Look no further for a lifetime of gardening enjoyment

During one of my last walks through the garden, before the first series of autumn rain storms hit the Pacific Northwest, I was struck by the beauty of what some might consider to be “just another evergreen tree.” The truth is, Picea abies ‘Acrocona’ is an extraordinary tree with great landscape functionality and multi-season appeal.

Picea abies ‘Acrocona’ displays its tan colored cones in the autumn sun.

Possibly the most prominent feature of ‘Acrocona’ is its prolific production of cones which hang like decorative ornaments on the multiple branch ends and vary through the seasons from intensely bright pink, to purple in spring, to reddish-tinged green during the summer, an almost golden-brown in autumn and finally darker brown through the winter. During the winter, most of the mature cones will have dispersed their seed, break down and fall off of the tree. Some remnants of older cones may be visible in springtime when the first tiny, bright pink pollen cones begin to emerge, announcing that the new cycle of life is beginning.

The pollen cones of Picea abies ‘Acrocona’ emerge early in spring.

I briefly mentioned in an earlier post about ‘Acrocona’ its unusual branching and growth habit which is most noticeable during the plant’s youth. As my tree has matured, it has become more and more beautiful with its combination of thick, vigorous branches and what appear to be smaller, weaker branches which give the tree an upright, broadly pyramidal form filled with a combination of sweeping and weeping branches.

The seed bearing cones of Picea abies ‘Acrocona’ during the peak of their pink color stage.

The unusual growth habit of ‘Acrocona’ very much insures that no two trees will look exactly alike, and make them an excellent choice to use as a primary focal point in garden design. Their four full seasons of color, supplied by the rich, grass-green foliage and the ever-changing cones as they move through their annual cycle, give ‘Acrocona’ the ability to capture attention and add visual interest to a level which is available in few other plants.

Large, dense, summer cones of Picea abies ‘Acrocona’ begin to make their gradual color shift from bright pink to a red-tinged green.

I love the way the cones begin as such tiny little pink buds and grow rather quickly into large, dense, purple red cones. The appearance of the cones, dangling from the tips and along branches reminds me of a tree decorated for the Christmas holidays. As the cones grow larger and heavier, they seem to move in a dance, swaying at the ends of windswept branches. When growing in clusters, the cones will weigh down branches, pulling them from their usual upward sweeping form to a downturned direction, sometimes reaching the ground. Fortunately the branches are very flexible, and I have yet to see any remarkable breakage from either the heavy cones or wet, sloppy snow.

The golden-brown, autumn cones of Picea abies ‘Acrocona’.

‘Acrocona’ is a fun tree which will provide a lifetime of enjoyment. I suggest you plant one while you are young and enjoy its playful presence for many years to come.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

79 degrees in the shade

Finally!

We have finally had a few days in a row of sunny and warm weather. After the month of March and its cold snow showers and April with its cold rain showers, May is beginning to show true signs of spring. This past Sunday afternoon, while my wife and I were enjoying the first grill of the season, I noticed that the large thermometer on the wall under the patio cover read 79°F. It felt as if we had skipped spring and jumped directly into summer. Today we expect a high near 70, tomorrow 61 – and the showers return.

The spring, female cones of Abies koreana ‘Silver Show’ do put on quite a show. From a relatively young age, an abundance of showy cones cover many branches of this silvery-green tree.

We made good use of the great weather and spent a lovely few hours planting many of the little conifers I have grafted over the past two years. They look so happy now that they have a more permanent home in my garden. We also had time to plant several veggies into the four raised beds I had prepared two weeks ago. In that time, the soil warmed up very nicely, so I am confident that my lettuce, peas, beans, spinach and Brussels sprouts settled in nicely to their new homes.

Pinus pumila ‘Blue Dwarf’ is a slow growing, bluish colored, soft textured pine with the reliable appearance of bright pinkish-red pollen cones in spring.

This small blast of very desirable weather has had a positive effect in the garden and I am seeing so much activity, not only in my plants, but all the garden critters have been active and full of life. Shortly after I worked up the soil in the vegetable garden, one of the squirrels took advantage of the soft, fluffy soil and planted a few seeds of his own. I look forward to seeing what pops out of the ground there.

Discovered as a witches’ broom on Picea abies ‘Acrocona’, known for its prolific, brightly colored cone production, Picea abies ‘Pusch’ is a small mounding, spreading dwarf form with showy, brightly colored cones each spring. It looks great planted with other colorful garden plants.

With buds breaking and fresh new, brightly colored foliage beginning to emerge from many of my conifers along with a prolific number of conifer flowers – the colorful male and female cones that make their appearance in springtime  - my garden is waking up and transforming from the subdued colors of winter, like a painting by Camille Pissarro, into the vibrant colors of spring in Monet’s Garden. As I stroll through my garden, I enjoy finding a new cone here or a new push of growth there. Soon, the garden will truly explode with color as all the conifers burst forth with their new growth.

Pinus mugo ‘Orphir’ is a sturdy mugo pine that turns a rich gold during the cold winter months. In spring, as the needles return to their green color, bright lemon-yellow pollen cones make their appearance extending the season of yellow color of this unique dwarf pine.

It seems to be a very long time since we have had a sunny and warm month of May. These past few days have reminded me how much a warm spring day can bring healing to old aching bones and delight to the heart and soul.

Abies koreana ‘Green Carpet’ is a grass-green, spreading, dwarf conifer that is highlighted in spring with purple cones which persist through summer, eventually drying and releasing their seeds.

May your garden be lush and full of life,

Ed-
Conifer Lover

The hunt begins

You may recall from past posts how much I enjoy the hunt for the first signs of tiny cones beginning to develop on my conifers. I must still be a kid at heart, playing a horticultural version of hide and seek, because I love looking for those colorful little signs that springtime has arrived. This year is definitely proving to be a week or two behind last year when it comes to my conifers beginning their spring flush of new growth and their display of male pollen cones and the female seed cones.

I believe that last year was an especially good year for cone production on the conifers in my area. Both my garden and the gardens and production fields at Iseli showed an abundance of cones like I’ve never seen before. It is still early, but by this time last year I was seeing more cone developement on more species and cultivars than I had ever seen in one season before. I asked my friends at Iseli what they were seeing this year, and their observation is very much like my own. Few cones developing on fewer plants. No doubt, for whatever reason, last year was an extraordinary year for the cone hunter!

Abies koreana 'Blauer Pfiff' is a wonderful, low-growing form of Korean fir. One of it's wonderful features is that is seems to cone at a fairly young age.

But don’t let that stop you from getting out into your garden and taking a close look at your conifers. Take a strong magnifying lens or your camera with a quality macro mode, and you just might be surprised at the wonders you will discover.

I love the cone development on my Abies koreana ’Blauer Pfiff’. The seed cones begin to develop shortly after the pollen cones and just prior to their spring flush of new foliage. The female cones will develop and mature for the next few months, becoming larger and slowly morphing from a spiraling column of reddish-pink pointed wings to a gradient of muted yellowish-green to pink stack of wings on an ever thickening body.

Pinus mugo 'Big Tuna' is a great, compact, upright form with rich green foliage and colorful pollen cones.

Another favorite discovery right now is the colorful pollen cones of Pinus mugo ‘Big Tuna’ with their purplish tightly closed pockets of pollen awaiting just the right conditions to open and begin to disperse their fertile pollen into the air. As they mature and begin to elongate a little further, their color takes on some hints of yellow and red suggesting a tinge of orange before they fully open, empty themselves of pollen, and then dry and fade away after completing their important reproductive function.

I look forward to the next several weeks as the hunt will continue and I will discover more and more tiny treasures throughout my garden.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Federal coneheads

“Hey Ed! Did you see that one of the largest and most popular branches of the federal government have become coneheads?”

“Pardon me?”

“Yeah Ed, apparently the United States government has gone conehead!” laughed my friend. “You’ve got to check out their website.”

The conversation continued like this for a little while before I was able to get my friend to tell me exactly what he was talking about. As it turns out (and maybe many of you are already aware of this) one of the new Holiday designs for the United States Postal Service this year is a collection of four artist’s renderings featuring conifers.

I checked out the USPS website and found that they have holiday conifer stamps and other products available. The stamps feature nicely drawn details of the foliage and cones (or in the case of the Juniper, its berry-like structures). They also have very nicely produced postcards prestamped and with information about each conifer. I was very excited and impressed when I saw what they had to offer.

My wife and I were just talking a few days ago about our need to purchase more stamps for our holiday greeting cards this year. I hope she sees these great conifer stamps. Since they are Forever stamps, I think we should stock up now – then we’ll have plenty of conifer themed stamps to last us a very long time.

Check out the link above and you’ll find four conifers featured in the set including; Abies balsamea (Balsam Fir), Juniperus virginiana (Eastern Red Cedar), Picea pungens (Colorado Spruce) and Pinus ponderosa (Ponderosa Pine).

Happy Holidays!

Ed-
Conifer Lover

The conehead’s big adventure

The rain had stopped. I opened the door out to the back patio so that I could hear the birds sing their joyful morning songs. The sun (yes, the sun!) was just beginning to move past the grove of large Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) delivering its warming rays of life to my garden. It was a beautiful morning.

Then I saw the weeds.

Back in February, we had a dry stretch and I was able to weed the entire garden. It looked great. The rains returned and like guests overstaying their welcome, it settled in for weeks and weeks. Weeds love a constant supply of moisture and mild temperatures so new seeds germinated and now I have quite a job ahead of me.

I sat, drinking my morning tea, admiring my wife’s ability to make a delightful bran muffin, trying to come up with a way to enjoy this very positive change in the weather without crawling around on the ground pulling weeds. I thought about hiring a young helper, but the budget is still a little tight and youngsters seem to have much more expensive goals these days than they did when I was a kid. Stalling as long as I could, I finally got out of the chair, put on my boots, my vest and my hat when my phone rang.

“Ed here”

“Ed, I’m heading out to the fields today to see if I can get some new shots – wanna ride along?”

It was my photographer friend at Iseli Nursery – and he was asking me to join him on a photo shoot? Sounds better than weeding!

“I’ll be there in 30 minutes.” I said while calculating in my head that I was sure I could get there in at least 20. I kissed my wife and was off.

Mr. Smith met me at the door of the office and out we went.

“I’m looking for cones today, Ed. With all this rain, it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve been out there. I’m sure we’ll find some new developments.” He said with a big grin.

A cluster of three tiny, indigo colored cones begin to develop surrounding an apical bud of this years new growth. These cones could be found on nearly every new shoot of Pinus leucodermis 'Indigo Eyes'.

Over the next three or four hours we found dozens of treasures. We both got excited every time we spotted something we hadn’t seen before. 2010 appears to be a fantastic year for cones in the Pacific Northwest. We found cones so tiny that their details could only be seen with a magnifying lens (or my friend’s macro lens on his camera). Some cones were large and fat and were easy to spot from some distance. Others were camouflaged with nearly the same colors as their surrounding foliage. Some were green or pink or purple or combinations of all three. Some appeared like fat swollen nodules stacked one upon the other. Others had many long wings protruding from their textured outer skin. Some had openings as if to allow the pollen to enter, others were tight and solid looking making me wonder how the pollen entered at all.

The larger purplish blue cones were last years tiny new cones. They will open to drop their seeds later this year. Next year at this time, they will be brown and wide open - some will have fallen from the tree.

It was an exhilarating experience and I was almost giddy. Near the end of our journey, we came across a small crop of Pinus leucodermis ‘Indigo Eyes’. These wonderful small trees were covered with cones. Old, dry, brown cones were the lowest on these three to four foot trees. Large, dark purplish blue cones adorned the whorls where this year’s new growth had emerged and tiny, indigo colored cones sat in clusters of two or three or even as many as seven surrounding the developing apical buds. This was a cone lover’s tree if I had ever seen one.

Looking carefully, you should be able to see three generations of cones, from the tiny cones at the tips of each apical shoot, the maturing larger purple cones and a faded light brown older cone or two hidden in the foliage.

I told my host that I thought I was about to have cone-gasm. My friend glanced over at me with a combination of question and surprise on his face and then we both burst out laughing. It was one of those rare laughs that seems uncontrollable and goes on and on. I haven’t had an experience like that in quite a number of years. Finally the laughter subsided; we wiped the tears from our eyes and swapped Jean Iseli stories as we drove back to my car.

I didn’t get any weeding done in my garden, but I’ve got memories of a great cone hunting adventure in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Ps, I’ll ask Mr. Smith to post some of the other cone shots at our Facebook group – join us there to see more pictures from our great cone-hunting adventure (click the link in the right side menu).

Hidden garden treasures

I don’t know about where you live, but here in my little corner of the Pacific Northwest, I’ve been finding tiny treasures all over my garden. With warmer temperatures and far less rain the past week or so, I’ve been able to spend a tremendous amount of time in my garden. My wife points out that her Iris buds that are beginning to burst forth in their explosion of color and delicate gracefulness. I see a few rose buds opening. The poppies have added an intensity of red and orange that I don’t think can be found anywhere else. My wife loves her flowers.

Just over one centimeter in length, this tiny treasure is a delight to discover amidst the yellow needles of 'Taylor's Sunburst'

On the other hand, I sometimes overlook some of her favorites as my attention is held captive in my exploration for hidden treasure. Conifers also offer quite an explosion of color this time of year. Unlike some of their exhibitionist neighbors, the conifers can be a little more discrete in displaying their colorful treasures. Frequently, conifers will have two “flowering” sessions. First the male pollen cones will emerge in an assortment of colors from pale yellow, to orange, intense scarlet, or even dark purplish blue. Shortly thereafter, the female cones will begin to develop. Again, they will range in color depending on their genus and species. The fun begins when I stroll through my garden, gazing among both last year’s growth and the newly emerging foliage this spring.

What a joy it is to discover tiny scarlet cones beginning to develop between the bright yellow newly emerging needles of Pinus contorta ‘Taylor’s Sunburst’ or the purple cones encircling the apical buds on the tips of Pinus mugo ‘Big Tuna’. At this stage they are from one to two centimeters in length and remind me of a sea urchin with tiny pointed tips reaching out to absorb nutrition from the surrounding sea water. In this case they are awaiting pollen to land and become absorbed beginning the fertilization process and the creation of viable seed.

Near the bottom of the frame, two female cones of Pinus mugo 'Big Tuna' are maturing to produce seed this season. At the tip of the new foliage is a cluster of new female cones, likely fertilized by pollen dispersed by the male cones in the background to the right.

As the fertilized cones continue to grow and develop, they will change in color and eventually turn brown as they dry and begin to crack open to release their seed. But for now, I’m keeping an eye out for these fascinating tiny treasures in my garden, as I continue to be amazed by the world of conifers.

Ed
Conifer Lover

The conifers are blooming!

This is a great time of year in the garden. There is new growth and excitement everywhere I look. Of course the bulbs have been putting on a show for a few weeks, and some of my perennials have been showing signs of spring-time vigor. Many of my Japanese Maples have leafed out in their glorious spring color adding a freshness to the garden. Every morning, the birds are working hard to pull the sun up by the sound of their brilliant  singing. And, for the conifer lover, THE CONIFERS ARE BLOOMING!

Young female cone of Abies koreana 'Blauer Pfiff'

I get very excited every spring as I stroll around my garden looking to see which of my conifers have begun to set new cones. Unlike the big, showy flowers of the typical plants specifically grown for the color, size and/or scent of their flowers, conifers tend to keep their flowers just a little bit hidden.

“Wait just a minute, Ed – you’re telling me conifers have flowers?

Brightly colored male cones of Abies cephalonica 'Meyers Dwarf'

That’s right. The flowering parts on conifers are different than what we traditionally think of, but the reproductive organs on conifers work very much the same way. Conifers have both male (pollen bearing) and female (seed) flowers, or cones. Often the male cones will appear first. The most apparent are very brightly colored in reds, orange or purple. Though small, they can be very showy and a real delight when you spot them. Once they fully open and disperse their pollen, they will begin to dry and turn brown, eventually falling off of the tree.

Young female cone of Abies koreana 'Aurea'

The female cones will emerge shortly after the males do and may also be in any of quite an assortment of colors. A keen eye will spot them even when they are young and quite small. As they grow and swell, they will receive pollen from the local males, their tiny seeds become fertilized and they continue to grow and mature often turning brown and oozing resin. For several weeks to a few months, the female cones may retain their vibrant color and add real interest to the garden.

I love the flowers of springtime, especially the conifer flowers because they last from early spring until they eventually disperse their seed late in the year. I hope you will take some time to hunt for the flowers on your conifers this year and be amazed by the amazing world of conifers too.

Ed-
Conifer Lover