Great post.

Thanks for taking us along for the tour.

Can tell me more about the Conifer Master Presentation? Were you the presenter representing what organization/society/club?

Dave

Thank you Dax....looks like a meeting of great people and great plants! Appreciate the Ginkgo photos, especially that you show their overall growth patterns too; may I add those to my personal photo library?

You must be a great organizer to keep track of of plant names while you are photographing. Must be the German in you!

Barbara

Dax, this is great! Thanks for sharing all your photos - it looks like a very fun event.

Seeing the few photos of Bickelhaupt brought back very nice memories of when we were able to visit there several years ago - and then an idea popped into my head....

I wonder if you might have time to give a current photo tour of the great conifer collection there. I am thinking we have many members in the group here that have never seen a collection like the Heartland collection at Bickelhaupt. Since you are (sort of) close by, and you obviously take very nice plant portraits, it would be quite a treat I think! (And I suspect you would have a great time doing it - I know I would).

Anyway, thanks for sharing these photos today!

Nice, thank you.
However a Picea rubens "Pocono" blue , sorry but not possible.
Clement

Thanks, I really enjoyed those photos.

My lord, how old is that Hoodie?

That Lower Road specimen is to die for!

Much easier to label the pics right in photobucket and do a slideshow.

Thanks for sharing!

Wow, great garden! Thanks for sharing those photos.
I like the link idea for posting many pics..

Jeff

Very nice Dax, Thank you. I really wanted to be there but the schedule just didn't allow for it.

tj

Thank you for sharing the photos! :)

What a fantastic tour to go through with some gorgeous plants. Thanks for the tour.
Cher

I've been away all day guys......

Dave, The Conifer Master presentation is appreciation to those that have done a lot in the world of conifers. All these Men had a lot in common: some being the founding fathers of the American Conifer Society - some being W.B. hunters with huge #'s of found brooms - some associated with Jerry Morris in his hunts and successes of broom hunting in the Rockies & some friends of Chub Harper who too was honored with the same paraphernalia - but will be presented at Bickelhaupt Arboretum since Chub is deceased. All these people were honored from Zsolt Mesterhazy and his works of 'The Conifer Treasury'.

Barbara and all - my photos are always anyone's photos. I don't squeak at websites that use them, nor anyone else, either. :)

Randal, I've photographed Bickelhaupt quite extensively over the past decade. For now all my albums may be viewed on Photobucket: (copy and paste)

http://s670.photobucket.com/user/Glabra/library/?sort=3&page=1

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Cultivar/library/?sort=3&page=1

Clement, thanks and I'll remove that photo. Glad you liked.

Willis: Hoodie was planted during 1991. That's all I can lend. Also glad you enjoyed.

Jeff, thanks as well & glad you enjoyed.

Machine-Gun-Tommy: I look forward to seeing you again, anytime as do all the conifer guys.

liop: you're welcome. glad you enjoyed.

Cher: hope all is going great for you.

Dax

Excellent, Dax. Thank you for taking the time to share these with us! Great gardens!

You bet Matt....

Thanks,

Dax

Dax,

looks like a good time. Nice to see the plants in pictures. Makes me wish I'd worked a little harder to get up there.

Great idea to honor some of the legends & who better to present to them. You have done an awful lot to get people and plants connected.

Keith

Yo! thanks man.

Dax

Dax, Im glad i didnt miss this post. Its really nice on so many levels. Well done and thanks for the tour!!!
`AL

Dax, Thanks for the links. I know you've posted some in the past, I'll take a look at your complete albums! :^)

Wow, what an awesome group of gardens and conifers. Some serious age and history here and some pretty damn fine specimens!

Thanks for the hard work behind this Dax, a great adventure for conifer nerds like me without even stepping into an airport. My only question is where was your scion-knife? :D

-Will

Gentlemen and Ladies,
Dax and me are working on a project of conifering since some years. In 2009 I was totally delighted of Dax's photography about american conifering, specially about the Chub Harper Heritage. Dax as a former younger friend of Chub Harper built us a scenery, which we first published in 2010. See attached file.

Now I am sure, that the Harper Heritage will never lost for conifering. We are working of the original descriptions, which he ever signed for. Dax made connections to the excellent american conifer breeders, who took part in the Harper project. We may say to him a thank, that this imprtant story of the american conifering will never forgotten. Beyond the breeders there in Iowa and Illinois, we also have a place, where these new conifers found a perfect home. This is the Bickelhaupt Arboretum in Clinton, Iowa. The founders of Bickelhaupt met with an enthusiastic breeders company, and the final story was organized by Harper.

We have a 600 pieces new conifer basement for America and the world - thanks to the breeders as Chub Harper, Randy Dykstra, Dave Horst, Dennis Hermsen and others, who believed in Chub. I was going to say my thanks to these extraordinary breeders with a Conifer Master diplom not only for helping the american conifering, but the general world conifering. If anywhere in the world is a point, where 600 new conifers are discovered, its a great breeding action. This must be described anyhow for the next generations.

This heritage seems to be working after some years. I studied the plant lists of Gary Gee form 2010. His lists of 2012 contented 120 new conifers - most of them came from the Harper Heritage. This says to me, that it works, and hopely spreads not only in America, but for the general conifering.

Zsolt
conifertreasury.org

Here is a link that might be useful: The Justin

Thanks Dax for showing us your nice tour via Photobucket.
It's a good way to show us a big pile of photos at the same time.

I never met Charley Hunter, Randy Dykstra and Dave Horst(Dykstra an Horst are Dutch familiy names).
Maybe this is gonna to happen in the one of the next few years...
Dennis Hermsen I met last winter, he's a funny guy to travel with :0)

Those guys are the beginnings of the American Conifer Society and they're good people. I really enjoy their company and conversations about the history of the conifers and naturally their gardens. Bickelhaupt put on a heck of a Rendezvous this year. Excellent food, a large crowd gathered, and the (gardens) looked great. Yes we have all these gentlemen to thank for their contributions where we are all able now to see dwarf conifers at large sizes. So thanks Zsolt and Edwin for the kind words and while Zsolt and I continue with The Harper Heritage, it will become stronger with the new photos of the past and information that I was able to bring home that day. I have the relics, all the photography of the original brooms, and more documentation that was never before seen except for a few people. The keys are now not hidden away and lost, but are here for us to unlock more of the treasure. 'The Conifer Treasury' so appropriately named of Zsolt Mesterhazy.

Dax