Winter Care and Protection for my Bonsai

Over the last week, the temperature here has dropped dramatically. This spurred me into starting to get some of my bonsai ready for the coming winter. Hopefully this winter will not be as bad as last, which was the coldest in memory. We do not generally get much snow here due to us being on the coast, but last year we had a thick covering for well over a month and temperatures staying firmly below zero. With this is mind, I will offer some of my smaller and more fragile bonsai some added protection this year. Included in these will be the small japanese maple seedlings which sprouted this year, as these are by no means ready for a winter outside yet. This will be in the form of an unheated greenhouse, I also have a small polythene greenhouse which can accommodate a few extras. Protection of native species is generally unnecessary as this is the weather they are used to, having said that I did lose a yamadori European Larch last year, but it was possibly on the weak side already. I had a few other losses but these consisted of species that I should of really protected, namely, a katsura Japanese maple, and a group of dawn redwoods. So not taking any chances, this year, I begun to prepare some of the trees. This mainly consisted of weeding them out and removing any moss that had appeared on the surface for the time being, the weeds and moss will only make monitoring the watering that bit harder. The moss can also offer a hiding place for creepy crawlies over the colder months. This also gave me the chance to have a good look at them, and see how they have got on this year. Most of my deciduous are now without leaf, all bar a little Japanese larch which is hanging onto its last needles, and also a trident maple which is planted in the ground, and still in full leaf. With the drop of needles on another larch of mine, the chance to wire it presents itself. Wiring a larch while it is covered in needles is almost impossible and possibly even detrimental. So wiring of these occurs strictly at the start of winter. My Chinese elm have for the last couple of years acted like evergreens, they never seem to drop their leaves for winter and carry them all the way until next spring, and the new growth. With all of the trees prepared, all that is left to do is to bring them into the greenhouse over the next month, when I see a considerable and consistent drop in our temperatures.