Hi Lily,

This looks like Abies concolor to me. A closeup would confirm. This tree looks a bit young to produce cones. Abies concolor forms large-ish upward facing cones that disintegrate in the spring, which is a match for your description.

BTW, total proper cultivar name is Abies concolor 'Candicans' which is a nice blue selection, but without a label or purchase record this part can't be guaranteed.

I hope I was some help to you,
~Dave

Thank you Dave. Some of the pictures that I've seen for Abies Concolor 'Candicans' shows a much more dense tree. Of course, I have found significant variation between like specimens due to a variety of factors, hence the request for help. Anyway, I just love this tree. I'll be adding it to my collection. Thank you again.

Dave is right, it's an Abies concolor 'Candicans'.
Your neighbour's place is a bit crowdy.
Because of this it's habit is more "stretched" and different from how it should like like in other circumstances.

Coniferjoy, Thank you for the explanation of the habit. That changes things...my dwarf conifer rock garden is much larger with lots of space between plants. He has a smaller front yard, and it's in need of thinning. He wanted a courtyard effect, and he has lovely flagstone with a table and chairs hidden in the middle. He doesn't have much variety, mostly hemlocks (which are dying), and a handful of others.

Can't add much to the forgoing,just wanted to say that my
Candicans finally produced a single lovely blue cone this year and has reached 9' in heighth.This after years of
being more or less flat-topped ,it finally started a leader about
4 years ago.A very nice conifer that should be grown by anyone who has decent conditions for it.Doug

Hi Doug, thank you for chiming in. Your fir sounds wonderful. We'll have to give it some thought; we still have some 'holes' to fill in our front yard.

Looks just like the 'Candicans' I once had. I say had, because a 'friend' backed over it with his truck and killed it. My tree was in too much shade to grow densely as is your friends.
You don't say where you are, but I'll guess the Pacific NW.
Nice Tsuga mertensiana on the left! One of my favorite trees.
Mike

Hi Mike, you guessed correctly. I am in Issaquah, about 30 minutes east of Seattle. We don't have any mountain hemlocks yet, but they are next on the list because of their graceful habit. Our garden is brand new; we just planted this year. Sorry to hear about your 'Candicans'. It might be time for a road trip to Conifer Kingdom!

There are a bunch of lovely blue Abies concolors - here's 'Blue Cloak', still a fairly young specimen. 'Blue Select' is also nice.

Sara

Here is a link that might be useful: Abies concolor 'Blue Cloak'

Thank you Sara.So much to choose from!

Lily, you should be warned, however, that Western Washington tends to be a very unhappy place for Abies concolor. They don't like our endless wet springs, leaving them prone to all sorts of fungal blights. I can honestly say that I've never seen a good looking older concolor around here.

~Dave

Oops sorry for butting in from Zone 9!

Sara

We had a few 12 footer 'Candicans' at the nursery I worked at in the early 70s. The owner never could get them to look decent. Mine wasn't so hot either, so it wasn't a great loss when it was run over.

Mike

Dave, thank you for the warning. I don't like our endless wet springs, either! By late June I'm shaking my fist at the sky! But seriously, that's good to know. It's raining now, in fact. But now I'm welcoming it because it means that I don't have to drag the hose out and water my gardens.

Oh Sara, chime in anytime. Your input is welcome here.

Dave, after doing some homework, it looks like Abies Procera 'Silver' might be a better choice. I've got eight full hours of sunlight too, hard to come by in these parts.

Abies procera isn't as touchy as concolor but it can have similar fungal issues as they get older, same with Abies lasiocarpa and a few other firs from the mountains. I'm convinced that it's because they like really cold nights like at the flanks of Mt Rainier. On the rare night when the temperature isn't forecast to reach down into the 50s, I've been known to put ice around the bases of my miniature proceras and lasiocarpas.

If you're starting out, there are some great cultivars in the Abies koreana group. Take a look at 'Horstmann's Silberlocke' and 'Aurea' to cite a couple examples. There are 100s of different cultivars to choose from.

One last little bit of nomenclature help -- the species name (second name) of a plant is always in lower case and the cultivar name (third part) is always encased within single quotes. Keep posting and asking questions and you'll be a veteran Conehead in no time. :)

~Dave

Thank you, Dave; so much to learn. I took a couple of classes from Seattle Tilth/Cascade Water Alliance on PNW Gardening and growing great soil. I thought that I was ahead of the game: amending soil, sheet mulching, starting a worm bin. Some of our neighbors didn't know what to think when we started placing boulders in our front yard. I kept telling them that rocks don't require watering or pruning. Anyways, I planted 'Horstmann's Silberlocke' a couple of months ago, and I am looking forward to seeing it grow up. Since I am a newbie, any and all advice is welcome.

Most plantings of true firs and spruces deteriorate with age here. Often it is due to bug infestations. Results do vary with the planting site, to some extent - there are a great deal of examples around to compare. But once you see the interior climate species like white fir and Colorado spruce growing on properties east of the mountains (Spokane, for instance has spectacular examples) it almost seems pointless to plant them in the maritime Northwest.

Lily have you thought of joining the American Conifer Society? It's not expensive and some great resources and people. In fact, our Western Regional Meeting this year is going to be in Olympia, organized by Mr. Glacier's End himself!

Sara

Here is a link that might be useful: American Conifer Society

Ron's right. The provenance of the species has a tremendous bearing on its odds of thriving when a tree is out of its native range. This is especially true with the Rocky Mountain natives he cited above. In the beginning, try to stick with plants from a similar climate to the one we have here. For example, ours is a Mediterranean climate. Abies alba is a Mediterranean Fir. It's pretty bullet-proof here.

That's an awesome blank canvas you've got there, Lily. It'll look amazing once it's all matured a bit. I highly recommend you check out the American Conifer Society's Western Region conference next month. It's going to be in Olympia. You'll get a chance to visit some over-the-top conifer gardens, buy plants at a couple of really esoteric specialty nurseries and bid for some true rarities of the conifer trade in the auctions. I've attached the link below.

~Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Western conference meeting info

LOL Sara, you beat me to it.

Sara, that's something to think about. Olympia is a day trip for me. I thought that I had it "made in the shade" with well-draining soil that's acidic on a slope with eight hours of sun. Turns out I've got a lot to learn.
@bboy, I knew that some conifers wouldn't do well here, but I had no idea of the scope. On the downside (another bad pun), laminated root rot has been found on Douglas firs here on Squak Mountain. One of the entrances to the Squak Mtn. State Park was closed because of it.

Dave, thank you for your kind words. We bought this house three years ago. When dear husband questioned my landscaping plans for the front yard, I took him to the Coenosium Rock Garden at SSCC. Next thing you know, he was tearing up the front yard with a Kubota. I'll definitely look into the western conference meeting.