gotten some badly needed global warming.
Were the locals walking around in shorts, or was it during the first half of winter?