Abies lasciocarpa 'Kenwith Blue'

Pinus cembra 'Stricta'

Quercus xreifi var. warei x Q.alba 'Birthday Candle'

Quercus xreifi var. warei x Q.alba 'Chimney Fire'

F2 Grafted-Seedling of Quercus x bebbiana 'Taco II'

Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'Silhouette'
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Acer circinatum x palmatum 'Herbstfeuer'

Abies koreana 'Horstmann's Silberlocke'

Left: Picea orientalis 'Gowdy Gold' - Center Picea glauca 'Blue Wonder' - Right Picea orientalis 'Forest Green'

Picea glauca 'Ivan'

More tomorrow...

Dax

Dax, those are some pretty crazy deciduous trees!
Species and hybrids that are radically different.
Looking forward to more photos tomorrow. :-)

-Sam

Thanks Sam!

F3 Seedling of Quercus robur 'Pendula'

Thuja occidentalis 'Nuclear Blast'

F2 Seedling of Quercus nuttallii 'New Madrid' - purple spring growth for one full month

Pinus densiflora 'Golden Ghost'

Sapsucker (holes) damage to a conifer: Pinus densiflora 'Golden Ghost' - painted with grafting seal.

Pinus jeffreyi

Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'Derksen'

Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'Derksen'

Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'Derksen'

Abies nordmanniana 'Tortifolia'

Abies x phanerolepis 'Midnight Steel'

Taxodium distichum 'Mickelson'

Quercus robur 'Salicifolia'

Picea torano

Pinus mugo 'Sonnenberg'

Thuja occidentalis 'Pickles' Spear' - a lot of cuttings removed last year so not so full.

Dax

Lookin' good, Dax.
Thanks for the ID for the Acer j. 'Ogurayama'. I have some seedlings from one and always wondered what the parent was.
Did everything you have planted out survive the winter?
Is that the Lone Ranger's horse wandering about?
"Hi ho Silver, away!"
Mike

i was thinking.. that is one anemic cow ... then i realized it was your dog... lol ...

thx for the pix ...

interesting to try to figure out.. which ones you protect .. and those you dont ...

thx for the pix ...

ken

Beautiful piece of property you have there Dax along with an amazing assortment of uncommon plants!

Wondering if the seedling oaks you're growing will be used as rootstock....you've got a very interesting collection of hybrids and cultivars that I assume must be grafted.

Is Acer circinatum x palmatum 'Herbstfeuer' your find?

Keep those photos coming!

Barbara

The Acer j. 'Ogurayama' looks familiar.

Nice selection of rare cultivars.

It's nice to have friends that have like interests that share plants and ideas.

Dave

Nice tour!

Seems like a good use for the grafting seal.

The P. cembra 'Stricta' looks great!

Hi Mike, we had a mild zone 5 winter. The lowest temp was -3 here in the open & north of me 30 miles at my folks their low was -1. Everything is doing great. Good doggie!

Same to you Ken, good doggie! As to caging, I have to cage things toward the deciduous natural landscape because that's where the deer come to dine. Then I cage all small grafts and plants I feel are irreplaceable or are rabbit food (oaks, beech, most dwarf conifers). Some is learning. Thuja I don't have to cage here.

Hi Barbara, some will be used. The rest will be, I hope, sold.
'Herbstfeuer' is not my find, but I did plant it because it has my last name of Herbst within its' name. Good eye!

Dave, you're a champion for sending that 'Ogurayama' to me. That was one of the most-symmetrical and heavy-duty one-gallon plants... if I ever saw one. It's aging beautifully. Thanks.

Sluicebucket, I wouldn't eat that sh#t! End of that story! That cembra I had to candle prune last year as a deer practically chewed it in half. I'm now re-building the structure of it. And like you, that photo appealed to me, also.

Dax

Good luck w/the Jeffrey pine. A splendid tree (and faster than Ponderosa) until it gets needlecast in 5-6 yrs....

Love the new Madrid seedling. Thanks for posting, its really cool watching your plants grow and landscape develop.

Dax, .....What do you call your arboretum? Always amazed at your variety. Thanks for the tour!
`AL

Hi Beng, Regardless, I spray it 3-4 times a year. I read that on The Lovett Pinetum's site that when it's small and first planted to do so. I'll continue to do so until I can no-longer do so.

Thanks kato_ most of my F2 or F3's that exhibit color or weeping traits come true to seed with high frequency. They're along the lines of Quercus robur 'Fastigiata'

Sure thing AL. I haven't yet named this place but I do have a model sign if that's what I am calling it. GW member "dcsteg" wrote this a while ago and I do like it. It's surely a probability:

Dax

Love the tour - beautiful plants!

Right on Quill Pig founder!

Dax

Everything is looking great Dax. You have a lot of variety on your property and I can't believe how much everything is growing up already.
Cher

Thanks for posting these Dax, really enjoyable to look through. You've got so many interesting things going on, and your collection is quite diverse. I was going to list some favorites, but there are just too many. Dax Herbst arboretum will be quite impressive in a few years when things continue to mature.

Thanks for the tour.

Alex

Thanks, Alex.

I have dwarfs to plant yet. I found room for about 20-25, plus I have spaces to replace oak grafts that were nibbled down to the ground by rabbits this winter, even with cages on them, but then again, I read recently how a rabbit can squeeze thru much tighter places than a person would think... and I'm using tomato cage square/rectangular openings.

I'll see if I can do another run or two of photos prior to the next plantings, soon.

Thanks everybody.

Dax

is that a new truck I see up next to the house?

Marshall

Dax, your Arboretum is getting nicer by the year!
Good work!

Thanks my friend Edwin!

Hi Marshall, nope had that truck 4-5 years I suppose. Sophie the dog is the newest addition to things that move and consume.

Dax

Hi Dax,

Your arboretum grows more impressive every year. It is obvious how much work you are putting into it.

Be sure to put two nice oak trees about twelve feet or so apart so that in your old age you can sling a hammock between them and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Bob

Bob, you're an inspiration & always have been. It is your website that brought my attention to what was beyond the horizon of conifer-gardening. I look back and recall the very first plants I purchased from Coenosium, and they are a Picea abies 'Hildburghausen' which I still have and a Picea engelmannii Compacta, which I also still have. While I'm only 10-years a customer there are folks I know of, Dennis Hermsen being one who showed me plants he purchased from you in the 80's.

I will take your advice and plant two oaks within hammock range! They might have to be fastigiate though! I'm uncomfortable with close, distances ;-)

Thanks for chiming in.

Your friend,

Dax

I might have a pair of fastigiated beeches from last year's crop stashed away somewhere. If you think they'd work I can bring them along when I visit Iowa in early June. I probably won't make the garden rendezvous weekend. It'll be a few days afterwards. I'm sure Dennis would keep an eye on them for you. Call it even for the pictures you sent for my next book.

Beeches are not too far away from oaks in the world of deciduous trees.

Bob

Fantastic. I have the perfect spot, Bob. I had a rectangular above ground swimming pool there. It couldn't be better.

Thank you,

Dax

Picea engelmannii 'Compacta' 10-years old in the ground.
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Thuja occidentalis 'Malonyana Aurea' 2 meters tall
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Acer griseum 2008 plug from Heritage Seedlings. Tripled in size.
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Sorbus alnifolia
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Pinus strobus 'Stowe Pillar'

Clerodendron trichotomum: a die-back shrub in zone 5, however these last two winters have been mild so new growth is emerging from old wood:
{{gwi:726447}}

Picea pungens 'Violet Beauregarde'

Acer truncatum seedling with fastigiate branching
{{gwi:726457}}

Dax

This post was edited by gardener365 on Fri, May 17, 13 at 11:33

Dax,

Pleeeeeeeeeease tell me where you got that Quercus x bebbiana 'Taco II'!!!!!

How did it do this summer?

Looks great Dax - I've always wondered... tell me a little about your spacing and the use for any future beds. Will all these conifers be in random beds as they get larger or will they be all stand alone like they are now?

A few weeks ago I just started planting in my field... I went from spacing stuff so they can get a max 12' to spacing them so they can 20' around before touching. So the normal 6x3 in 10 years conifer will have plenty of room to run in my lifetime. I have 3.5 acres I'm filling up, so now it should be a little cheaper since I won't need as many conifers to fill it up.

Hi Hairmetal,

I got scionwood from a friend who asked that I do not propagate it any further. All the grafted oaks I have are in that category. Recently that friend of mine struck a business relationship with so check with them in the future for these varieites.

Rick,

For dwarf conifers the shortest diameter I've ever given one is 12'. I go for 12'-15' for dwarfs most of the time. I give the same amount of room for mini's.

Intermediate and full size I give them enough room to mature depending upon their projected size at 40-50 years. It's typical for me to space most trees 30-50' apart. Whatever they need.

My Green Giant windbreak I spaced at 12' but not perfectly. Occasionally I went 14' and 13' and 11' to give it some randomness. My other Hetz Wintergreen windbreak I gave 6' to each plant, period. I have a 8' diameter (distance) between my driveway and my neighbors property line for the Hetz's. I like full-sized looking trees for hedges versus a continuous "wall." Of course, I am willing to wait.

All my plantings are (yes) "field like." and as they mature and continue to, then the future will hold for me new plantings in the cracks and crevasses that may or may not occur. It's like Mike/botann's garden. He installed the bones, the trees and shrubs, many decades ago and now is toying around with new things while removing others. Mike's garden is in a constant state of matured changes and non-changes. I imagine my garden is very much like his, in many ways, only 40 years younger.

Naturally, when I plant, I look at everything as a photo in my mind of what the entire picture will someday look like, I have that ability, and I vary heights of plants and widths and shapes and all of that as I continue from space to space or plant to plant. I literally planted a Chief Joseph near my home & driveway and built off of that one plant and never stopped.

And only (1) space did I write a "planting map." The rest is imagination and walking back and forth to my hoophouse to see what plants I had available to set out onto the landscape and then step away to see them for what they would become in 40-50 years until I was satisfied. When you have a lot of grafts all at once to choose from and aren't just ordering a few or 10 plants at a time, your land opens up to a lot of possible combinations, surely as anyone would know. But I will say, having a newly grafted scion that's 1" long requires having seen a great deal of conifers so you are able to recall what each looks like as a larger specimen or I am gambling to a certain degree if it's a graft of a new witches broom, when laying those new grafts out onto my landscape for a final decision and their planting. I have a very good memory and can walk around arboretums and gardens that I visited 10 years ago and still see the plants close up in my mind.

Regards,

Dax

Hairmetal, I couldn't remember the name of that nursery my friend is doing business with but I think that it's "Oikos" or something like that. I had left that blank while I continued to write and never went back to add the nursery's name.

Gotta go. Off on a weekend vaca.

Dax

I like your Canis vulgaris 'Alba' sitting at the Picea engelmannii... Plants too!
Zsolt

Everything looks amazing! They all have grown a lot since I last saw them.
Thanks for sharing!

Jeff

Funny Zsolt!

Thanks, Jeff.

Have a great one guys.

Dax

Dax, Starhill Nursery (which you surely know of) is set up with Forrest Keeling from a wholesale perspective.

G2gardens is the mailorder outfit for Forrest Keeling.

Guy's intros are FINALLY available for the casual collector. I know he had some bumps with other outfits prior to Forrest.

That's right! I didn't know about G2gardens though.

Thanks a lot,

Dax