The pot lady

I took a trip to visit the pot lady. She sells absolutely the best pots in town. Her selection is quite varied and when considering the potential lifespan and quality of her pottery, they are a great value.

There really is nothing that can dress up and make the entry, patio or deck more inviting than a collection of premium plants in quality pots. My preference is to collect and plant dwarf and miniature conifers, but other slow growing, hardy plants can be used as companions. If one desires, and has the space large enough, intermediate or even large trees can be planted in some of the huge clay pots that are available today.

Amazing dwarf and miniature conifers, in high quality pots, create an inviting space on the patio.

The pot lady told me that her pots are a much higher quality than the typical terra cotta pots we often find on the shelves of the big box store. Her pots can withstand much colder temperatures without being destroyed by cold snaps in winter (at least in our area).

As I wandered through her large display area I found many “family” groupings of pots. These families would all have similar color, shape and style characteristics within the broad range of sizes from small single plant pots, to shallow bowls (great for miniature gardens), to larger bowls and pots (that might  accommodate  small street trees).  When you choose pots of varying size within a family group and plant them with dwarf and miniature conifers and then place them together on the deck or patio, you are treated with a year-round display that looks like you may have paid a professional designer to create it for you.

I love container gardening with conifers and now I’ve found a great source to supply all my pot needs. Thank you pot lady!

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Betrayed love

I have a confession to make. My eyes have been wandering. There are some pretty young things in town and they’ve been tempting me away from my true love.

This time of year can be a real challenge for the devoted cone-head. Ordinarily it is a very rare instance when my eyes can be drawn away from my true love of conifers. This time of year though, when the Japanese maples dress themselves in their delicious hot red and orange and yellow foliage – sigh – even the most loyal can be drawn to their seductive beauty.

Autumn foliage of Acer japonicum 'Vitifolium'

Acer japonicum ‘Vitifolium’ is one of those beauties that is the most difficult to
resist in my garden right now. This shapely small tree does tempt me in the spring with its bright green fresh new foliage and tiny white flowers surrounded by red bracts. During the summer months, ‘Vitifolium’ is easier to resist as she makes a nicely textured filler in the garden. But, in the midst of autumn, she becomes a stunning beacon of seduction that I simply cannot take my eyes off of.

The autumn colors of ‘Vitifolium’ begin with golden tones that quickly brighten to yellow. Then, seemingly overnight, her intense scarlet tones will appear making her absolutely irresistible! Placed near dark green, blue or golden conifers she will boldly cry out, “Look at me!”

Yes, I feel as though I have betrayed my love because I know that ‘Vitifolium’ will not be the only seductress to tempt me away from my conifers this autumn. I will enjoy the show knowing that in just a few weeks, those beautiful colors will all be blown away or swept into the compost pile, while my conifers, my true love, will be waiting for me to return my adoration to them.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Millions of years of history

I have a friend who loves to tinker – I think of him as a scientist and inventor. Last week he told me that he was working on a time machine.

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Yup.”

“So how does this thing work?” I asked looking at a small, odd-looking jumble of circuit boards, wires and – well, I’m not sure what.

“Don’t know yet.” he responded, his mind deep into some kind of mathematical calculations that would likely cause my brain to explode if I somehow managed to find those same thoughts in my head.

“Keep me informed on your progress, will ya?” I asked as I left his shop.

“Yup.”

During the fifteen minute walk home I let my imagination drift to where in time I might like to visit should my friend actually become successful in his latest endeavor. The future would be interesting, but that might be like peeking at the birthday presents a week before the party. No, I think past history would be fascinating to explore. Like, for example, I’d love to go back in time to the Phanerzoic Eon. You know, that span of time from 245 to 65 million years ago when dinosaurs walked the earth. I think it would be fascinating to find a forest of the amazing conifer, that until the early 1940s, was presumed to be extinct.

'Miss Grace' stands proudly before her ancient ancestor, Metasequoia glyptostroboides in the garden at Iseli Nursery.

Metasequoia glyptostroboides (the Dawn Redwood) is a giant deciduous conifer that dates back many millions of years ago and was rediscovered growing in China in 1944. Since that time it has been propagated and grown throughout the world. A new slower growing form as been discovered as a witches’ broom and is called ‘Miss Grace.’ This exciting new form should fit in most any garden and may allow some a sense of travelling back in time millions of years.

Great in the garden landscape and suitable for container gardening, this Zone 5 plant could be grown as a larger specimen on the patio or deck for a number of years. It’s yellowish to gray/green foliage turns into tones of orange and red in autumn. As it drops its foliage, the color and texture of its bark continues the show through winter.

Yes, I’d like to visit the past and observe history in the making, but while I wait for my friend to achieve success with his latest invention, I’ll be satisfied making my own history while relaxing in my conifer garden.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Autumn is welcome here

As we move into the first day of Autumn, here in the Pacific Northwest we are being blasted with a final reminder of this Summer’s record heat. Thankfully, we only had a few short waves of high heat that were followed each time by cooler marine air throughout the summer. We did achieve record high temperatures while many other areas of the country experienced record low summer high temps.

Golden Autumn color of Ginkgo biloba 'Mariken'

In whatever region of the country you live, I hope you had a successful gardening season. The early scalding heat did lightly sunburn a few of my more sensitive conifers, but in all, my garden looks very good and I did not sense the need to run my irrigation system. Low water usage is a definite advantage to the established conifer garden. While it is important to closely monitor any garden plant the first few years, here in the northwest, as the conifer garden matures, it simply needs less additional irrigation.

During these early days of Autumn, I’ll be doing some garden bed cleanup and I plan to spend time planting a new bed of conifers. My wife and I have grown tired of a bed of very old, very large shrubs whose only appeal is a couple weeks of flowers in spring. So, out come the big bushes and a new conifer bed will be born.

Enjoy the new season!

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Super Dwarfs part two

Last time I promised a list of what I consider to be “Super Dwarfs” (dwarf and miniature conifers with premium characteristics of habit, rate of growth and color) that both the novice and experienced conifer gardener will enjoy. In the mean-time, my wife and I had a wonderfully relaxing vacation camping with a large group of friends. I was able to spend time at our picnic table, with tablet and catalogs in hand, creating the promised list. Friends would drop by to visit so I had plenty of opportunities to promote my favorite conifers while camping.

Super minature conifers in the rock garden

The list I’ve created include fairly common dwarf and miniature conifers that should be relatively easy to find at your local independent garden centers. These winners have proven themselves in the garden for their reliability and ease of growth. Some other conifers can be finicky about the soil condition or other regional climatic influence, but these Super Dwarfs will be great for the beginning gardener or long-time enthusiast. I’ve included the USDA Zone rating to help you make choices appropriate for your local area.

Here is my list of twenty conifer Super Dwarfs – believe me it was no easy task keeping my list to just twenty! Some of these are still rare in the trade, but will be worth the hunt if you find them.

Growth rate	Plant name	USDA hardiness Zone
Dwarf	Abies koreana ‘Cis’	4
Miniature	Abies koreana ‘Silberperle’	4
Dwarf	Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Mariesii’	5
Dwarf	Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana Gracilis	5
Dwarf	Cryptomeria japonica ‘Tansu’	6
Dwarf	Juniperus horizontalis ‘Limeglow’	3
Dwarf	Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’	4
Dwarf	Picea abies ‘Fat Cat’	3
Dwarf	Picea abies ‘Pumila’	3
Dwarf	Picea glauca ‘Jean’s Dilly’	4
Miniature	Picea glauca ‘Pixie Dust’	4
Dwarf	Picea glauca ‘Rainbow’s End’	4
Miniature	Picea orientalis ‘Tom Thumb’	4
Dwarf	Picea pungens ‘Montgomery’	2
Miniature	Pinus mugo ‘Donna’s Mini’	2
Dwarf	Pinus mugo ‘Slowmound’	2
Dwarf	Pinus mugo ‘Teeny’	2
Dwarf	Thuja plicata ‘Whipcord’	5
Dwarf	Tsuga canadensis ‘Cole’s Prostrate’	4
Dwarf	Tsuga canadensis ‘Moon Frost’	4

Happy hunting!

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Super Dwarfs

Have you ever found yourself becoming drowsy in front of your computer monitor? Last night I was up later than normal looking at pictures of amazing new dwarf and miniature conifers. Before I knew it, I entered into that spacey state of mind that is not quiet sleep and not quite awake.

While I was in that space, I began to dream of a garden filled with perfectly shaped dwarf conifers. As the dream began, the conifers were all planted normally in a garden setting; plump round ones and conically shaped ones; green, blue and yellowed colored ones; even spreading and prostrate conifers, all in a wonderful endless garden.

Then, as dreams often do, things started to become rather unusual. Those dwarf and miniature conifers seemed to sprout little arms and faces began to appear in their foliage. And then things got really weird; little red capes began to flow in the breeze and these super dwarfs began to fly around the garden. In my dream I began to chuckle as I watched and then I was laughing out loud.

I awoke as my wife touched my shoulder and asked me what was so funny.

Super dwarfs in a container

Today, as I reflect on that strange little dream, I can’t help but think about some of the “super dwarfs” in my garden – the ones that are totally reliable and hardy year after year.

Next time I’ll compose a list of some truly super miniature and dwarf conifers. This list will include plants that the beginning conifer enthusiast should be successful finding in their local fine garden centers and also prove to be trouble free in the novice conifer garden. (Experienced cone heads will love them too!)

Until then, I’ll be living the dream.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Is it considered “peeping” if…?

You may have seen on the news that we are experiencing record high temperatures throughout the Pacific Northwest. With hotter temperatures, people tend to wear fewer clothes; which from my perspective can have both its ups and downs.

Take this morning for example. I get up at 5:45am and the outdoor temperature is 71 degrees F. So, I open the house up, and take my bowl of blueberries and melon out on the front porch to enjoy the early morning garden while the temperature is most comfortable. I hear some kind of racket going on next door, the neighbor’s dog begins to bark aggressively and then a naked man flops over the short fence and runs through my front yard. As I was processing that sight, here comes the neighbor’s dog rounding the fence near the road with what appeared to be the man’s pajama bottoms in his mouth.

Not sure what I should do about all this activity, my mind immediately went to what conifers I should consider planting along that short fence to prevent this sight from occurring in the future.

Thuja occidentalis 'Golden Globe'

Now, I like my neighbors quite a lot; in fact we are good friends, so I really don’t want to plant anything that will get huge or require a lot of shearing to maintain. My first thought is something with very long and sharp needles (to defend against unwanted fence hopping). Then again, I don’t want to be mean, and I am sure there must have been some kind of rational explanation for the activity I just witnessed.

Thuja occidentalis "Mr. Bowling Ball"

I decide on a mix of dwarf cultivars of Thuja occidentalis. They will grow slowly enough not to take over the entire border between our two homes and will add nice color and a soft texture to the hedge.

A few great dwarf and intermediate cultivars of Thuja occidentalis that I will consider are:

• ‘Hetz Midget’ – a good green globe-shaped mounding plant.
• ‘Golden Globe’ – great color and very tidy globe-shaped habit.
• ‘Sherwood Frost’ – makes a fine textured narrow pyramid with nice creamy variegated foliage.
• ‘Bobazam’ (“Mr. Bowling Ball®”) – is a fun, small, ball-shaped, fine textured green mound.
• ‘Yellow Ribbon’ – although it will grow large, one or three of these placed along the hedge row will add impact with their contrasting color and size.

Of course there are others to consider as well. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of designing the hedge to creatively incorporate all these different shapes, sizes and textures to make my new hedge not only functional, but a showpiece as well.

Now, the rest of the story.

As it turns out, the man was fleeing the home on the other side of my neighbor. When he hopped the fence on that side, he tipped over a couple garbage cans which alerted the dog and well, as they say, the rest is history.

Ed-
Conifer Lover