Honored citizen

When we have an El Niño year, like this year, often our winter feels like spring with moderate temperatures and plenty of rain. This month, we’ve seen low temperatures in the upper 30s and 40s with highs in the upper 40s and 50s. While much of the central and eastern portions of our nation are enduring frigid arctic air, I’m feeling like I should be out digging in my garden.

Yesterday I took a stroll around my garden with pad in hand taking notes of some of the first projects I will need to address as the rains become showers and we begin to enjoy the occasional visit of the sun. As I am wandering around, I find that I am enjoying just being out and spending some quality time with my conifers. Oddly enough, they are like old friends. Some I have nurtured and enjoyed for longer than many of my human friends. There is one conifer in my garden that seems to be calling me.

“Ed…… Ed, over here.”

“What?”

“Ed…… LOOK AT ME!”

“Hey, you don’t have to shout – I’m looking already!” I think to myself.

It’s then that I realize that my Pinus contorta ‘Chief Joseph’  is just about at the end of his glorious display for the season.

“Oh, Chief… it’ll be ok, you’ll be back in top form soon enough.” I reassure myself as much as the tree.

You see, ‘Chief Joseph’ is one of those very unique conifers that provide an incredible color display in the winter. From mid-October until late winter or early spring, the Chief is absolutely stunning! He lights up the dreary winter garden like no other. But, since he is severely lacking in chlorophyll, he becomes very tired after his winter show and he seems to ‘poop out.’

‘Chief Joseph’ at the beginning of his season to shine in the Jean Iseli Memorial Garden at Iseli Nursery.

Maybe you’ve seen it happen – some years are worse than others, but ‘Chief Joseph’ tends to turn from his spectacular golden yellow winter color to a sad looking yellowish brown as many of his needles show signs of stress late in the season. There are many theories that attempt to explain why this happens and some interesting folklore on how to avoid it, but the fact is, in the early spring when other plants are beginning to look their best, ‘Chief Joseph’ looks to need a good rest. And who wouldn’t after being the lone headliner in the winter show for several months?

Just about the time you might be thinking you’ve lost your treasured friend, you’ll notice that his buds are swelling. Then you’ll see candles beginning to extend and new needles forming and expanding.

He’s alive – and he’s ready to take a back seat in the garden with his soft green foliage. ‘Chief Joseph’ will put on a few inches of new growth, drop his older brown needles and wait his turn to be the spotlight in the garden once again when many other garden plants have come to their time of rest in autumn and through winter. The Chief waits for that right mix of cooler temperatures and shorter daylight hours and WHAM! it’s like someone turned on his inner golden glow and it is intense!

‘Chief Joseph’ remains somewhat rare, but worth every penny when you find him. Just remember, everyone needs a little rest once in a while and with patience and understanding, The Chief will be an honorable addition to your garden.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Winter blues

“Look Ed, this whole episode about you and your ‘Montgomery’? Well, I don’t know what kind of spell you put on me, but I can’t get my mind off of your darn blue conifers!”

You can imagine the look on my face as I sat in my favorite coffee shop with my nemesis, The Flower Girl.

“Hahaha… oh c’mon, we like to tease each other a lot, but you’ve always appreciated conifers to some degree – haven’t you? I asked.

“Sure… to some tiny, little, microscopic degree yes, it’s true. I don’t know what it is though. Maybe the light was hitting my ‘Hoopsi’ just right the other day, but it was shining so bright  – and it was virtually the only color in my garden. I’ve just had some kind of new hunger for blue in my garden, and there sure aren’t any flowers that would produce that much effect in the dead of winter.”

Thinking to myself that the world of conifers had just won a major victory, I simply said, “I see… and how does that make you feel?” Which produced my friend’s trademark punch to my shoulder.

Of course I referred her to some of my past blog posts regarding great blue conifers including, Picea pungens ‘Fat Albert’, Picea pungens ‘Procumbens’, and the blue dwarfs. But one in particular came to mind that I don’t believe I have mentioned in this space before. The Blue Nest Spruce.

At first glance, some may be lead to think that this delightful bluish/gray/green mound is a dwarf form of the Norway Spruce, Picea abies. A very old and popular cultivar called, ‘Nidiformis’ is commonly called the Bird’s Nest Spruce. But the cultivar I have in mind is actually from the Colorado Spruce, Picea pungens.

Picea pungens ‘Waldbrunn’

‘Waldbrunn’ has a very fine texture created by its thin sharp needles. A low growing, almost spreading mound, ‘Waldbrunn’s color and form are both unique when compared with other compact versions of the Colorado spruce. In my friend’s garden, which is dominated by flowering perennials, annuals and shrubs, I would place ‘Waldbrunn’ in widely spaced conifer groupings to allow plenty of room for growth and to provide more winter interest in her otherwise empty winter garden. Planting near other blues of varying shapes and sizes will work nicely, since she is interested in adding more blue to her winter landscape. Placing near green (both bright and dark) or yellows, it will provide a pleasant color contrast without looking out of place. During the summer months, when flowers and Japanese maples are in their full color, ‘Waldbrunn’ provides a unique texture and color contrast.

I am thrilled to see my friend’s passion for conifers begin to awaken. I am very excited that during our visit she genuinely wanted me to tell her about three or four compact blue conifers that would work in her “cottage garden.” Not only that, but this time she picked up the bill at the coffee shop.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Garden lollipops

One thing I love about the end of January is the nursery and seed catalogs begin to arrive in my mailbox. This always launches the debate in our family about how much of our garden budget will go to conifers and how much will be designated to new flower seed. My wife and I immediately agreed that this year we would devote a little more space and time to growing fresh vegetables. There is nothing like a fresh tomato or ear of corn right out of the garden.

Then I had a fun idea – I suggested we start a lollipop garden.

The miniature growing 'Golden Sprite' makes a dandy golden "lollipop" in the garden and in containers.

I’m certain you have seen them – those little lollipop looking topiaries sculpted out of everything from ivy to herbs, and yes, conifers. One advantage with conifers is that if you choose a good dwarf or miniature that has been grafted on an 18 to 30 inch “standard,” you will have a very minimum amount of care to keep it small and manageable for many years.

For example, imagine planting a silvery blue Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’ that appears as a blue ball floating above the soil and then filling the space under it with an assortment of colorful flowers. Or, if you prefer container gardening and your desire is to brighten up your patio or deck, you could choose from green, orange, yellow or blue low-maintenance conifers grafted on standards. Then, plant your new lollipop in the center of a well-made ceramic pot and fill in around it with flowers of varying colors and heights. Better yet, replace the flowers with other colorful conifers for a low maintenance year-round color display.

Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Gnome' is another miniature conifer well suited to be grown in the lollipop garden.

Don’t let the cold and dreary days of winter stop you from planning your spring gardening adventures and imagine a crop of colorful conifer lollipops brightening your own special place.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Return of the Flower Girl

A while back I shared with you all a conversation I had with a dear gardening friend of mine. This gal loves her herbaceous flowering plants the way I love my conifers. I hadn’t heard from her for several months, but my last blog entry inspired her to give me a call. Apparently she thought my need for an intervention was a victory for her “side” of the gardening world and this would be a good time to rub it in.

“So, your conifers are giving you some trouble, huh?” she asked in her playful tone.

“Oh, I don’t know that they were the cause of my trouble.”

“You called one of them a “bully” didn’t you? And you had to move all that other stuff – I would’ve just got my chainsaw out and taken that big bully down!” she said with a bit of a chuckle.

“Yeah, I suppose I did lay some blame on that poor, misunderstood ‘Montgomery’.

I went on to explain that my beautiful, mature, stately ‘Montgomery’ was behaving exactly as is was genetically designed to. My erroneous expectations were the cause of my trouble.

You see, I was wanting one dwarf conifer to behave like another. I should have allowed it to be itself and not something I wanted. Afterall, there are other excellent (and even more dwarf) cultivars of blue spruce available. As it turns out though, once I relocated the plants being crowded by my faithful and trusty ‘Montgomery’, it immediately was transformed from bully to nobility.

‘Lundeby’s Dwarf’ is an excellent, slower growing alternative to ‘Montgomery’ in todays smaller gardens.

Back when I originally planted my ‘Montgomery’ I was very well aware of its potential size. But that was a long time ago and I was younger, and perhaps a little more ambitious. I had planned on annual or semi-annual pruning to keep its size under control – which worked well for the first 10 or 15 years. Since then though, I’ve allowed it to grow without my direct influence. If I had planted a different cultivar, one with less annual growth and a natural form more suited to my original design, perhaps I could have prevented a lot of work.

Two marvelous dwarf cultivars of blue spruce immediately come to mind.

Picea pungens ‘Lundeby’s Dwarf’ is a fantastic alternative if height is a concern. It has an annual growth rate of about half of what I experienced with my ‘Montgomery’ so it will take many, many more years to attain a height of ten feet. It has more of a mounding habit, so it will tend to spread a little more while remaining comparatively low.

‘St. Mary’s Broom’ is perfect for small spaces, the rock garden or in containers.

Another favorite of mine is Picea pungens ‘St. Mary’s Broom’. Still officially in the Dwarf growth range with an annual push of just over an inch in my garden, this little beauty will be a very well-behaved blue mound in the garden for a lifetime.

There are other wonderful dwarf blue spruce of varying growth rates, forms and shades of blue that may also be considered. A creative designer could use an assortment to build a beautiful boundary that might mimic nearby hillsides or the mountain ranges of faraway lands.

Dwarf conifers are so versatile and beautiful that I don’t mind the few challenges they may induce. What other group of plants can be both foundation and centerpiece, border and boundary, filler and cherished specimen all while providing year-round color in the garden?

Ed
Conifer Lover

An intervention

The past few years I’ve been in denial. Just recently some of my best gardening friends believed it was time for an intervention – and I was the subject of their rescue. Well, perhaps not me personally, but a portion of my garden.

It seems that I had allowed myself to become co-dependent with one of the oldest and most favored conifers in my garden. It was getting so bad, that this big bully was crowding out several of my smaller plants and I was unable to take the steps needed to solve this problem on my own. Thankfully, I have friends that were able to see the negative effects on my garden and through their wise counsel and strong backs, we were able to work together to set things right.

Cute when small, these plants will soon outgrow their space.

28 years ago, I purchased a cute little blue mounding Picea pungens ‘Montgomery’ and gave it a prominent place in my garden. At six or eight years old, this small mound of year-round bright blue fit well in my young garden. Over the years though, ‘Montgomery’ continued to grow, becoming a wonderful compact blue pyramid. Nearby, I had planted several different things over the years including perennials and other dwarf and miniature conifers. Space began to fill in and the perennials were moved to new homes while the conifers slowly matured.

In time, ‘Montgomery’ will become a large stately specimen in the garden.

Actually I knew better than to plant my other treasures so close to my ‘Montgomery’, but I always believed it would be easy enough to move things later. Well, later arrived a few years ago, and like I said, I’ve been in denial. As much as I love my large ‘Montgomery’ (which had grown to nearly twenty feet tall and at least twelve feet wide), deep inside, I knew something had to be done.

Thanks to the intervention of some good friends, I was able to dig and transplant the surrounding conifers. Even though they were all true dwarf and miniature conifers, they too were fifteen to 25 years old and had become too large for me to manage by myself. Now I have a new garden bed to design with one large specimen as its anchor.

There are two morals to this story: First, plan your garden carefully to avoid the need of a garden intervention. Second, as you grow older, be sure to continue to make friends with the younger generations. You never know when you may need extra hands with strong backs!

Next time, I’ll talk more about some excellent alternatives to the stately ‘Montgomery’ with reduced growth rates. In the meantime, you might like to take a look back at my thoughts on the Blue Dwarfs in my garden.

Ed-
Conifer Lover