| While this site has focused primarily
on bonsai in Maricopa County (south-central Arizona, Phoenix metro), we
have also had a little input from Pima County (southern Arizona, Tucson).
In late March 2002, your humble editor moved up to northwestern Arizona
for family reasons after thirty-one years in the Phoenix area. Never
wanting to abandon bonsai nor this web site, he is in the process of [re-]learning
this gardening art in Sunset Zone 10, the High Desert. Through
the miracles of e-mail and snail mail, he will be able to continue in his
chosen post as web master, just three hours up the road (State Route 93
into Interstate 40). Occasional visits to Phoenix area activities
are expected.
What will be recorded here are his learning experiences. What he initially knows is that the climate outside of Kingman (and similar parts of Mohave County, elevation: 3300+ ft) is at least 15 F cooler than Phoenix. This works out to a winter season of 75 - 100+ nights below 32 F. His beloved Portulacaria and Ficus will be greenhoused and/or indoored. Japanese maples will be a workable reality. And, hopefully, this winter's unusually high/constant winds will die down. Or his collection will have many dramatic wind-swepts! For the time being, any experience specifically based on Zone 10 will be limited to the confines of this page. Note: the High Desert is also in the southeastern corner of Arizona (Cochise County: Benson, Tombstone, Douglas, Nogales), dotted across central Arizona, into southern Utah and Nevada, and into the adjacent California desert. Any active enthusiast or prospective enthusiast who lives in the Mohave County area is invited to contact the editor (rjb@phoenixbonsai.com) to talk shop. Yes, the possibility of a club exists sometime in the future. As is the custom, informal get-togethers will occur first. In the meantime, this web site will continue to evolve to embrace dwarf potted tree caretakers and other magical miniature landscapers who live throughout this wide-ranging state and its neighbors. |
This Page Last Updated: March 25, 2002