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| Just thought I would post some photos of my small collection of Conifers, most of which are in containers for now. Some will obviously be going into the ground eventually as they will outgrow their confines.
Would love to see photos of everyone's containerised conifers as well. So here they are: Group shot of planters next to the front steps:
Pinus Strobus "Elf". I have tried to do research
6 year old Virginia Pine (Pinus Virginiana) in a smallish half whiskey barrel type planter. It still has PLENTY of room to grow in there as its root ball is fairly shallow and small.
Another of the same.
Two of Pinus Thunbergii "Thunderhead" sapling.
Thanks for looking! =o) |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by toronado3800 Z6 St. Louis (My Page) on Fri, Nov 12, 10 at 21:29
| Novaplantguy, they all look pretty happy! I can't help but notice you mulch the soil in the pots. What are your secrets to keeping the trees in pots looking so well? What do you do with them over the winter? |
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- Posted by novaplantguy_z7b_8a Alexandria, VA 7B/8A (My Page) on Fri, Nov 12, 10 at 23:27
| Hey there. Thank you! Yes I mulch the pots. Just a small added layer of protection. Helps keep the moisture in as well. No real secrets. I just take care of them. I try to plant them in the appropriate soil, which for many means making my own, or sometimes just using the naturally occuring sandy clay loam from the ground. I don't really do much to them during the winter. I might put some small incandescent christmas lights on the pots to keep them from totally freezing, but our winters are not that brutal. We usually dont see temps much lower than 20F, and thats almost always at night. The rare occasion it does get down to 10-15F its usually very short lived, and we usually go above freezing every day. The average highs in the dead of winter are around 38-45 in the coldest part of the season. Do you have any suggestions on anything I should do for the winter? I love to hear what others do with containerised plants. Around here though, Conifers in containers are very common, and usually survive our winters here just fine. Btw... the pines in the rectangle container in the middle of the group shot are Pinus Mugo Fastigiata. Would love to see photos of others Conifers in containers! Thanks! |
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Sat, Nov 13, 10 at 11:19
| Not sure you would need to do anything with your containers in winter. Due to lack of land, I grow all my conifers in containers and have for many years. I am a bit warmer than you in winter but I have never provided any sort of winter protection for my containered plants. And a few are mixed containers with other hardy plants. Same thing - never needed to protect. May be different if one was growing some marginally hardy varieties, but certainly for the pines illustrated above and my collection of mostly Chamaecyparis, a zone 7 or 8 winter is of minimal concern. IME, the potting medium is of more concern for the continued well-being of these plants than is exposure to colder temps. Sorry I don't have photos to add. No camera, either :-) |
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- Posted by novaplantguy_z7b_8a Alexandria, VA 7B/8A (My Page) on Tue, Nov 16, 10 at 11:21
| Thanks gardenpal48. Yeah, I don't plan on doing any "protecting" either. I don't think its going to get much colder than 15F here during the coldest part of the winter. The pots will freeze sure, but they are plastic. Not to mention some of the conifers I have in containers here, it gets much colder in their habitat, and the roots surely freeze solid there, especially the ones growing on rocks and / or with very shallow roots such as Red Spruce. So, anyone else? I know these forums are not THAT slow... I know you're out there.... ;-) |
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- Posted by firefightergardener 7/8 (fletchonthemove@hotmail.com) on Tue, Nov 16, 10 at 11:57
| I'm renewing my photobucket account today and I'll post some photos when it's back up. I have a LOT of conifers in pots, as I've began to utilize my deck and patio spaces to grow more conifers. |
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- Posted by severnside (My Page) on Tue, Nov 16, 10 at 14:53
| 'I'm renewing my photobucket account today' Wow, for a while there when your pics were down this place was looking scarily bereft. |
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- Posted by novaplantguy_z7b_8a Alexandria, VA 7B/8A (My Page) on Tue, Nov 16, 10 at 15:58
| Hey Firefightergardener, I would love to see your photos! You sound like me when it comes to Palms and Tropicals. Alas my obsession with Conifers is not as bad, but I do have more than what I posted photos of. Not much more though. Conifers are by far easier for me because I can leave them out all year, where as my tropicals all have to come in (usually around mid november) if I am going to keep them around for another year. My big 7 foot pigmy date palm is the the hardest. Its heavy and takes a fair amount of space. Anyway, look forward to seeing lots more pics from everyone and hearing how you grow yours in containers. Thanks! |
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- Posted by tsugajunkie 5a SE_WI (My Page) on Tue, Nov 16, 10 at 17:43
| I have but one conifer container with a mix of conifers and other plants. As things outgrow it they are moved out and replaced with something different. A bit of faux bois.
Wider view.
The plants are planted in two plastic storage boxes which I sink in the ground for winter. The phormiums in front are overwintered in a "cool" room in the house. tj |
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- Posted by firefightergardener 7/8 (fletchonthemove@hotmail.com) on Tue, Nov 16, 10 at 21:18
| TJ, I love your wood pot setup there, looks custom and fits perfect with conifers. I had worried that my conifers in pots would drowned in our wet Winters here but so far so good, only one plant loss in about 100 pots. This will be a fun experiment(and painful for the back one day), seeing how long I can grow certain plants in pots. A few shots today:
-Will |
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- Posted by greenman28 Nor Cal 7/8 (My Page) on Wed, Nov 17, 10 at 15:59
| Nice container plantings! Very decorative! I only have a few at the moment, and not a very good picture of them at that, but here they are:
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- Posted by gardener365 IL 5b/6a (My Page) on Thu, Nov 18, 10 at 8:24
| It's nice to have extra trees... I give them away to my neighbors, friends, & family. Dax
some of this years grafting rootstocks |
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- Posted by novaplantguy_z7b_8a Alexandria, VA 7B/8A (My Page) on Sat, Nov 20, 10 at 9:44
| Wow! Great photos everyone! Love em all. TJ,That little wooden planter looks awesome! Firefightergardner, you have TONS of them. I do have a few more I will post some photos of. Mine are almost mostly natives of my state / area though with the exception of the mugos and black pine. I see you list your zone as a 7/8. Do you ever freeze? Do you just let your pots freeze? Were border line 7/8 here, but every winter is different. Last winter we had far more of a 7a type winter, and had the most snow of all the major US Cities here. (75" at national airport, but many places had considerably more than that.)
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- Posted by firefightergardener 7/8 (fletchonthemove@hotmail.com) on Sat, Nov 20, 10 at 11:30
| I live near Seattle, home to the mild Pacific Northwest climate. We seldom see temps below 25 in Winter and many years we don't see snow at all. Occasionally we see dips into the teens or single digits and all of the plants in my photos here survived record cold for us last year(2 degrees faren). Most of my pots are the newer 'fake' fiberglass pots or the double-paned hard plastic pots which my back appreciates when I move plants and they probably handle freezing temps a bit better then pottery. I'd go with wood more if it wasn't so heavy and expensive. Here's a few more shots I took. -Will |
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- Posted by tsugajunkie 5a SE_WI (My Page) on Mon, Nov 22, 10 at 16:58
| Thanks all for the compliments on the container. But it's not wood, it's cement. Faux bois. This is a pic taken with a bit more color change right before it was put away for the winter.
tj |
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- Posted by novaplantguy_z7b_8a Alexandria, VA 7B/8A (My Page) on Mon, Nov 22, 10 at 17:51
| TJ, You had us all fooled. Those first pics you posted of it I could have sworn it was a hollowed out log. The stand you have it on looked just slightly less "natural" but if you had told me it was real wood, I would not have questioned it, especially if I had not seen the bottom part. =o) So what do you do with the container over the winter? I guess it gets TOO cold for too long where you are to leave it out huh? That, and it being a type of stone I guess it would be subject to cracking / breaking with the frost / ice heave wouldn't it? Are you more concerned with that, or with the plants freezing and being killed? Just wondering. Firefightergardener, I know you have tons of things in containers, and I'm not going to ask you to ID them all for me. I think I actually know some of them. The one I do want to know about though, is the second to last photo you posted in your second post, dead front and center, with half of the pot cut off by the bottom of the photo frame. What is it? Ill get a few more photos of my smaller native conifers in pots that I have, uploaded tomorrow. |
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- Posted by greenman28 Nor Cal 7/8 (My Page) on Mon, Nov 22, 10 at 18:17
| Will, you're the reigning container champion, I do believe. Love the color and variety. I think I see quite a few parvifloras....those are my favorite, as far as needle bundles are concerned. TJ, that planter is sick! |
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- Posted by tsugajunkie 5a SE_WI (My Page) on Mon, Nov 22, 10 at 18:30
| My plants get sunk in the ground (they're in lift out storage boxes) and the trough and stand go in the garage. Cold isn't hard on it, but wet and cold would be. The plants are probably hardy enough so yes, I do it for the trough's sake. tj |
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- Posted by firefightergardener 7/8 (fletchonthemove@hotmail.com) on Tue, Nov 23, 10 at 13:18
| The pine in the second to last photo is P. thunbergiana 'Thunderhead'. I find planting conifers in pots very worthwhile since many of them grow slowly, look good year round and are hardy enough to survive our mild-Winters out of the ground. |
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- Posted by novaplantguy_z7b_8a Alexandria VA 7B/ (My Page) on Sun, Jul 24, 11 at 0:50
| Thanks again everyone for sharing the awesome photos! Hopefully even more will share here. Anyway I Just thought that I would update this thread. My little mini collection has grown a bit since I first posted this, both in number, and in size of the plants. I'll start off with a wide shot of the whole thing: I call this little area my "winter" garden. Picea Rubens (Red Spruce) close up. A couple more (different) Picea Rubens saplings: I have about 6 total Picea Rubens seedlings/ saplings. I also have 2 seedlings or small saplings of Canaan Fir (Balsm Fir?) as well that are not pictured. I also have a few small native cedars, and 2 - 5 foot tall Pinus Taeda (Loblolly Pine), also not pictured. Got some pretty good growth on everything that I already had over this summer. Would love to see more! I know there are lots of container growers out there. =o) |
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| Hello, Nice collection. Abies Concolor Compacta Cedrus Libani Green Prince, waiting to be potted this autumn Cedrus Libani ssp. Brevifolia Kzenwith |
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Abies Lasiocarpa Logan Pass : June 2011  |
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Abies Koreana Silberperles : June 2011  Abies Koreana Kohout's Icebreaker |
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Pinus Contorta Chief Joseph : June 2011  Pinus Densiflora Umbraculifera : June 2011 |
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- Posted by gardener365 IL 5/6 (My Page) on Sun, Jul 24, 11 at 8:04
Thuja occidentalis seedling #109 from cultivar 'Wintergreen'  Picea abies 'Gold Dust'
All Spring pics. Dax |
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Taxus Baccata Jack's Gold  |
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- Posted by severnside UKsouthwest 9 (My Page) on Sun, Jul 24, 11 at 20:26
| Pinus heldreichii 'Irish Bell' |
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- Posted by severnside UKsouthwest 9 (My Page) on Sun, Jul 24, 11 at 20:43
Taxus baccata 'David'  |
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- Posted by novaplantguy_z7b_8a Alexandria VA 7B/ (My Page) on Thu, Aug 4, 11 at 11:34
| Thanks for sharing the fantastic photos everyone! Love it! I especially love the Picea Abies 'gold dust'. Such great little trees, but difficult to find. I added a new conifer to my little collection. A small Serbian Spruce. Took a few photos yesterday. It was our first overcast and cool 'rainy' day (it rained rather heavily 4 times, and then misted most of the night)since mid May, and our first day below 90F (most of those were around 96-99F) Since July 3rd or 4th, and our first day we did not pass 80F since early may. Dare I say it almost felt a slight bit like fall! What a nice change! The Cedrus Atlantica 'Horstmann' As well as the Picea Omorika are both going to be planted in quite a bit larger wooden planters this fall, probably sometime in October so this area will probably be somewhat rearranged in the future. Slowly this little collection in just over a year and 1/2 has grown considerably. Looking back at the first photos and what is has grown to now I almost have to think... Uh oh. I think I might have a problem! LOL! Thanks agaian for sharing everyone! Great pics and plants!
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