Absolutely stunning. I love it. I need to add more conifers. I was lurking at the Conifer forum recently and realized that I've neglected them.

Very handsome, Will. But I think you'll need to do some serious editing as the years go by :-) As a dwarf conifer collector myself, I'm surprised at how fast and large many of these will grow, even in containers. And not all of yours are dwarfs!

Will,

I have really enjoyed your photos here and on the conifer forum. We're starting to catch the conifer bug at our house, but it's nothing like your collection.

Beautiful!

Some of the plants are almost touching already. And there are so many specimens in each area that they start to blur together, like a crowd of humans at a game or show. You'd be better off spacing the conifers out more and planting companion plants like heathers between them.

Don't I see lots of heathers already planted between the conifers?

""Some of the plants are almost touching already. And there are so many specimens in each area that they start to blur together, like a crowd of humans at a game or show. You'd be better off spacing the conifers out more and planting companion plants like heathers between them.""

Hey Bboy, do me a favor? Since you've mentioned this about my garden plantings about twenty times, can you stop posting it please? It's not like I can't read or I don't understand your advice. That said, I *WANT* my plants to grow into eachother. Additionally, I'm MUCH more active then basically any other gardeners here and I have plans for everything down the road.

1. Some plants will come out as they either look bad, become apparent they are waaay too big for their spots, get diseased/malformered/etc.

2. Many of the plants will be transplanted to a local botanical garden of which I am helping to design(with 100 acres of plants).

3. Many of the larger plants I will train/prune and raise the crown as necessary to keep everything still in a cohesive form.

4. This planting is intentional. If you look at 100 conifer gardens/collections, 99 of them are plants with 5-15 feet of bark seperating each tree like a museum or arboretum. I have neither the space nor the desire to garden like this and I much rather prefer my plants mesh together like nature. In a perennial or natural setting, plants mesh together to form a wave of texture, color, height and shape. I plan on the same thing with my gardens down the road, only with less herbacious perennials and more trees.

Finally(harsh warning section, be advised, this may produce uncomfortable emotions in your brain), since you have basically lurked on the forums here commenting frequently I have seen only two types of posts.

A). You're doing this wrong, let me help you(rare).

B). You're doing this wrong, in my infinite garden wisom, let me critisize your gardens.(a more common animal).

Since you have failed at any point to show photos of your own garden for others to critisize, please do me a favor and never post again any comments about my gardens. Any more negative remarks will be considered rude and/or harrassment and I will deal with you then.

Also, I know people who KNOW you and your gardens - and they say they are kept in poor shape, probably because you're online all day critisizing others. How about you try and make your own life happier instead of trying to make others less so.

Now I will post more photos here and I DO encourage all types of comments - I just won't be tolerating the same grinch saying the same stuff over and over despite my acknowledgements.

-Will

Very nice collection! Conifers do so well here and there's an incredible variety of colors and textures and shapes and sizes. I do like the heathers etc. planted among the conifers too. And I love the backdrop of mature native coniferous forest.

Myself I don't understand why some forum members (you know who they are, two of them have posted here already) insist on criticizing other people's gardens when no advice was asked or needed. There are as many ways to garden as there are gardeners. I like an interactive garden myself, one that will require continued input over the years.

Then there's the flip side of course, which I see mainly on the Roses forum and not here, where a forum member will post the list of roses they just bought and planted, and they're asking what we think of the roses they bought and if they planted them correctly. Um... why are you asking that now?? isn't it kinda late for that info??

Firefighter, do you have an online photo album where we can see all your garden photos in one place?

Point #4 states your philosophy quite clearly. I applaud it.

Most collectors just look at the individual plant or blossom, rather than the over all effect, or setting, in the garden and their garden shows that approach. It's nice to see you haven't taken that route. People post pictures of their garden and it's just blossoms or individual flowers. In the case of conifers, it's just the plant with just mulch as a background. That's not garden pictures, it's just what a nursery catalog looks like. Fine for basic information, but it doesn't show the garden.
As far as your crowding, you've said numerous times that you have a place for the 'extras' as they make themselves known, or are needed in the botanical garden.
Raising the crown of conifers is a great way to make more room for the 'tapestry'. My 30 plus year old garden is subjected to that all the time.
Everybody has a different approach to gardening. Education, experience, location, age, physical ability, etc. One size doesn't fit all. Keep us posted on your progress.
Mike

{{gwi:1079673}}

I'm a collector myself and my garden consists of as many different plants that I can cram in considering my small city lot bordered by neighbor's mature arborvitae and Doug firs that cause extreme root competition. I don't plant for long term appeal, I plant for myself and for the now. I've removed or moved plenty of plants in the last sixteen years and will remove or move plenty more. :)

Mike, and others, I appreciate your positive perspectives. While books, magazines and 'experts' create gardening 'laws', these are really meant for the uninitiated, those lacking ambition or those who don't want to wander too far off the proven track for gardening success. While I can appreciate the typical garden, I didn't want that for my own setting. People seem to want to be unique but a lot of them still seem to end up buying a red sports car, a blue minivan for the family and a golden retriever.

Doing something different or unique is inherantly challenging and there is plenty of risk. There's certainly no guarentee that my gardens will turn out exactly as I planned them but per the cliche, usually life is about the journey, not the destination. As my gardens evolve, it will be interesting to see what worked great, what didn't work at all and what new things I try as opportunities present themselves.

Hopefully however I mold it, my gardens please ME first and my neighbors/visitors second. I wouldn't want to live with a garden everyone else considered great if I myself didn't enjoy it.

Mike I do want to say that your garden photos have had serious impact on my views and plans longterm. To me, it's a near perfect, lifelong project of intermixing a wonderful mature setting with collector and rare selections. I can't imagine designing something as majestic - but I can try!

Here's a few more photos, I'm hopeful people enjoy them(but this isn't required! :)

Pots, extending the garden onto the deck.

My simply, but effective paths. Seperating shade from sun gardens.

This grass is endangered! It takes too much water/pesticide/fertilizer/work, and it surely is holding back my collecting habit!

-Will

I also plant too close knowing in time some can be moved or culled. At this stage in my life I enjoy each day as it is and my gardens reflect that thought. Time and money is my only regret and that could be what luxury in the garden requires.

That's quite an impressive collection. I see it and think 'now here's someone who's almost as crazy as I am'. As for the layout well that's always subject to change. Old man winter has done quite a bit of editing in my garden lately.

Thanks for sharing such lovely pictures of your garden. I believe gardens are "works in progress" and I love the experimentation of it all. Hope you keep posting as your garden grows.

Fantastic collection, Will.
I'm always stoked to see your pics (and Mike's, of course).
I love layers, textures, moundings, rocks, various compositions.
I'm in a drier zone than you guys, but I do my best to crowd my conifers
with skirts of native fern. This time of year, my beds are a mess of Bleeding Hearts
and Forget Me Nots....with Daisies and Foxgloves on the way.

Josh

Will, you're supercharged!
I wish I had the Internet when I started ornamental gardening. I also wished I had the money to buy what I wanted. I also wished I had kept better track of the names of the plants I acquired over the years.
....... And time. Nobody has enough time.
Mike

-Will

Will, do you participate in any open garden days? I bet a lot of people would enjoy seeing your garden!

I joined the Hardy Plant Society last year, and have so enjoyed visiting HPSO member gardens this year.

Will, the garden looks great, and I don't think I have seen anything quite like that before. Also, Bboy is just trying to give you very good advice, he is not trying to belittle you in any way. I can see his point, and I think in five or ten years you will see it too.

Again, fantastic looking conifer collection, and I really love all the colors and textures. Thanks for the wonderful pics.