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maryn2009

Conifers in the rocks

maryn2009
13 years ago

Hello everybody!

I like Conifers, alpine plants and mountains.

So I start to build things like these in my garden.

{{gwi:839372}}

{{gwi:839373}}

I am going to build a canyon next season, may be you have a good examples from nature to help me? And may be you can give me the names of smallest Pines you have in your collections?

Thanks in advance.

Maria

Comments (27)

  • gardener365
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Now that's real neat Maria.

    Let me think for a while about the pines.

    Dax

  • sluice
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Maria, looks fantastic!

    Here are some natural pine/rock pics.

    {{gwi:640414}}

    {{gwi:640415}}

    {{gwi:640418}}

    {{gwi:677934}}

    {{gwi:677928}}

    {{gwi:640423}}

    Pinus flexilis, 8 yr old, from broom seed

  • maryn2009
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thank you!
    Sluice a great pictures, thank you again. Number 1 and 3 are really findings for me and very sweet seedings also.

    Maria

  • greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Nate, those are awesome!
    Here's another....

    {{gwi:21180}}

  • longaeva54
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Maria,it looks great. Here are some names:
    pinus aristata Doc
    Pinus aristata Kohout's gem
    Pinus cembra David
    Pinus cembra Sankt ulrich
    Pinus flexilis Seedling WB 96
    Pinus flexilis Ririe
    Pinus heldrechii Schmidtii
    Pinus mugo mini mops
    Pinus mugo picobello
    Pinus parviflora Richard lee
    Pinus parviflora Teddy
    Pinus peuce Pygmy
    Pinus monticola Sisk MTN
    Pinus strobus Steven Ino
    pinus strobus Sea urchin
    Tsuga canadensis Ruggs Washington Dwarf
    Abies lasiocarpa Duflon
    abies lasiocarpa Logan pass
    Juniperus horizontalis Neumann
    Sluice and Greenman28,they look fantastic.Thanks.

  • maryn2009
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Greenman28 and Longaeva54 thank you.
    Longaeva54, have you got a photo of Pinus peuce Pygmy?

    Maria

  • longaeva54
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Pinus peuce Pygmy

  • maryn2009
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks longaeva54.

    A little bit more.

    Maria

  • gardener365
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow, inspiring. Thank you.

    Pinus mugo Dave's Choice
    Pinus parviflora Myo-jo
    Pinus strobus Green Twist
    Pinus banksiana Compacta
    Pinus parviflora Tone

    I think Picea pungens Burl would look great.

    Dax

  • maryn2009
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thank you Dax.
    Pinus banksiana can be very good between the rocks.
    I've never seen Picea pungens Burl, how many years ago it was find?

    Maria

  • longaeva54
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Picea pungens Burl According to Coenosium Gardens
    This selection is too new and rare to have any large specimens to observe. Another Jerry Morris discovery, it appears to be a dwarf, cushion-shaped selection with blue foliage growing more congested than 'Platte Best Blue'. (2)
    Picea pungens Mseno, very slow growth,it is good for the rocks garden, but it is not an easy plant.
    Here is a link for a photo of Picea pungens Mseno
    http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/conif/msg0513550029823.html?70

  • maryn2009
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Longaeva54, thank you for the information about Picea pungens 'Burl'.
    This Picea pungens 'Mseno' is very nice indeed! It was one of my must have, and I brought it from Czech Republic this spring.

  • maryn2009
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Ah! I think I delete pictures from the first topic by mooving them to another Photobucket album.
    So I put them again...

    Maria

  • firefightergardener
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    That is amazing stuff. It takes a lot of creative design to choose the right rocks and setting and you've done it as well as I've ever seen. I hope you continue to share photos - you've got great plants and original design ideas.

    -Will

  • maryn2009
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Will, thank you!
    I do not expect such appreciation...


    Not exactly Conifers but the rocks.

    Maria

  • NoVaPlantGuy_Z7b_8a
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Sluice,

    LOVED your photos of the pines in rocks!

    Here are a few I took from a hike last weekend on a ridgetop that is very close in to Washington D.C. (where I live) It's Bull Run Mountain, Virginia. It caps out at about 1,315 feet. The very ridge top is exposed rocky cliff's / outcroppings that face west/soutwest and supports one of the rarer of the eastern pine spcies, Table Mountain Pine. It's one of my favorite local hikes and is an incredible spot. It also boasts a few almost pure stands of Quaking Aspen, which is not very common in VA except near the highest peaks, and you NEVER see it anywhere other than mountaintops over 1,000 feet.

    (Pinus Pungens) Table Mountain Endemic to the southern Appalachians, Table Mountain Pine is fairly common on dry, rocky ridges in the Mountain provinces of Virginia, and North Carolina, occurring almost entirely within the range of Vrigina Pine (Pinus Virginiana) and Pitch Pine (Pinus Rigida). This particular ridgetop supports a healthy population of all three of these pines in a narrow band just along the very rocky areas of the ridge top itself, for about a mile or so. As you can see from the photos there is one particular Table Mountain Pine tree I am quite fond of, and the views from up there overlooking the beautiful Virginia Highland countryside (the VA Wine Country) are quite spectacular.

    Hope you enjoy the photos!

    Stunted Table Mountain Pine growing in rocks on a cliff. This tree is about 7 feet tall and is probably well over 50 years old.

    Same tree with the sun behind it.

    Not 100% sure, but Im fairly certain this is a severely stunted Virginia Pine. Hard to tell with no cones on it. It is growing about 10 feet away back towards the rock face from the tree in the previous two photos, and is in a small crevice with organic matter that has built up in it. The crevice is in fact OPEN under neath. Im guessing this tree will eventually send a root down the side of one of the rocks to the soil that lines 50 feet below.

    Here are a few more photos of the ridge top area in general, which were taken in summer of 2006. Note the same tree in the first two photos above is in one of these photos as well:

    Another angle of the same Table Mountain Pine that appears in the first two photos. This one was taken in 2006 as well.

  • mesterhazypinetum
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    An old "rocker" from the Toros Mts. by HTJ

    Zsolt

    Here is a link that might be useful: Juniperus polycarpos Hontalan

  • Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    NEAT!

    Maria, what kind of rocks do you use? I suppose they are available commercially. How deep are the rock? Do you just use regular old yard dirt?

    I have begun growing prickly pear cacti in a small spot and see an idea for expansion.

    In Missouri it is difficult to find natural settings where pines grow from rocks but I remember it when I do. Sometimes right alongside the highways are best.

  • maryn2009
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Zlot, it is a very nice Juniperus, thank you!

    Toronado3800, thank you!
    For these particular rocks I use limestone.
    The underground depth of stone layer is about 50 cm.
    Like a soil I usually use a mix of yard dirt, sand and limestone powder.

    Maria

  • botann
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Maryn, I like the way you arranged the rocks and the scale you used. The tinest conifers will look at home there.

    A few years ago, when I was a lot younger, a friend and I arranged these field rocks with shovels and iron bars. Now I get to plant this area with small conifers. The tree on the upper left will be removed. It was providing shade to encourage the moss. Water runs through here for about six months of the year. The rocks are mostly granite.
    Mike

    {{gwi:839391}}

  • maryn2009
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thank you Mike!
    I like your rocks too, it is look like you did a very hard work. And create a wonderful place for Ferns and Conifers. You even have your own stream, I didn't have... but I'd love to...

    Maria

  • gardener365
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Surely a lot of people with unique lifestyles here.

    Maria & everyone for that matter, Zsolt has 275 photos in that album provided at his link. It's a magical place of as Zsolt said to me 'of the US Rocky Mountains'. The album is fantastic. I'm only to photo 214 myself having started this morning.

    Best Regards,

    Dax

  • maryn2009
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thank you Dax. I nearly miss it.

    This is another view to the second rock I found when I was sorting my summer photos yesterday.

    Maria

  • NoVaPlantGuy_Z7b_8a
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hey all, I just wanted to post a correction to my post in this thread. The first photo, of the Table Mountain Pine (Pinus Pungens) that tree is not just well over 50 years old, it is in fact at LEAST 135 years old. I checked with the Bull Run Mountain Conservancy after I saw it listed at 125 years on their website, and they have had it listed at that age on their website for about 10 years now. Quite impressive for such a small / stunted little tree!

  • botann
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Maryn, I'm still impressed at your keen sense of scale. You even have talus slopes at the base of cliffs. Well done.
    I did several gardens like that for some clients a few years ago, but not for myself....yet.
    Here's another rock garden in my garden with conifers as the main theme.
    Mike
    {{gwi:839393}}

  • sluice
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Mike, those rocks are fantastic!

  • maryn2009
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Mike, thanks again! This year I'm going to finish my next rock. Hope you'll like it too!
    I like your rock garden, it looks very natural!

    Maria