Look out for pine wilt on this species in that region.

oh man ... glorious ..

i am of the same opinion ...

i think my favorite part.. is the swingset ...

but i am wondering.. what your evil plan is.. because that thing is going to swallow that yard ... awful fast .. [unless the swingset moves????] .. hey.. why isnt the swingset in the first pic... lol.. you messing with me???

those are some nice plant tags ...

couple more pix below ...

ken
as a babe 2006
{{gwi:860113}}

as a child .. 2007
{{gwi:860115}}

as a teenager ... 2008
{{gwi:855965}}

{{gwi:860117}}

{{gwi:860118}}

and as an adult.. 2011 ...
{{gwi:860119}}

{{gwi:860120}}

{{gwi:860121}}

A more compact gold option...

Pinus sylvestrisv Moseri

Ken, which cultivar are you showing in the later years? Growth rate looks like 'Aurea'.

I'm not 100% sure on the cutlivar but growth rate may indicate that it is 'Gold Coin'. Picture was in December.

all gold coin, will ...

at least that is the name i bought it under.. lol .. there is always that.. aurea is in the first pic

ken

Hi. I've had two 'Aurea', but both got burnt to death; one in winter,the other in summer. If 'Gold Coin' can take the summer heat (dry,that is),as Tex suggest, I wouldn't mind trying one...( Edwin,please note!) T.

That Gold coin you see has just finished going through the two hottest record summer heatwaves in Oklahoma history....last year the 62 days of 100+ and this year's two days of 110+. Now I will have to say until mid-summer this year the tree was in more indirect sun because a 40' hackberry tree cast a good shadow its way a lot the day. But it still got afternoon direct sun regardless.

So I'll have to see this next coming summer if it continues to take all the heat and sun. But so far it has been a real champ for me.

As for the pine wilt, I agree it is a prime candidate and of course I am in the middle of pine wilt alley in Oklahoma. But since it attacks mostly distressed mature trees I'm hoping it will be many years from now before I have to seriously worry about it. Maybe they'll have a solution by then.

And lastly, as for growth, because of that same heat issue my growth rates here are about half what they grow up north. So again, the concern of it being too large for the space will probably be an issue my grandkids will have to worry about. And Ken, I took the two pics from two different sides of the tree, thus the building in one and the swings in the other. My garden is a working garden complete with swings, bocce court, dog trails, and grandkid play area. So I have designed it to be wandering and fairly close quartered, but I shouldn't have to worry about trees stepping on each other for another 10-15 years. At that point most will be 15-20'. We'll see what trees are still with me then.

Mark

In my last comment I mentioned the tree USED to get more indirect sun...that was becasue in September an unusual wind sheer storm came through ( naturally I was in the way of this very narrow wind shear ) and it broke the native hackberry off at the ground. Took out three sections of 8' wood fence, two power poles and all the utility lines. Visually it was a huge loss to our property.

This was a 40' tall by 40' wide tree, right on the back prperty line, dead center. So I used it a lot to cast great dappled shade across a lot of my more touchy heat trees, especially some Japanese maples. It was a great micro-climate tree.

Well everything in that area took the last 2-3 weeks of 95+ degree heat of the summer and some showed some shock almost immediately while others like the 'Gold Coin' came through like champs. So we'll see next summer.

mark

Thanks for the info ! T.