President’s Message

We had a good winter for the trees this year; the snow covered them 
almost the entire winter. This helps protect them from drying out from

the dry winter winds. It was nice to finally see the trees again with the 

mild spell we had. This is a good time to inspect the winter damage. 

Look for cracked branches and examine the trees’ structure to get a

spring pruning plan in mind. Cracked branches can be saved if you 

wrap them with raffia tape and let them repair themselves; you may 

also get some interesting scars and character to the branches. Soon 

the buds will start to swell; this is a good time to prune off the large

leaf buds at the tips of your branches. This will cause the dormant 

buds farther down the branch to develop, which will promote a compact

branch structure with good taper and character. I try to prune back to

the first set of dormant buds. Remember, it is easier to grow a branch

longer than it is to shorten a branch. These dormant buds will develop

into finer twigs with smaller leaves. Pinch off any buds that are not going

to be part of the final design.

This month’s meeting will be a grafting demonstration and workshop. 
Eldon has invited Tony and Aida Costa from Sheffield Nursery who are

very skilled and experienced in grafting, as they do hundreds of trees

each day in spring. Grafting allows you to join two trees of the same 

species. You can join a specific crab apple top to a more common 

apple rootstock or you can graft branches onto the trunk in a place

that had none. All materials (trees included) will be provided at a 

great price for the workshop that will follow.

In order to be ready for the spring repotting, we will be organizing 
the soil-making workshop at the next meeting. Most likely we will do this 
in early April. Proper soil that has good drainage is vital to the health 
of your trees. We will be selling the mixed soil at our next meeting at a
reasonable price. To participate in the soil workshop you will need 
sifting screens and a dust mask. You can get some nice stainless 

steel soil sifting screens at Lee Valley Tools and Gardening Supplies.

If you have any large containers to put the sifted soil into, bring them 

along - we can always use more. We will be putting the finished soil in

bags, so also bring along any good strong bags; they can be any size. 

Dress for the weather, it will likely be cold. We will set a rain date in case

of really bad weather. Spring is a good time to look around at garage

sales for wooden bowls. These make excellent training pots; just drill 

some holes in the bottom. I usually get them for 25 cents. Next month’s

meeting will deal with soil and spring potting. Following the meeting will

be a potting workshop. I will be root pruning and repotting most of my two

hundred trees this spring. Anyone interested in bringing his or her trees to

Stratford to repot, or just to observe, is welcome. Please let me know at

this meeting and I will let you know the date. I usually pick the first nice 

weekend in April.

Nigel Saunders

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