Colorful Conifers

I am getting excited about spring! The days are getting longer, the sun is peaking out from behind the clouds from time to time, and I’ve been able to work in my garden with just a sweatshirt and vest instead of my winter coat and raingear.  The garden beds have been pretty much cleared of the remains of last year’s perennials and the debris that had blown in over the winter.

Every year as I’m doing my late winter cleanup, I tell myself to fill in more of my garden spaces with dwarf conifers since they require so little care and provide color all year long. I know my wife will try to talk me into adding just a few more flowering plants, and I’m sure that I’ll give in because they are great companions to my conifers, but I know I’m going to use most of my garden budget this year to increase my collection of low maintenance, colorful, dwarf conifers.

The first one on my list is Thuja occidentalis ‘Golden Tuffet’ for its rich golden orange color, fine texture and compact form. I’ve got just the place for it near the gray-green of my Picea pungens ‘Globe’, the bright blue of my Picea pungens ‘St. Mary’s Broom,’ the rich green of Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana Gracilis’ and the deep red of my Acer palmatum dissectum ‘Crimson Queen.’ This little corner of color will loose the reds of the ‘Crimson Queen’ Japanese maple during the winter, but all the other colors will remain year-round.

I’m sure once I’ve brought home and planted a ‘Golden Tuffet’, my wife will be happy with the color spot it provides (and I’ll have eliminated another area of annuals in my garden with a colorful, easy care plant that we can enjoy year after year).

Ed-
Conifer Lover

A peculiar allure

Tight. Congested. Irregular. Three words that one might not ordinarily associate with beauty, yet these three words describe one of the most alluring dwarf evergreens in my garden. Ilex crenata ‘Dwarf Pagoda’ is a delightful dwarf Japanese Holly with small, glossy, dark green mouse-ear shaped leaves. This very slow grower has short almost stubby stems and branches giving it a tight form and irregular shape which adds to its appeal. It’s so useful, I have three in my garden.

My largest specimen is at least twenty years old and measures less than 20 inches tall. This odd little beauty is in sun most of the day and has an honored place in my rock garden. I have a second much smaller plant nearby in a trough planted with a few miniature conifers. And my third little cutie is in a special clay pot with other containers on my patio. ‘Dwarf Pagoda’ is a versatile plant that seems to do well in sun or shade, can be grown in Zone 5 and takes well to life in a container or in good garden soil.

Even though ‘Dwarf Pagoda’ is not a conifer, it is a great companion to conifers and is certainly one of my favorite plants. With spring just around the corner, I may be tempted to pick out a fourth little specimen for my wife’s window box beneath the kitchen window!

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Thanks to my friends at Iseli Nursery for the photo link!

Garden sentinel

I gave my friends at Iseli Nursery a visit today since the weather was looking a little better and I needed some garden inspiration after a long morning on my hands and knees pruning back the remains of last year’s showy perennials. (Have I mentioned that conifers provide year-round color and are virtually maintenance free?)

While taking a walk through their display gardens, I was impressed with how great the Thuja occidentalis ‘Degroot’s Spire’ was looking after all these years. I remember when they planted this specimen back in the mid 1980’s. It was one in a grouping of three that were all in the range of five to six feet tall. Today, I just happened to have a small tape measure in my jacket pocket and found that this beauty is now just over 20 feet tall and nearly five feet across. Even with the heavy snow we had a few weeks ago, this plant shows no sign of snow damage.

Today, ‘Degroot’s Spire’ still has a very nice bronze cast to its normally dark green spring and summer color. Like several other conifers, the cold winter temperatures will cause the foliage to change color. The coming warmer days of spring will bring on that rich green color once again. Its soft tight foliage has a bit of a twist and almost appears as ruffles of green covering a straight and tall column.

I’ve seen ‘Degroots Spire’ used as a hardy (to zone 3) privacy hedge, in groups as a focal point or even as the center piece of a large garden sundial. My own ‘Degroot’s are much smaller than the specimen I saw today, and based on what I saw, it will be 25 or 30 years before they may outgrow their place as sentrys on either side of the entrance to my driveway.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Thanks again to Iseli Nursery!

Brighten up with the blues

Our day or two of snow seems long gone now having been followed by nearly ten days of rain. I almost feel like a bear emerging from a season of hibernation when the weather improves and I can get outside to inspect my garden. The local weather guru is hinting at a warmer and dryer spell over the next 10 days, so I plan to spend as much time as I can cleaning up fallen debris from the big Douglas Firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and European White Birch (Betula pendula) that surround my property. In the process, I am excited to see many of the bulbs sending up their first leaves – a definite sign that spring is not far away!

As the weather warms up, and the earliest bulbs have finished their show, many of my conifers will begin to brighten the garden with their push of new growth. The vibrant colors of conifers in the springtime are a sight to behold. Of all the colors that the conifer garden will display in spring, I am really enamored with the blues. I’ve mentioned my passion for dwarf blue spruce in the past, but the color is so impressive and exciting that it’s worth another look! I think that you just cannot have too much blue in the garden!

Picea pungens ‘Procumbens’ is one blue conifer that offers much to be excited about. ‘Procumbens’ is an excellent ground cover that can be used in a variety of ways in the garden. Naturally, it will grow nearly prostrate in form as its blue foliage mounds and undulates along the ground and over rock walls. It can be propagated as a high graft or staked to give it some height allowing it to create a very free-flowing form before it reaches the ground appearing as a small water fall in the landscape. Its new flush of soft bright blue foliage makes it stand out however it might be used in the garden.

I love it planted in the rockery and allowed to tumble and fall amongst the rocks and other dwarf conifers. ‘Procumbens’ is a versatile plant that is so easy to maintain, it responds well to manipulation and once acclimated to its space in the garden it is essentially care-free.

‘Procumbens’ brings true enjoyment to the gardener and always garners favorable comments from plant enthusiast and novice alike. It’s only one of the blues that will brighten up my garden this spring.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Thanks to Iseli for the photo link.

Time for Taxus

I have yet to meet a taxpayer who derives any joy from paying taxes. Most enjoy the benefits that we as a society receive from the well thought out use of those tax dollars such as road repair and maintenance, police and fire protection, education, etc. On the other hand, I have yet to meet anyone who does not enjoy Taxus in the garden. The Yew has many species, one of which (T. brevifolia), has become quite newsworthy in recent years due to its use in the production of Taxol, a chemotherapeutic drug useful in fighting some forms of cancer.
 
Yews have been used in the garden for thousands of years with early writing describing their use in the ancient gardens of Rome for the creation of topiary. In fact, the term topiary originates from the word topiarius which essentially meant, “the finest of slaves” since only the finest, most trusted slaves would be allowed to labor in the gardens of the wealthy elite. Today, Taxus remains an excellent garden plant that is very suitable for topiary. Taxus cuspidata ‘Dwarf Bright Gold’ is an intermediate grower with an annual expansion of growth reaching 6 to 12″ per year.

 

Of course, I tend to prefer dwarf or miniature conifers, but those with outstanding color will always catch my attention. In full sun, the color of the bright golden yellow foliage is intense – one of the brightest conifers you may ever see. Grown in shade, the gold coloration becomes banded and certainly less extreme yet still adds nice color and can really brighten up a shady to semi-shady space.
  
My ‘Dwarf Bright Gold’ is growing so that its intense color contrasts with the dark brick-red of my house as a foundation planting. Others will enjoy it as a border specimen playing off the greens and blues of other conifers, reds of Japanese Maples, or the rainbow of colors of perennial flowers and grasses.

Taxus cuspidata ‘Dwarf Bright Gold’ is an elegant plant that is soft to the touch, easy to prune to maintain size or create topiary, hardy to Zone 4, has eye-catching color, and it will never audit your past returns!
 
Ed-
Conifer Lover

Thanks to my friends at Iseli Nursery for the links!