'Aureospicata' a beauty for just a passing moment.

Nice weeping habit and somewhat open form for the 'Aurea'.

For me 'Skylands' all around best performer and best of show.

Dave

My young 'Aureospicta's have been much less temperamental than my young 'Skylands.' All three are beautiful.

Really like the soft look of that 'Aurea'.

Thanks, Edwin.

tj

Great planting Edwin as they compliment each other and also a great comparison for people looking and deciding which cultivar to plant. Are they all the same age?

Thanks for sharing!

-Will

Edwin, I like 'Aurea'.

Dax

They all look fantastic! About how old are these and what are their aprox size? I can't wait for my little guys to grow up

Wow, all three are such beautiful specimens. How old are they?

I've heard some other growers say that they don't use garden specimens as stock plants. In other words, some plants are for enjoyment in the garden, others are for taking scions. Was wondering, do you do the same? These 3 plants look so perfect, they don't look like they've been raided for scion wood.

Alex

This post was edited by maple_grove on Fri, Jul 12, 13 at 11:07

They're all three very beautiful! Especially 'Aurea'.

There seems to be no match for skylands. My heart is weeping for this cultivar just seems to be little too tender to flourish at my area. Alive but suffering for many years now here at Oulainen. Still hopeful to find a proper microclimate for it some day in my garden. Your speciments look absolutely beautiful! Do you give them regular nutritions?

Nice! I like the Picea orientalis 'Aurea'.

Edwin, Could you tell us a little history of 'Skylands'? Thanks, Jay

Jay, the 'Skylands' was introduced into commerce in 1979 by the Skylands Botanical Gardens which was a part of the New Jersey Botanical Gardens at Ringwood, New Jersey now known as Ringwood State Park.

All three are very beautiful! Thanks for the pics

According to B. Fincham 'Skylands' is the best upright yellow spruce.

Here is a link that might be useful: GOLDEN CONIFERS

Bboy, Skylans is amazing cultivar, but there are others too, i think, that could be concidered into same series. Heres picea abies from Isojoki, Finland. Coloration is purest gold you can imagine.

Jari, that's a very nice photo you're showing there!
But it's not a (temporary) golden one, it's a silver one.
It belongs to the Argenteospicata group.

Your Picea abies 'Qulainen Variegated' has golden coloured needles, please remember this difference for a next time...

This post was edited by coniferjoy on Sun, Jul 14, 13 at 8:50

Are there any pictures of the original 'Skylands' available?

Right, Edwin, i keep forgetting that. Unprofessional made an interesting question. I too, would love to see how the original mother-skylands looked like.

What is the height of your 'Aurea' Edwin?

And I see what you're saying because I was so thrilled seeing your 'Aurea' that I googled and all the offerings in America are spring-flush-yellowish and all turn green after... so I knew your plant was something special. It's truly something special as you say. From where did you get your plant and how old is the age?

Dax

Jon & Jari, I never saw a pic of the original 'Skylands' and also Google gave me no results...

Dax, the 'Aurea' is now 15 years old and is 5 metres high (about 15 feet).
I got it by exchanging with another Dutch conifer grower 12 years ago.
Unfortunately he stopped growing this one because everybody was asking for the 'Aureospicata' which was much more popular in that time.
What's even worse is that he destroyed his stock plants to.
It looks like this one is going on the extinction list...

Thank you Edwin. Jay

Luckily, the extinction of conifer cultivar is very long process while age of individual tree could be 50 to 100 years. Taste of consumers may chance many times in such period of time. And bringing widely back to market is question of maby 6 to 10 years??? How many individuals of this clone could be existing in world today?

Jari, which cultivar do you mean, is it the 'Aurea' you're talking about?

To tell you honestly, I never saw another specimen of it at another location...and I visited a lot of private collections, gardens, Pineta and Arboreta...

Edwin,Yes, `aureaô.Oh, well in that case extinction is indeed the right word.

Yep, and for that reason it's gonna get propagated and spread among the one's that likes it.

Jari, I can give one to you when the time is there, Picea orientalis is hardy for zone 5.

I think you've to change your z4, almost z5 Finlan into
z4-z5 Finland, in this way all your info is visuable for us ;0)

Edwin,I love that idea, but will it work for me any better than Skylandôs that has for some time now been going through slow process of dying?

Jari, we never know if you don't try.
I guess the 'Aurea' is stronger then the 'Skylands' because is does have more chlorophyl in it's needles...

It's good to see that you changed your zone thing.

Let me know if 'Aurea' ever makes it to the US. It would look great in the mixed conifer border I'm creating.

Hi Unprofessional,
Can you share what mixed conifers you are using in your border? and how you space and arrange them? I live near Chicago, but near the lake so the zone is marginally 6. Over the last two months I am researching different options for my ~300f long border adjusent to a small road in a woodland area. I am considering spruce omorika gotelli, picea orientalis gracilis, p.orientalis gowdy and p.abies hillside upright... In general I am trying to keep it narrow and not terribly high, so I will need to do some early pruning... thanks

Those are very nice! How long did it take to grow them? 10+ years, at least?

ttonk, thanks for your nice comment.
You're right, they're 15 years old.