A burst of sunshine!

The dark and dreary winter days are beginning to brighten! I have noticed that our daylight hours are definitely increasing and I feel the brightness in my spirit as well as see it with my eyes. This morning I decided that I would spend a little time catching up with some of my favorite garden blogs. One of them, written from her home on the opposite side of the continent, A Garden of Possibilities, had posted a picture of one of my very favorite golden conifers. Imagine my excitement to not only find one of my favorite bloggers highlighting a conifer, but one of my favorite conifers at that!

Pinus contorta ‘Taylor’s Sunburst’ bursts forth its proclamation of spring-time.

Pinus contorta ‘Taylor’s Sunburst’ is one of those conifers that burst forth their new growth in bright colors and then slowly fade to green as the season progresses. Beginning with the warmth of spring, this Lodgepole Pine will begin to extend its new foliage. These new “candles” will be covered with tiny, emerging, soft-yellow needles. As the candles continue to extend, longer and longer, the tiny needles also burst forth in their butter-yellow and then slowly become more and more golden in color. Eventually as summer arrives the golden color of the needles begins to fade to the nice medium green color that the small garden tree enjoys until the follow spring. This color burst is a lot like the bloom of some flowers, except that it lasts for months instead of weeks.

Bright, rich golden needles emerge from the new candles while both the new, bright pink and the older green cones add interest and color highlights.

But wait, there is an added color bonus with ‘Taylor’s Sunburst’. When one looks closely, there are tiny, bright pink cones here and there among the newly extending golden candles. These cones slowly develop through the spring and summer, becoming larger and darker pink and then gradually they turn a bright green color. I enjoy finding both the bright pink new cones and last season’s green cones on the tree at the same time. The green cones will mature through the summer and fall, dry, and then open up to disperse their seeds and eventually fall from the tree.

The tiny pink cones emerging between the small needles are a thrill for me to discover every spring!

There really is nothing quite like the burst of color that ‘Taylor’s Sunburst’ provides in the garden, and its bright color in spring lifts my spirits very much like the increasing hours of sunlight we are experiencing right now!

Ed-
Conifer Lover