December 20, 2025 • 9 mins
Ron Wilson chats with the Arbor Doc as he shares his expertise as a certified arborist and amateur meteorologist. He discusses the upcoming winter season, predicting a roller coaster of temperatures with warm weather expected around Christmas, followed by a return to cold and snowy conditions in January and February. Ron also touches on the importance of watering evergreens, noting that the ground is currently wet due to recent precipitation, but areas in the northeast Ohio and northern Indiana are still experiencing drought. He emphasizes the need for careful watering in these regions.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back here in the garden with Ron Wilson. And
what is the answer to those leggy points. Setia is
where the leaves all fall off the bottom. Go out
in your yard and cut off about you know, six
or eight ten short pieces tips of evergreens like juniper, taxis, boxwood, whatever,
and then a range thows. Just stick them right in
(00:22):
the soil underneath the colorful bracts of the Ponzetia. Now
in that container, you look like you have a holiday
planter with the greens in the bottom the colorful bracts
of the pon setia at the top. They used to
do this way back in the old days when they
normally just fell off, and it looks like a holiday planner.
It's really cool. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't
(00:42):
be surprised if some of the growers started doing that
and selling them that way. Again. You know what goes
around comes around next next to Christmas season, So anyway,
don't throw them out, put some greens in the bottom.
Those greens will stay green like that pretty much all
winter because there a lot of times can take up
that moisture that's in that soil. Now us the earlier
in the show. It is time for weather. It's the
(01:03):
weather and in the tree, starring our true seer of seers.
He is our registered consulting arborist. Boy goes on and
on amateur meteorologist. I s a board certified Master arbust
the Whole nine Yards website arbordoctor dot com. Ladies and gentlemen,
the arbor doc himself, Ron Rufus. So, wow, are you
(01:29):
having fun?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yes, I'm having fun. Actually, I was just notified by
email last evening that I had passed the latest True
Risk Assessment Qualification Course three point zero. So I've re
upped on that for the next seven years. So keep
that on the credential list, I guess.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So you'll be still knowledgeable for seven more years.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Probably, yeah, I'll get kind of older.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
See you never know, I know. Yeah, things start to
fade after a while. Anyway, we got a short segment
with you today because I wanted to get a quick update. Obviously,
tomorrow is the winter solstice longest day or yeah, the
longest night of the year, and that would be tomorrow night,
right Sunday night. Yes, and then things start getting better
(02:19):
after that. But we got two more weeks of December
and we're going to go into January. So two questions
for you, how are we going to finish out the year?
Does it look like going into twenty twenty six? And
of course the ultimate question that we ask you every
Saturday before Christmas? Will we have a white Christmas in
south western Ohio? Have that it? Ron roethis No. It's
(02:44):
hard to snow at sixty one degrees.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Huh, unless you're looking at a white painted wall or
white sheet. We did say, you know, quite a while
ago that we were going to have quite a bit
of cold weather, quite a bit of snow, and the
answers for a white Christmas would be higher than in
a normal year. And as you know, we've had quite
a bit of cold weather, quite a bit of snow.
(03:07):
A matter of fact, it's been one of the snowiest
Decembers on record. But it's just a timing thing this year.
The snow all fell earlier and it's all done now.
And so we're as we also predicted. I said we'd
have ups and downs this winter, and we're definitely gonna
have one of the ups for Christmas Week. In fact,
Christmas Day we could be flirting with record highs in
(03:29):
the Ohio Valley and really in a decent part of
the south central part of the country, in southeast part
of the country, it could be very, very warm this Christmas. Really,
you have to go out onto the west coast this
yere in Nevada's those areas Pacific Northwest to find a
great deal of snow. It's just going to be a
(03:50):
very warm Christmas this year in the United States, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
And it looks like in our area it looks like
there's even a chance of right now, they're saying for
a thunderstorm some rain on Christmas Day as well, but hey,
it is what it is.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Either at night or during the day, it's kind of
hard to tell. But going forward, you did ask about
going forward, It looks like the roller coaster to some
extent is going to continue. Although this warm spell looks
like it's going to last for a little while. It
was looking like it was going to get cold again
right after Christmas, and that looks like it's going to
be at the very least delayed. So I'm going to
(04:25):
enjoy a little bit of warm weather for a decent bit,
But it does look like eventually the temperatures will go
back down and will continue on this kind of up
and down, and it does look like we're going to
get some more really cold and snowy periods over the
course of the January February. Even in the early March
(04:48):
time period.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Hey, I went out and actually bought a snowblower because
now I'm taking care of my mom's driveway and doing
things like that, So I actually wouldn't got a snowbloll.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
That's why I had sixty degrees and that it.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Looks what happened. I got it after the snow, obviously,
because there weren't any available at that time. So now
now I get it in them old snow for another
three or four weeks. That's all right. I'll be waiting
for it.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So so prepared, just like a boy scout.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I am prepared, Yes, I am. So We're going to
finish out the year and begin the twenty twenty sixth
season with the roller coaster. And you're saying, by the
time we get into January and looking at February, good
chance we get back into a little bit more cold
weather again.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, possibly some significantly cold weather like we had, you
know over the past couple of weeks. I would not
be surprised to see it get back below zero again.
And I would not be surprised to see us get
a decent amount of more snow. But we are going
to have kind of ups and downs this winter, so
I would not be surprised to see another one spell too.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Wow. Well, there you have it, and you know we've
had some good rainfall over the last couple of weeks
as well. How do you feel now? You know, you
and I are always out there preaching about make sure
you're watering going into the fall and into the holloway,
especially those evergreens. How do you feel at this stage?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
The ground is wet right now. We had a wet November.
December has actually been slightly below normal, but with the
cold weather and the lack of evaporation in the snow
cover that we had, the ground is just really really
wet right now. So the only place that I can
(06:25):
imagine in anything that needs water right now in Cincinnati
in the Media Ohio Valley would be something that you
might be under an overhang or something like that. And
I'm being very careful with that because you go up
in the northeast Ohio, northern and central Indiana, they've been
in severe to extreme drought for weeks now, and it's
(06:46):
gotten a little bit better with recent precipitation, but it's
been much much drier in those areas. In a lot
of parts of the United States, up and down the
East Coast, New England, the South, a lot of areas
of drought. So for those areas of watering is still
something you need to be thinking about with some of
these evergreens especially.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
You know, I've been watching that there are a lot
of that drought monitor. I just okay, I've been watching
that drought monitor. Uh and obviously you said it too
mey casion, I go and find it as well. But
I've been watching Ohio and it's amazing how that has
kind of hung in there as far as being fairly dry,
even though they've had some snow up there, still not
where they normally should be.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, and snow snow gives moisture, but remember it's a
one inch, you know, ten inches of snow to equal
one inch of rain.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
That was my next quest water.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, so and that that's an average, I mean, a
very very dry snow could be even less than that.
You can have twenty to one ratio. Sometimes they're very
powdery snow, so so it takes quite a lot of
snow to equal an inch of rain. And if if
you're several inches blow where you should be, then you
(07:59):
need had a lot of snow to really really get
it backward where it needs to be. So some of
those areas you know, are still really really dry. And
it's interesting how you don't have to go very far.
You know, Southwest Ohio has been pretty wet, but northwest
Ohio been in severe to extreme drought. So it's just
interesting how you can have those, you know, those differences
(08:23):
over fairly short periods of time.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Distance, no doubt about it. Hey, Ron, we gotta go.
We appreciate the update, Ron, Rothis are certifying arborist, of course,
and the hobby meteorologist is website arbordoctor dot com. I
know you're chaperoning at a gymnastics meet, and I know
you're competing as well, so good luck on those parallel
bars and the pommel horse. Those are your two specials.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
That would be an ugly site. But yes, the children
who are making noise in the background, even though I
told them to be quiet, they're doing are going to
be competing today. United States Trampling and Tumbling Association and
Competition in Ryo Grand Ohio. And yes they do pronounce
it Ryo Grand Yo.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yeah, Home of Bob Evans.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yes, we're probably going to eat in the original Bob.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Evans today at his original table.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Maybe. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Who knows, Ron Roeth, it's always a pleasure. We want
to wish you and your family are very very merry Christmas.
Appreciate all that all that you do for us during
the year, and we will probably talk to you by
the end of the season. End of the year.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Sounds great to me.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
All right, thanks Ron, take care of have a good
time at the gymnastics.
Welcome back here in the garden with Ron Wilson. And
what is the answer to those leggy points. Setia is
where the leaves all fall off the bottom. Go out
in your yard and cut off about you know, six
or eight ten short pieces tips of evergreens like juniper, taxis, boxwood, whatever,
and then a range thows. Just stick them right in
(00:22):
the soil underneath the colorful bracts of the Ponzetia. Now
in that container, you look like you have a holiday
planter with the greens in the bottom the colorful bracts
of the pon setia at the top. They used to
do this way back in the old days when they
normally just fell off, and it looks like a holiday planner.
It's really cool. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't
(00:42):
be surprised if some of the growers started doing that
and selling them that way. Again. You know what goes
around comes around next next to Christmas season, So anyway,
don't throw them out, put some greens in the bottom.
Those greens will stay green like that pretty much all
winter because there a lot of times can take up
that moisture that's in that soil. Now us the earlier
in the show. It is time for weather. It's the
(01:03):
weather and in the tree, starring our true seer of seers.
He is our registered consulting arborist. Boy goes on and
on amateur meteorologist. I s a board certified Master arbust
the Whole nine Yards website arbordoctor dot com. Ladies and gentlemen,
the arbor doc himself, Ron Rufus. So, wow, are you
(01:29):
having fun?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yes, I'm having fun. Actually, I was just notified by
email last evening that I had passed the latest True
Risk Assessment Qualification Course three point zero. So I've re
upped on that for the next seven years. So keep
that on the credential list, I guess.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
So you'll be still knowledgeable for seven more years.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Probably, yeah, I'll get kind of older.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
See you never know, I know. Yeah, things start to
fade after a while. Anyway, we got a short segment
with you today because I wanted to get a quick update. Obviously,
tomorrow is the winter solstice longest day or yeah, the
longest night of the year, and that would be tomorrow night,
right Sunday night. Yes, and then things start getting better
(02:19):
after that. But we got two more weeks of December
and we're going to go into January. So two questions
for you, how are we going to finish out the year?
Does it look like going into twenty twenty six? And
of course the ultimate question that we ask you every
Saturday before Christmas? Will we have a white Christmas in
south western Ohio? Have that it? Ron roethis No. It's
(02:44):
hard to snow at sixty one degrees.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Huh, unless you're looking at a white painted wall or
white sheet. We did say, you know, quite a while
ago that we were going to have quite a bit
of cold weather, quite a bit of snow, and the
answers for a white Christmas would be higher than in
a normal year. And as you know, we've had quite
a bit of cold weather, quite a bit of snow.
(03:07):
A matter of fact, it's been one of the snowiest
Decembers on record. But it's just a timing thing this year.
The snow all fell earlier and it's all done now.
And so we're as we also predicted. I said we'd
have ups and downs this winter, and we're definitely gonna
have one of the ups for Christmas Week. In fact,
Christmas Day we could be flirting with record highs in
(03:29):
the Ohio Valley and really in a decent part of
the south central part of the country, in southeast part
of the country, it could be very, very warm this Christmas. Really,
you have to go out onto the west coast this
yere in Nevada's those areas Pacific Northwest to find a
great deal of snow. It's just going to be a
(03:50):
very warm Christmas this year in the United States, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
And it looks like in our area it looks like
there's even a chance of right now, they're saying for
a thunderstorm some rain on Christmas Day as well, but hey,
it is what it is.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Either at night or during the day, it's kind of
hard to tell. But going forward, you did ask about
going forward, It looks like the roller coaster to some
extent is going to continue. Although this warm spell looks
like it's going to last for a little while. It
was looking like it was going to get cold again
right after Christmas, and that looks like it's going to
be at the very least delayed. So I'm going to
(04:25):
enjoy a little bit of warm weather for a decent bit,
But it does look like eventually the temperatures will go
back down and will continue on this kind of up
and down, and it does look like we're going to
get some more really cold and snowy periods over the
course of the January February. Even in the early March
(04:48):
time period.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Hey, I went out and actually bought a snowblower because
now I'm taking care of my mom's driveway and doing
things like that, So I actually wouldn't got a snowbloll.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
That's why I had sixty degrees and that it.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Looks what happened. I got it after the snow, obviously,
because there weren't any available at that time. So now
now I get it in them old snow for another
three or four weeks. That's all right. I'll be waiting
for it.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So so prepared, just like a boy scout.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I am prepared, Yes, I am. So We're going to
finish out the year and begin the twenty twenty sixth
season with the roller coaster. And you're saying, by the
time we get into January and looking at February, good
chance we get back into a little bit more cold
weather again.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, possibly some significantly cold weather like we had, you
know over the past couple of weeks. I would not
be surprised to see it get back below zero again.
And I would not be surprised to see us get
a decent amount of more snow. But we are going
to have kind of ups and downs this winter, so
I would not be surprised to see another one spell too.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Wow. Well, there you have it, and you know we've
had some good rainfall over the last couple of weeks
as well. How do you feel now? You know, you
and I are always out there preaching about make sure
you're watering going into the fall and into the holloway,
especially those evergreens. How do you feel at this stage?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
The ground is wet right now. We had a wet November.
December has actually been slightly below normal, but with the
cold weather and the lack of evaporation in the snow
cover that we had, the ground is just really really
wet right now. So the only place that I can
(06:25):
imagine in anything that needs water right now in Cincinnati
in the Media Ohio Valley would be something that you
might be under an overhang or something like that. And
I'm being very careful with that because you go up
in the northeast Ohio, northern and central Indiana, they've been
in severe to extreme drought for weeks now, and it's
(06:46):
gotten a little bit better with recent precipitation, but it's
been much much drier in those areas. In a lot
of parts of the United States, up and down the
East Coast, New England, the South, a lot of areas
of drought. So for those areas of watering is still
something you need to be thinking about with some of
these evergreens especially.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
You know, I've been watching that there are a lot
of that drought monitor. I just okay, I've been watching
that drought monitor. Uh and obviously you said it too
mey casion, I go and find it as well. But
I've been watching Ohio and it's amazing how that has
kind of hung in there as far as being fairly dry,
even though they've had some snow up there, still not
where they normally should be.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, and snow snow gives moisture, but remember it's a
one inch, you know, ten inches of snow to equal
one inch of rain.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
That was my next quest water.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, so and that that's an average, I mean, a
very very dry snow could be even less than that.
You can have twenty to one ratio. Sometimes they're very
powdery snow, so so it takes quite a lot of
snow to equal an inch of rain. And if if
you're several inches blow where you should be, then you
(07:59):
need had a lot of snow to really really get
it backward where it needs to be. So some of
those areas you know, are still really really dry. And
it's interesting how you don't have to go very far.
You know, Southwest Ohio has been pretty wet, but northwest
Ohio been in severe to extreme drought. So it's just
interesting how you can have those, you know, those differences
(08:23):
over fairly short periods of time.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Distance, no doubt about it. Hey, Ron, we gotta go.
We appreciate the update, Ron, Rothis are certifying arborist, of course,
and the hobby meteorologist is website arbordoctor dot com. I
know you're chaperoning at a gymnastics meet, and I know
you're competing as well, so good luck on those parallel
bars and the pommel horse. Those are your two specials.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
That would be an ugly site. But yes, the children
who are making noise in the background, even though I
told them to be quiet, they're doing are going to
be competing today. United States Trampling and Tumbling Association and
Competition in Ryo Grand Ohio. And yes they do pronounce
it Ryo Grand Yo.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yeah, Home of Bob Evans.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yes, we're probably going to eat in the original Bob.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Evans today at his original table.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Maybe. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Who knows, Ron Roeth, it's always a pleasure. We want
to wish you and your family are very very merry Christmas.
Appreciate all that all that you do for us during
the year, and we will probably talk to you by
the end of the season. End of the year.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Sounds great to me.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
All right, thanks Ron, take care of have a good
time at the gymnastics.
In The Garden with Ron Wilson News
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