Hi Ken, I'll try to help you with some information about this conifer: You started correcly with saying "A nice little blue plant (at this time). It will become a tree in years which will have a yearly growth in hight of 40 till 50 cm. The habit of this plant is between both parents, it's like a blue needled Abies koreana with longer needles and a more narrow growth like Abies procera. Another name of this cros is Abies x procekor It doesn't need a sheltered place, it's a cross between 2 strong growing species. Here is a link that might be useful: Abies x procekor

Thanks for the reply Dax. Yes, hungry deer will eat anything, and any species of conifer is a possibility for browsing. Just a chance we all have to take I guess. BTW, I looked for a mail order source for a species Abies koreana but all I could find were either small bareroot stock or very expensive cultivars. Anyone know of a good mail order source? I doubt I'll be able to find any specimens at my local nurseries. Thanks! Dave

Dave, On a similar note, I've noticed more of a short-term preservation issue with the usage of Photobucket. Far be it from a periodic 'grazer' like me to tell regulars here how to post images, but seems lots of folks love Photobucket, and if you're going to spend the time uploading pictures, you might as well use something that is going to last and not disappear after 2 years or when your pictures take up too much bandwidth because it's a heavily viewed thread. It's always a shame to look back through some older posts and see the vast majority of pictures missing. This may have come up previously, but I've not seen it addressed. I've had good success with Picasa and Flickr, myself. Just food for thought, as I know it's a great deal of work to take these pictures, upload them, make a post, discuss, etc.... Steg

sounds like transplant damage .... lack of the ability to properly move water to the leaves/needles ... being evergreen the injury could have happened months ago .. or even last winter.. and didn't 'show' until the heat of summer caused significant dessication of the damaged needles.... here in Adrian MI, z5 pure sand .... last 6 weeks of drought 2 weeks of which were near 100 ... that's 'real hot' in Celsius ... silver show and silberloche are doing just peachy .. in full sun... pure sand .. and i moved the latter last fall ... i suspect.. or guess... once established.. as noted by others.. it should be able to take full sun ... make sure its properly watered for the remainder of the season ... right up through very late fall .... deep infrequent watering as compared to superficial watering .... see that the buds for next year looks good.. and keep up the faith ... they will probably do fine ... i cant tell you how many transplants .... have damage the first year or two after transplant.. BB and potted stock... doesnt matter ... probably near 75% .. one way or another they suffer until they get a good root mass growing .... its just the way it works with trees ..... lack of vigor... needle damage ... wind burn.. sun burn ... you name it.. it happens ... and 95% just keep chugging along with good watering practices .... good luck ken PS: compare this years growth to the previous two ... look at the leader growth .... usually pot grown stock is hyper fertilized.. and you can see it grew lets say 6 to 9 inches.. but the year or two after transplant... with out all the fert... it regresses to maybe 3 inches.. something less anyway .... then in a year or two .. it falls right back into its 'proper' ACS noted growth rate ... at that point IMHO... it is 'established' ... and almost all problems resolve.. or it dies.. LOL ....