About the only thing that I can think of (and it's aestetic not for screening) would be a Yew such as: Taxus x media 'Beanpole' or Taxus x media 'Flushing'. I think 'Flushing' will give you the most "screening" but you'll need to plant it fairly close to your shed: It basically should be planted 1 meter away. You 'know' you planted a tree that given time will fit that spot perfectly, in relation to the shed. What you're looking to do now is plant something that ultimately is going to crowd walking space between your shed and eventually your Serviceberry. That includes mowing. The positive aspect of a Yew is you can prune them any which way you want to, including down to bare-inner-wood and they will form new foliage. If it ever came to be that the cultivar 'Flushing' was 5 meters tall and one meter wide and you wanted to cut it down to 1 meter tall, you wouldn't do any damage to it. For me, your plan should've included an evergreen screen behind the serviceberry and the serviceberry being brought forward to give it room away from the screen. If you were to move the servicebery (now or anytime the ground is workable) that seems to be the common sense route and gives you the opportunity to do the job, correctly. Then you could plant, i.e., going from the shed to the left in the photo: (3) Thuja occidentalis 'Hetz Wintergreen' in a straight line and then begin to make an arc with a Picea glauca 'Pendula' then a Picea pungens 'Iseli Fastigiata' aka 'Fastigiata'. That's my opinion, anyways... Hetz Wintergreen first one 1 meter from your shed then on center every 1.5 meter. Picea glauca 'Pendula' 2.5 meters from 'Hetz Wintergreen' Picea pungens 'Iseli Fastigiata' 3.5-4.0 meters from P.g. 'Pendula' This for a screen. You can make adjustments with the two spruces if you want to give them room not to touch. Dax

This is a question I have asked over the years and the answer I got more or less each time was yes. Depending on how large a specimen you wanted, and depending on how large a pot you had, you could have pretty much anything you wanted in a pot. Three keys: **Proper soil in the pot. It must drain FAST. It would also benefit it to have occasional nutrients added. There are a number of ways to do this. **Super cold protection. Since the roots are more exposed to the air temperature in a pot(even a big one), they need to be protected from extreme hot and cold weather. This may be an issue for you in 5b. It's not for me in 7b. Frequent watering. Since a pot-bound plant cannot 'search' for water over a large area(in the ground), it will need more frequent watering then the same plant in the ground. During hot stretches, I have been watering my potted conifers about 2-3 times a week. So far, all of my plants are relatively small and in huge pots compared to their current size. I have a couple '100 gallon' pots with very large upright conifers in them that I am hopeful will be OK for about 10-15 years. After that I'm sure I'll have to plant them in the ground(that's going to be fun to move then - yikes!). A dwarf conifer would be easy to pot. Also keep in mind the price for conifers is cheap compared to how long you'll enjoy them. Why spend $20 on a movie you might not like and maybe won't remember in five years if you won't spend $20 on a neat conifer that will only add character and be fun to watch grow over your lifetime. Picea pungens 'St. Mary' would be a good one in a 10-20 gallon pot. Hope that helps! Will

TJ, yeah the "bad crotch" would be a big concern down the road for me too. It will literally be a narrow V shape that grows into itself. Right now the Norway seems to be the lead, dominant, and straight trunk, and the columnar blue spruce is kind of growing out of it off to the side at an angle that is also almost straight up. Below is a closeup photo of the graft. The trunk on the right is right is the Picea pungens f. glauca 'Fastigata' (Columnar Blue Spruce). The Trunk on the left is the Picea Abies (Norway Spruce). At least that is what the consensus seems to be on what the root stock for this graft is. So, knowing that one is going to be removed, and that one is likely to be the columnar blue spruce, when would be the best time to do this? Also, given this is not a standard branch prune, anyone know about how close to the trunk I should cut it off? I was thinking of leaving about 1/2". Thanks for all the help!

I'm guessing that 'Iseli Fastigiate' and 'Fastigiata' are the similar clones with this 'Blue Totems' being the oddball of the three. Dave's tree has noticabily longer needles in my opinion which appear to be spaced further apart... and are a steely-blue. This book I have, 'List of Conifer Names' (Erhardt 2006) lists only 'Fastigiata' and 'Iseli Fastigiate'. It states: 'Fastigiata' - Hort. CDN 1987 (CDN = Canada) (Hort = from horticultural cultivation, without circumscribing author/breeder) 'Iseli Fastigiate' Iseli Nurs 1963 The website furthermore for Well's Nursery lists Dave's Plant as: 1975 Picea pungens fastigiata Wells 'Blue Totem' Spruce Colorado Blue Totem So Well's has their own introduction. Then, Jacobson 'North American Landscape Trees' lists: 'Fastigiata' as Canadian Intro and further states that it appeared in '1993-93 Buchholz & Buchholz Nursery, Gaston, OR'. 'Iseli Fastigiate' 1963 by Jean Iseli and in production later. So it seems we have three different columnar blue spruces. Dax