My 'Blue Swede' were transplanted several times due to my house building and installation of ground heat pump. And after the great flood 2010th, looked just the dead. Then I cut him a bit and tied up some branches, because he's all sunk in the mud. Now they successfully covered the ugly bio severage overlay and feeling happy:). But I lost only 2 conifers - big Chamaecyparis lawsoniana and Juniperus squamata Blue Carpet. Here are some pictures of what my conifers had to endure... All garden was dug up - And then on spring our river overflowed - And here was my "kindergarten" Ireena

Hi Blue Yew Maybe it's these new hybrids generating seed. It kinda makes sense right now. Callitropis vietnamenis is what sprung up a lot of this or was one of the first things to cross my mind in regards to where this conversation might have headed. Now I see on Google that's how DPL listed this discovery whereas Farjon clips it as Cupressus vietnamensis. I'll be interested to hear more. It's already evident though that how we all classify things in current fluct are ...interpretative. Hi Pinetree, I've given up on Xanthocyparis... it's probably going to be like this 'new' Hesperocyparis. Never even heard of "Hesperocyparis." This is getting ugly. This is a list I saved Resin wrote (2007): Chamaecyparis. Asia, North America; cones mature in 6-8 months. Chamaecyparis formosensis - Formosan Cypress Chamaecyparis lawsoniana - Lawson's Cypress Chamaecyparis obtusa - Hinoki Cypress Chamaecyparis pisifera - Sawara Cypress Chamaecyparis taiwanensis - Taiwan Cypress Chamaecyparis thyoides - White Cypress Callitropsis - may be better regarded as a synonym of Cupressus, at least for the time being pending further DNA tests. North America, one in Vietnam; cones mature in 18-25 months (selected examples only): Cupressus arizonica (syn. Callitropsis arizonica) - Arizona Cypress Cupressus bakeri (syn. Callitropsis bakeri) - Modoc Cypress Cupressus glabra (syn. Callitropsis glabra) - Smooth Arizona Cypress Cupressus lusitanica (syn. Callitropsis lusitanica) - Mexican Cypress Cupressus macnabiana (syn. Callitropsis macnabiana) - MacNab Cypress Cupressus macrocarpa (syn. Callitropsis macrocarpa) - Monterey Cypress Cupressus nootkatensis (syn. Callitropsis nootkatensis) - Nootka Cypress Cupressus sargentii (syn. Callitropsis sargentii) - Sargent's Cypress Cupressus vietnamensis (syn. Callitropsis vietnamensis) - Vietnamese Cypress Cupressus, in the restricted sense. Eurasia, North Africa; cones mature in 18-20 months (selected examples only): Cupressus atlantica - Moroccan Cypress Cupressus cashmeriana - Bhutan Cypress Cupressus dupreziana - Saharan Cypress Cupressus funebris - Chinese Cypress Cupressus sempervirens - Mediterranean Cypress Cupressus torulosa - West Himalayan Cypress Sources: Gadek, P. A., Alpers, D. L., Heslewood, M. M., & Quinn, C. J. (2000). Relationships within Cupressaceae sensu lato. A combined morphological and molecular approach. American Journal of Botany 87: 1044-1057. Little, D. P., Schwarzbach, A., Adams, R. P., & Hsieh, C.-F. (2004). The Circumscription and Phylogenetic Relationship of Callitopsis and the Newly Described Genus Xanthocyparis (Cupressaceae) American Journal of Botany 91: 1872-1881. Xiang, Q. & Li, J. (2005). Derivation of Xanthocyparis and Juniperus from within Cupressus: Evidence from Sequences of nrDNA Internal Transcribed Spacer Region. Harvard Papers in Botany 9: 375-382. Little, D. P. (2006). Evolution and Circumscription of the True Cypresses (Cupressaceae : Cupressus). Systematic Botany 31: 461-480. Seems I'm using DPL "Callitropsis" placement for vietnamensis. It was just an internet article I read quite a while back. A little photo on a mountainside accompanied it. Dax

Thanks to both of you for the answers. The pictures were lovely! I do like your garden look. You replied even if you have large spruces with ground covers around it, it wont harm neither. The ground cover may try to crawl under the spruces, but it won't matter. Thanks for that statement. That is what my main concern was so now I feel better. What about something like a sea green juniper planted near a Colorado blue spruce? I don't know why but I thought I heard if you have a Colorado blue spruce and let low lying shrubs etc grow into them that the Colorado blue spruce tree quits growing where it touches the other shrub hedge etc. Do I need to be concerned about that? Can various evergreen shrubs of various sizes be planted in the bed with the Colorado blue spruce trees? And yes they will no doubt in time grown together. Is this all bad? Or do you remove the evergreen shrubs as the trees and the shrubs get larger and closer together? Thanks again!

Juniperus chinensis 'Old Gold' ==<>>> they have a middle name for a reason ... use it ... your boys are sclorprum ... or however it is spelled above ... the whole story above repeats here.. but to be clear ... all my Junip. s. are gone ... i have a whole slew of other junipers.. that have never had tip blight ... its endemic to J. s. 's ... not all juniper ... clearer??? [barely.. but i am not retyping it.. lol] confers are trees... the NEVER stop growing ... almost all size estimates are at 10 years .. presume double at 20 ... ones like OGold... can easily be contained.. by cutting them back .. not a hair cut.. but cutting back sprays that get out of bounds ... come back in ten years.. and see if i am still here.. lol ... you can do a lot better than bigboxstore ... when it come to slower growing.. and smaller mature sizes ... browse thru this link .. to see a world you might not have seen before ... http://www.coniferkingdom.com/ ken