Our trees are special
Why should you buy from us? Here are the advantages:
Container Grown -- You get All the roots!
Container grown
Most of our trees are grown in pots. This is more work, but a pot grown tree can be transplanted at any time of the year that the ground can be worked. It also means that I don't have to lift trees for market during the planting season. (Truth time: I started this way because I couldn't afford to buy a bobcat, a tree spade, a root pruner, but I could afford to buy a pickup load of pots.)
No wussy beach resort for these guys.
Alberta hardy
All of our trees winter here. You're not getting a tree from the coast that has never been exposed to an Alberta Winter. This increases your chances of a successful transition. One owner of a landscaping company told me that they expect up to a 40% mortality on trees brought in from out of province.
Eastern White Pine -- Just one of our unusual you-won't-find-it-at-Revy trees
Fast Supply
Local Grower + Container Grown = Trees on Demand.
The big guys place their orders a year in advance. They hope they can sell most of their stock in the spring, and hope that they don't have to trash much of it after the fall sales. The small garden centre owner and the landscape contractor doesn't know what he'll need next year.
With Sherwood's Forests, you can phone on Tuesday, pick up on Thursday, sell on Saturday. You're money is tied up for only a short period of time. You have less stock to care for.
Different Selection
If you look over our inventory, you will see some trees and shrubs that are uncommon at garden centres. I started doing this because I could not find a ponderosa pine or a weeping willow at a local garden centre. I've got ponderosas now, and I've got a line on a prairie hardy weeping willow. Stay tuned.
These red pine are doing well in plain field soil
Soil, not bark chips
I tried various mixes, but I've found that most of my trees seem to do well in a mix that is close to straight field soil. Sure, it has some composted bark, a bit of peat, in it, but conventional field soil is a good part of the mix. This makes for a heavier pot. I wouldn't want to pay to ship these to North Overshoe, Ontario. A heavier soil means that the boundary at the root ball when they are transplanted isn't as severe. It also doesn't drain as fast, so its not necessary to water as frequently. (I typically water conifers once every week to 10 days in normal summer weather (12C to 20C))
Two year old Birch in #2 Stuewe Tree Pots
Pots can make a difference.
We use unusual pots for some of our trees. They are tall and narrow, to train
roots to run deep. Ridges running up and down discourage root spiralling.
This is a nuisance when moving trees to their new home, as the pots tend
to fall over. It means a deeper hole too. We think that these small temporary
nuisances are worth a stronger tree. You will too.
(Garden Centres & Landscapers: We do have trees and shrubs in conventional
pots too. I can show you three different ways to display Stuewe pots that
are effective, and not terribly labour intensive to set up. Seeing
Reducing Windthrow)