mark

Scott

tj

Picea engelmannii 'Lace' / 'Bush's Lace' is excellent. A top four or five of mine.

Pinus parviflora 'Negishi' may be one of ok size dimensions although I've never seen a photo of one much taller than five feet. It's a nine inch a year grower and sky blue. Looks like a squat little tornado to me, an upside down tornado. That's the shape not the way the needles are or branches or anything else.

Picea abies 'Weeping Blue' is killer. So is, Picea pungens 'Shiloh Weeping' which needs staking to direct it up but, only as a young plant (till 4-5 feet tall).

Dax

lp

Serbian spruce (Picea omorika) 'Gotelli Weeping' sold by Bob Fincham, Coenosium Gardens, is a pretty good blue as you can get and is a perfect flank. It is only five feet wide at the base when 40 feet tall. It grows over a foot a year. This is mine I bought from Bob, been in the ground one-year, probably four to five years old, slowed up from being grown in a pot that long:

Picea pungens 'Shiloh Weeping'

Picea abies 'Weeping Blue' - dcsteg's garden. Now I saw one at Rich's Foxwillow Pines that was at least 12 feet tall. All the branches drape next to the trunk just as Dave's plant does. It just gets taller.:

One last plant that you'll get some better google images of is Chamaecyparis nootkatensis 'Moonshot'. The plant I photographed is in pretty much shade. It's very strict/narrow.

The same plant three years later:

Dax

A young cultivar from my garden.

Dave

Juniperus virginiana 'Blue Arrow'

They are all such beautiful choices, but I really think the Juniperus virginiana 'Blue Arrow' is perfect for the location and oh so blue!!! I googled it and I'm thinking it is going to be difficult to find. Where did you guys find yours, Dax and Dave? Perfect specimen Dave. And just because I'm curious, why is it that the scopulorum junipers are bad? I see that some sites call the 'Skyrocket' a virginiana in error.

Thanks everyone!!! Please let me know Dave and Dax!

Fine a local nursery that buys from Monrovia and have them order two for you.

Hit the link...

Dave

Dax

Dax, thanks for answering my question on the scopulorum junipers, it was driving me nuts wondering why.

Yeah guys, that juniperus virginiana 'Blue Arrow' is the perfect conifer to flank the gate.

Thanks again!!!

lp

If I understand your question correctly, you are asking the difference between Dax's Chamaecyparis nootka. 'Moon Shot' and a Juniperus scopulorum 'Sky Rocket' correct?

First off, they are two totally different species Chamaecyparis (Cypress/False Cypress) and Juniperus (Juniper). The Moon Shot is a very strict weeping tree, while the Sky Rocket is a narrow tree with the branches growing more up than out. Also, the Moon Shot is definitely more green like most of the Alaskan Ceders whereas the Sky Rocket is more of a steel blue, silver blue color.

I hope I understood your question correctly and answered i for you.

Eliot

Thanks for clearing that up.I went back and looked at the pictures again and I put the wrong plant with the wrong picture.

I have some Sky Rocket junipers,it is Blue Arrow I was comparing my Sky Rockets to.Now I see Blue Arrow is J virginiana Sky Rockets is J scopulorum.

Thanks again

lp

I thought that maybe that's what you had done when you mentioned the blueness, but I answered the question as it was asked.

I have a couple pair Sky Rockets and really like them. The silver blue works well with so many other colors and really makes a statement I think with the tall and narrow habit. I have two framing a window on the front of the house that are both about 8 feet tall now. And earlier this year I planted two more on one of the deck corners to define it and add privacy.

Eliot

I'm conserned about Gardener365's comment about early death of J. scopulorum in the midwest.I 15 years I'd hope'd they would look really nice.

lp

The Junipers on the hill, do they get enough water. If grass (or weeds) won't grow there, then you have a problem of some sort as they will grow about anywhere. And if they won't grow, then your going to have problems getting anything to grow there.

You say it is a gravel hill. Is there any soil there? If so is the soil good, or pure clay? Does it get enough water/any water? With gravel water will drain very quickly as opposed to soil which will retain the water and what you plant there will need to be watered much more. Can you dig them up, amend the area by adding a bunch of top soil/manure/peat so that water will be retained and nutrients can be passed to the trees? Have you mulched around them?

The way that I look at it, in 15 years I'll be tired of it, or need the space for something else. If I enjoy it for 15 yrs, and it dies, I still enjoyed it for 15 yrs. Now I can plant something new and give that area a renovation. However the biggest threat to anything I plant is me getting bored with it, getting tired of it, or simply finding something more interesting to replace it with.

I planted a perennial bed last spring. When it came up this spring it was beautiful, but as soon as the spring flowers were done I transplanted them because I had decided that I wanted to put all my dwarf Cypresses in that area. It is a constantly evolving project.

Plus I sometimes think I suffer from ADD. I get bored very quickly, and decide its time for change. I've been in this house for three years this week, and most of my plants have had at least two or more homes since. As a collector, I tend to buy it because I want it, then find a place for it, or plant it, then decide I want it someplace else. About the only plants that have been planted and left alone are the bones of the front and back garden. A couple of Birch's that were 8+ feet tall when planted which were too big to plant more than once :-)~. Those two Sky Rockets at 6+ feet, but they had a specific purpose, and a few other basic shrubs (Barberry, cottoneaster, boxwoods, etc.). I even moved a 6 foot pine this spring simply because it was a prime location and I

Good Luck!

Eliot

No I don't water them,you are right they could use some mulch.I planted a J virginiana in that same area,mainly to see how they grow in the stones.The top soil is very thin,some weeds grow but I keep them pulled.I don't want to amend the soil,but I will mulch.

In that area but on better soil I planted Pinus Aristata-Pinus Longevea -Pinus Cembra and Pinus Resinosa,I want it all conifers in that area.So far all are doing good except the Sky Rockets tomorrow I will mulch & water.

I have only dug out a couple that I put in the wrong spot or changed my mind.My yard is fairly big and I have'nt planted the miniature conifers (yet)

It's cool the way some of them are displayed,post some pics sometime your yard sounds interesting.

lp

It's amazing what mulch can do. For a new bed I always put down 3" and then top dress it each year. Over time that will actually amend your soil for you as well as the mulch breaks down. I have gone through about 20 yards so far this year, and when I do the bed I just finished tonight, and the next one I have planned in couple of weeks I'll prob use another 6-8 yards. I am fortunate though. I have a buddy who owns a nursery so I get a pretty good deal on it.

It's great having a large yard. How much area do you have? I went from 3/10 acre in the city to 3 acres out in the country three years ago. The house was fairly new (4 years) with minimal land scape (I'm not kidding, a hosta, a dwarf Alberta Spruce, a potentilla, 2 day lilies, and 3 yucca on the whole property) so I had a clean slate. The front yard was bare, not a single tree, but the back yard is heavily treed leading into a woods at the very rear of the property.

I'm doing projects as I have money and time, both always lacking, but I am never short on plans and ideas. Three years ago when I bought the house I started with basic knowledge and know how from working at a nurseryand landscaping in high school, but have evolved into collecting here in the last year. Thats why I already ripped out one of my new beds from last year this spring. I already have over 100 named species (most very small one and two year grafts), with a wish list of at least five times that many!

I would love to see some pics of your projects. That was one of the reason's I got interested in this site. Every time I googled a plant it brought me here. I am always looking for ideas and inspiration. I've been meaning to get a digital camera so I can post pics of my stuff, but when it comes to technology, I'm illiterate for the most part.

I just finished a new planting bed tonight to showcase two red bud trees. I built a sloped island out front. I used retaining wall block on the back to build two half circles and then connected them and sloped it towards the road. I have always loved red bud trees since I was a kid (conifers still my fav.), so I put a Forest Pansy Red Bud in one half circle and a Covey Weeping in the other. The house has burgundy colored shutters and I have used burgundy in a lot of my planting beds (shrubs and perennials) out front, so the Forest Pansy matched very well there. I'll prob use some barberry around the Covey to get some burgundy on that side, and I was thinking about putting one of my Picea orientalis 'Skylands' in the center, one of my absolute favorite conifers. I'm not sure how the yellow will work with the other colors though... Now I need to figure out what else I am going to plant out there.

Eliot

I think we'd all like to see you get a digital camera. If someone else hadn't hooked up my computer, my camera, my sterio, I'd be sitting here staring at the walls!. Ask for a little help. This camera deal is so simple. Never use the software that comes with it (assuming you don't have a Mac/Apple) and it's a deal where one cable plugs into an empty port on the back of your computer and then you plug the camera in and immediately mine goes to "microsoft's photo wizard." It asks me to put/(possibly create a new folder) and I have the option to delete the photos after they are uploaded and then it's all over. One cable does it all. You can probably get a good camera like "coolpix" for 100 dollars now-a-days. I don't even know but they are cheap and if you need help, we're all here to assist.

Life's too fast not to have a camera.

Keep on truckin'

Dax

A patented cultivar sold by only one nursery.

There was a 4 ft. specimen at my local nursery I do business with.

$400.00 retail

Dave

It was expensive, but sometimes you gotta pay to get what you want....and I wanted that tree

mark

Yep...for sure...been there and still doing it.

Actually I went back for it after 6 weeks of thinking about it...it sold the day before.

A unique and beautiful conifer...I'll wait till next spring for a freshly dug one.

Can you post a photo of the newly purchased one.

Dave

Thanks for the nice comments, but compared to some of the yards I see on here, plant list, and knowledge (yours included), I've got a LOOOONG way to go...However, seeing these yards is what keeps me going, thinking I can have something that looks like that some day. I guess I can dream can't I, or at least shoot for the stars, if I miss, I'll land on the moon right.

I'm going to get a camera here real soon, but I'm sure I'll be asking for help. Thanks again.

Eliot

I also took some pictures,I just have to load them into computer.

I live on a 80 acre farm,so the work never get's close to done.The acres I keep in lawn and garden is maybe 1 acre or so and I plant alot of different trees in a 30 acre plantation I planted 20 years ago.

I better load those pictures.

lp

Well anyway if you look at the album ,most of my trees are young with older Red & white pine.The trees on the rocks that I carved out are my pride & joy.

I'm sure my designs are less than most of yours.

lp

Naughty, naughty texjagman!!!

Tish

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! What I would give to have land like that, the rolling areas, natural contour, etc... Then add the rocks, I'm assuming those as natural? or have you brought those in? Then to top it off, a log cabin!!! I'm envious!!!

The most contour I have on my property is a natural ditch running between the house and the barn...About 18" worth of elevation change...I've had to create all of my "rolling hills", and rock walls, and "natural exposed rock areas" AND try to make it look natural in the process.

I love log homes. There is a log cabin about a mile down the road, 5 acres, with a pond, it came up for sale about a year after I bought this house, I was so close to putting mine up for sale and buying it.

You've done a great job. As soon as I get a camera I'll post some of my pics.

Eliot

Sorry to say but the house is just a stick framed farm house.In the past I helped build log homes and always wanted one,so I used 1/4 log siding and some rough sawn cedar found on the property,to side the house.Still have much to do.

My plants are all young,so nothing that great,but I hope it looks better as they age.

By the way,these digital cameras are just as easy to use as others.I'll keep an eye open for some pictures.

lp