Sometimes, the best bargain costs more.

This morning was one of those amazing autumn mornings in the Pacific Northwest when there is enough water vapor in the atmosphere to give the sunrise a spectacular array of color. The air was crisp like a fresh Hood River apple with just enough bite in it to make me glad that I chose to wear my toasty warm new Carhartt vest. As the sun rose, I could feel its slight warmth on my cheeks while I took my short walk to the pickup to get it warmed-up and begin the defrosting process.

Once my old friend was warmed-up and ready to roll, I was on my way to my first stop. I like to drop in on the folks out at Iseli Nursery from time to time just to see what’s new. We’ve been conifer-loving partners for about as long as the nursery has been in business, so it’s like going to have coffee with an old friend for me there. Most of the folks have been there since near the beginning and carry the dream that Jean Iseli shared with them before he passed away in 1986. As I made my way up the main drive, it seemed the entire place was engulfed by fog, then suddenly I was in the sunlight again and could see the main office and display gardens glowing in the low, rising sun.

Premium gardens begin with the healthy, premium plants.

Once I completed my visit, I was on my way to a couple of local garden centers. The sun was definitely up now and there was no longer any sign of fog – it was shaping up to be an amazingly beautiful day.

My next stop was already busy with a few early-bird customers like me. Some were interested in pumpkins, some were filling their carts with Crysthanimums. One woman was stuffing a bale of straw and corn stalks into the trunk of her car. Me? I’m looking for dwarf conifers. I saw an ad in the paper on Sunday promoting end-of-season sales, and I do enjoy finding a bargain, so there I was. What I found was disappointment.

Oh, sure, there were quite a few items with “drastically reduced prices”, but it was very clear that even those prices were too high for what they were offering! I don’t mind getting a discount for a smaller plant, even one that perhaps fell off of the display and the top broke out of it, but the plants in this offering looked as though their supplier had given them a deep discount on plants that should have become compost for future crops. They had rows of plants that were misshapen, likely due to being improperly grown in too little space. Much of their foliage was distorted or burned and the plants were terribly off-color. Even at deeply discounted prices, I would be surprised if these poor things would survive through the winter – even with the most expert garden care. I quickly made my way back to my pickup and drove to my next stop.

Beautiful garden featuring dwarf conifers and other exciting garden plants.

Thankfully, the weather was continuing in its most magnificent glory. The sky was a crisp and clean blue and any evidence of the morning clouds were completely evaporated away. I pulled into the parking lot of one of my favorite garden centers. It was not quite as busy as the one with the “fantastic sale” going on, but again, there were folks busily choosing plants and ornaments for their autumn displays.

This time as I wandered around, I found plants that looked to be in the prime of health. Whether they were end of season perenniels, woody shrubs or dwarf conifers, everything looked healthy. It was obvious, some plants were the typical end-of-season runts or slightly misshaped, but they were all healthy and had good color – even the plants in the discount area.

Sure, I could have purchased some plants for very little money at the other place, but that would have been money wasted in plants that would have required the most perfect conditions – and even then would most likely not survive long. I have come to the conclusion that no matter what time of year it is, the best time to buy plants is when they look good and healthy.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

The not-so-rare garden blues

My wife and I love autumn in the garden center – I think it might even be more fun than a garden center in springtime!

We had an opportunity to get away for the weekend. Living so near the Oregon coast, we try to spend at least one weekend per year there. This year it has taken us 10 months, but we finally made it. We enjoyed our drive over the Oregon Coast Range, driving along the river while watching the golden leaves of the native Big Leaf Maples swish and swirl as they fell to the ground and swept up again by passing cars. Of course the coast was refreshing, and to our surprise, the weather was mild with just a few clouds and a very slight breeze.

Our trip home was even more gorgeous. The sun was shining bright and the sky was bright blue and the air smelled fresh and clean. We decided to take the scenic route home, which just happened to take us by one of our favorite garden centers. As we made our approach, we could see the place was prepared for autumn sales with a large space devoted to well-placed, plump orange pumpkins ready to be selected by the excited children running through with occasional glances back to mom saying, “I want this one!”

Cupressus glabra 'Blue Pyramid' is one of the best blue trees one might find for warm climate areas, growing best in full sun throughout Zones 6-9

My wife had found her way to the carts, so I was confident that I had a moment to check out the conifer section – just in case there were any new arrivals, or I could find a great end-of-season bargain. As I slowly meandered through the discount section, I overheard a conversation that one of the workers was having with her customer.

“What I’m looking for are some ways to add splashes of blue color to my garden. I just can’t seem to find anything that is blue – especially this time of year.”

I immediately looked over at the conifer section and then back to the nursery worker. “Well, blue is a very rare color in the garden, there really aren’t very many flowers that are blue and, finding anything blue this time of year… well, this is the time of year for red and orange and yellow!” she answered.

Juniperus conferta 'Silver Mist' is a tremendous spreading conifer that will add a vibrant color and coarse texture to the garden.

Now I am finding myself in a somewhat frustrating position. My wife definitely has autumn decorations on her mind, and I can see her coming back out to the sales yard with her cart. I look back over to the conifer section and I can easily see that they have several very nice blue conifers in stock, ranging in growth rate from the very dwarf to those that will grow into full-sized trees–plants that will provide a wonderful, year-round blue to this customer’s garden.

I glance back over to my wife, she has spotted me and gives me a little wave. I wave back as I begin to move closer to the conversation taking place not 15 feet away. My wife sees me making my approach and I try not to look her way as I can see from the corner of my eye that she is beginning to shake her head.

“Hi, I don’t mean to be bother you, but I couldn’t help overhearing that you are interested in adding some nice blue color to your garden.” I say, hoping not to seem impolite.

“Yes I am.” says the customer while the worker looks on with an inquisitive face.

Picea pungens 'Lundeby's Dwarf' is a premium dwarf conifer with outstanding blue color - if one were looking for a color spot, this is it!

“I noticed that there are some beautiful blue conifers over there.” pointing to the conifer section, “Now, I don’t know what size your space may be, but they do have a nice variety of cultivars that could fit in a small space or others that will grow to become majestic blue specimen trees.” I glance over my shoulder and see that my wife has changed directions and is heading toward the pumpkin patch.

“I hadn’t even thought of conifers when she asked me that question.” said the worker. “Yes, we have some excellent blue dwarf conifers that might be just what you are looking for…” she said as she began to lead the way to the conifers.

The customer thanked me and I tipped my hat and made my way back to my wife just as she was picking up a pumpkin and placing it in the cart. “I want one of these warty ones,” I said as I wandered through the patch.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Seventy-seven days

“Hi Uncle Ed, happy seventy-seven days until Christmas!” was how the first phone call of the day began Sunday morning. My niece and I visited on the phone for fifteen minutes or so – she was checking in to see what my wife and I might have planned for the winter holidays. Our extended families always try to spend either Thanksgiving or Christmas together, and this year my niece and her husband decided that it was their turn to host one of the big events.

“Great, we would love to spend the Christmas weekend at your house.” I said while thinking that since we wouldn’t be hosting the big event this year, perhaps I would be able to encourage my wife to tone down our Christmas decorating just a little bit. I began to play out in my mind the methods I would use to convince my wife that miniature decorating could be just a fun as the usual full-on extravaganza of transforming our home and garden into a winter wonderland. “Okay, thanks for calling…gotta go.” I cut the conversation a little short as my mind became flooded with ways to decorate key spaces around our home with miniature decorations that would reduce my winter holiday workload and yet still satisfy my wife’s desire to have the cutest house ever!

Named in honor of Jean Iseli, Picea glauca ‘Jeans Dilly’ is perfect for small garden spaces, containers and miniature gardens.

My plan is to create several container groupings that will include dwarf and miniature conifers along with fun miniature accessories and tiny lights. I know that a few of my existing container plantings are perfectly suited to become enhanced for the upcoming holidays. With the addition of a few more conifers, planted in nice containers and individually decorated, plus a few planted in larger containers together with fun accessories, I’ll be able to decorate the front entry along the pathway from the driveway to the front door as well as other key areas that I know will please my wife.

What’s great about these container plantings is that they will be perfect for year-round use. Like I mentioned, I’ll be able to utilize some of my existing containerized conifers as well as have a great excuse to plant up a new container grouping or two. Of course, I’ll be creating holiday themed miniature container gardens now, but they will be easily converted into ordinary container plantings when the holidays are past making them beautiful additions to our patio garden.

One key conifer that I will be using in more than one design will be Picea glauca ‘Jean’s Dilly.’ This premium dwarf was named after Jean Iseli, a dwarf conifer pioneer and founder of Iseli Nursery. ‘Jean’s Dilly’ is also one of the first plants selected as one of Iseli’s Signature Series of plants in honor of Jean. An exceptional slow-growing form with small, thin needles and  a familiar, traditional Christmas-tree shape.

I’ll use ‘Jean’s Dilly’ as a foundation plant and place additional plants and accessories in the container as my imagination dictates. I envision using tiny snowmen and elves and, if I am lucky enough to find one, an Abominable Snowman from the classic, Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer animated special from 1964 in one of my designs. Of course, what holiday decoration would be complete without tiny lights and a miniature train set?

I have quite a lot of work ahead of me now, Christmas is only 77 days away!

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Ps, This post marks the Fourth Anniversary of The Amazing World of Conifers!

Dear Deer, Please stay away

Ever since my friend sent me the photos of his natural defense against deer damage in his garden, I’ve been giving fresh thought to the fairly wide selection of deer-resistant conifers. Last winter I approached this topic with fairly broad generalities, simply referring to conifer species that have shown resistance. Today, I’d like to take another look at deer-resistant conifers from a regional perspective by listing conifers that have been successful in different parts of the country.

Deer prefer that taste of the Eastern White Pine over the Christmas tree shaped ‘Tannenbaum’.

A great example is from my friend in the Mid-west. In his experience, living in rural eastern Iowa, Picea pungens cultivars have been very deer resistant. That includes both the larger and dwarf forms such as the larger, ‘Fat Albert’ and ‘Hoopsii’ as well as dwarf forms such as, ‘Lundeby’s Dwarf’ and ‘St. Mary’s Broom’. He also noted that although the deer absolutely love his Eastern White Pine cultivars (Pinus strobus), they seem to stay away from Pinus mugo ‘Tannenbaum’, an intermediate sized, broad tree-form of the Mugo Pine. In his area, the deer also tend not to bother with Thuja plicata (Western Red Cedar).

My friend on Long Island, New York has found that all of the Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens) are resistant to deer damage. Unfortunately, some conifers that folks in others regions have had success with, such as Cephalotaxus and Thuja plicata ‘Green Giant’, seem to taste just fine to the deer in his area.

Cryptomeria japonica ‘Black Dragon’ shows some resistance to browsing deer.

My friends living in various locations along the mid-Atlantic area have found cultivars of Thuja plicata to be resistant to the herds in their region. They have also noted little damage from deer on the cultivars of Cryptomeria japonica (Japanese Cedar) such as ‘Black Dragon’, ‘Kitayama’, or ‘Sekkan’. The Oriental Spruce (Picea orientalis) shows resistance in this area whereas the Norway and Colorado spruce (P. abies and P. pungens) only somewhat. Cephalotaxus (Plum Yew) and Thujopsis (Staghorn Cedar) show some resistance in this region.

‘Joe Kozey’, an excellent cultivar of the highly resistant, Sciadopitys verticillata.

One conifer that none of my friends have ever seen bothered by deer is Sciadopitys verticillata (Japanese Umbrella Pine) and its cultivars. (Update: one of my friends does report some deer damage to Sciadopitys in her section of Connecticut. See comment below.)

Of course all of my friends emphasize that it depends on the size of the herds, the severity of the winter and availability of other foods. As noted in my previous post on this topic, natural defense can go a long way to prevent deer damage. Man’s best friend can also be a deterrent to deer entering the property – many dogs love a good chase after four-legged trespassers.

Ed-
Conifer Lover