Iseli Nursery in Oregon has the biggest one I've ever seen -- about 25ft. tall. Its form is definitely a large pyramid and pushes at least 12in. upward every year. Its footprint at the base was a circle with a 15ft. diameter. You should also consider that the plants you saw were sheared into that particular shape.

Definitely *NOT* a narrow plant for a tiny spot.

If you want a globe, try to find 'Treblitzsch' or 'Pimoko.' Both are slower growing, but they still grow.

good luck,
~Dave

Hi guys - It may be important to consider that the specimen Dave is referring to is over thirty years old, and as you mentioned above, Mark, in the mild and moist PNW it does put out a lot of annual vertical growth.

Additionally, the 12" or so that Dave quotes was not always the case in this tree. For the first decade or so after placing in the garden, it's vertical growth was closer to 6-8". As the tree has matured and become very happy in its location, it has shown more vigorous upward growth. It is also interesting to note that the lateral branch terminals put on 3-6" of annual growth (depending upon their location on the tree) and the lateral branchlets look to be in the 2-4" inch range on this mature tree.

Growth rates in other parts of the country may certainly vary from this large specimen.

Regards,
Randy

My tree bought in 2001 or so was a 18" X 18" ball. It is now a 7 foot pyramid with growth varying from 4 to 8 inches a year.

tj

Here is a link that might be useful: Recent Post

Mark,

Funny you bring this up as I purchased one of these yesterday. I had the same thought you did, but found many pyramidal examples online. I hope this tree is as heat tolerant and tough as your specimen you have posted about before.

Starts as a bush and grows into a tree, as do many other "dwarf" conifer cultivars - perhaps the most common example is Pinus strobus 'Nana'. Propagation method will surely have an effect: side branches will grow differently than leaders, normal vigor seedling rootstocks will produce less aberrant (dwarf) finished specimens and so on. I have a dwarf Serbian spruce that has been pointed since I bought it, is probably still less than 2' tall.

This is the tree Mark is referencing. It is labeled on the grower's tag as Picea Omorika 'Nana' Cone. Don't know if the Cone refers to its natural or trained form.

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Hack job.

that tree doesn't look like Picea omorika 'Nana' in the least. Looking at that top whorl, I'd definitely say it's been sheared into that shape. That's why all of the low growth is small and tight, then suddenly, KABOOM up top. The tree was probably raised on a Christmas tree farm.

Now here's the problem. Left to its own devices this tree's going to really start looking funny in a couple seasons. I think growers who do this sort of thing are irresponsible. At the very least they should inform the nurseries and later the customers that their product is altered from its natural form and what's necessary to maintain the form that they purchased.

good luck with your tree, Mr. Turf.
~Dave

I don't doubt for a bit that it has been sheared to this shape, but I still think its Nana, but heavily fertilized to achieve this growth rate. If you examine the base of the tree the branches are very thick and dense, almost like it was a globe at one time. If its not Nana, then what? It's super dense, almost like Picea glauca conica.

Just saying its dense like conica, not that I think it is one.

I didn't mean to imply that it wasn't Picea omorika 'Nana.' It almost certainly is. I'm just saying that it doesn't look like Picea omorika 'Nana.' The point in buying a named cultivar is to get a plant with a well-known, predictable look. That's not what's been done here.

Another reason people like to garden with conifers is because they are (for the most part) maintenance-free. Again, that's not what you've got here.

Nonetheless, I hope you get the most amount of satisfaction possible with your new tree.

~Dave

I think the "Cone" refers to it being a typical (non-dwarf) plant sheared into a cone shape.

Shearing is what I was thinking was probably the case as well. I guess I should have taken the time to inspect the trees a little closer when I was near them and could have guessed the answer already. I think my biggest surprise at first glance on these was the top 1/3 of the tree's growth. They were all still tied up and right off the truck when I saw them. But the top of the trees looked very vertical or as someone said above....very Christmas tree shaped. That implied such a conical pyramidal form I thought I'd ask. And to be host as I said ealrer, I have seen lots of big P. o. Nana's before as globes but never one in vertical form.

Thx for all the input
Mark

To Greatplainsturf, I wanted to also comment, all of the Picea omorikas that I have growing in my gardens that have been successful at handling our heat have done so because I grew them from a fairly young size giving them time to acclimate to our climate, most are in slightly micro-climated locations ( where they get at least a little shade sometime during the day ) , I planted them in the fall ( Sept-Oct ) and never in spring, and they are now all on drip irrigation for long slow watering throughout our long hot summers. General sprinkler or waterhose watering just won't get them through our summers.

I currently have Bruns, Berliners Weeping, Pendula, Pendula Bruns, Peve Tjin and Westerstede in my gardens. By coincidence, my Nana actually succumbed to the heat last fall. It had made it through three harsh summers and was even in a westerly facing location, but it finally burnt in August last year.

I put the drip system in a few years ago after I lost a lot of my garden's trees to the summer's heat.......again. That was the first in what now has turned into the three hottest summers in Oklahoma history in a row. I cannot tell you how significant a difference the drip system made versus the regular watering cycles I had done in my gardens for many years.

Mark

If they are able to grow there it is because they became with a genetically predetermined propensity that, in combination with the maintenance you are providing makes it possible.

They are not changing in response to the site because you are planting them small - individual trees do not adapt. You always have to work with the way they are before you get ahold of them, they will never meet you half way.

That is how it is possible for plantings to fail, the trees do not transform themselves when faced with conditions outside of their tolerance ranges.

I disagree with that comment to some extent.

I think it would be very easy to prove that bringing in a 3 year graft of a tree cultivar that is being zone pushed, planting it in the fall so its roots have the chance to settle in better and be ready to pump water before the hard heat of our spring arrives, and allowing it to "adapt" to its environment at a much younger age, has a much stronger chance of survival than bringing in a 10 year old B&B from the same northern nursery, sticking it in the same ground in the spring, 60 days before our summer heat, and watch it go through a shock of summer temp changes that say it will die probably 80% of the time.

Just like childern in humans, they adapt to their environments much better and faster than elderly can. And plants don't have the survival capabilities of humans.

So while I agree genetics do come into play as to whether a plant has the capability "at all" to survive in a climate ( otherwise everyone in the pacific northwest would be growing Hawaiian tropical flowers in their gardens ) I also believe that you can effect the survival rate considerably of climate pushed cultivars by how you plant them, how you care for them, and that age of the planting material is a real consideration in the success or failure of that tree.

Ask Dave for instance. He has planted fairly mature specimens in his KC garden, almost exclusively, because he wanted to have an immediate visual impact in his garden. But ask him what his failure rate was on bringing in larger more mature specimens. Heat shock of older specimens is a huge consideration in planting in the southern US.

mark

Short..... after four years in the ground. Was about 1 ft when I bought it, nearly three now.

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T.

One planted on Vancouver Island in 1962 was 24' tall in 1994.