My parents live in ABQ. I have been gifting them conifers from High Country Gardens for several years. P. ponderosa and P. edulis are doing well in full sun. Abies concolor is doing ok in semi shade conditions. They lost P. aristata twice. All are/were grafted dwarf cultivars. This year they are getting a Picea pungens which I am pretty confident will do ok. My dad is consistent with watering, but I dont think he fertilizes. When i have visited and walked the neighborhood (NE heights) I have seen species of the above (except aristata) looking healthy. Others looking healthy are blue atlas cedar and Japanese black pine (P. thunbergii) and Picea abies. I don't think P. nigra looked healthy but I might not be remembering correctly on that. Conifers continue to grow and the tags are usually 10 year estimations. They will be about half as big at 5 years and twice as big at 20 years. VDW is taller than wide. For the sizes you mention, I'd focus on dwarfs from one of the species that seem healthy in your neighborhood. Keith

looks like St Mary Broom to me ... do you understand what DWARF means??? if a momma Picea pungens grows 8 to 12 inches per year ... a dwarf version of her.. grows less.. say 3 to 6 inches... if you look at the pic... but w/o a scale.. looks to me.. that the branch ends.. grew about 4 to 5 inches last year .. so yes.. its a dwarf .. of course.. the standard actually answers the question.. since you wouldnt put a robust version on top of it ... when you get into dwarf Picea Pungens... blue spruce.. they are a dime a dozen.. and you might be hard pressed to actually name the particular cultivar ... maybe joy can ... most of us guess ... ken

what are the best dwarf conifers, and what should I avoid? ==>> wow .. thats a wide open question ... you should avoid zone pushing.. until you have enough experience to deal with such ... and you should avoid anything that will die.. lol.. if only we knew that in advance ... i dont know if i linked you before to the intro to conifers... see below ... pay particular attention to the annual growth rate info ... and then whittle down your question.. in new posts.. to something like 5 bulletproof MINIs .. one in each color group .. a pine .. a picea gluca.. a picea pungens.. maybe an abies ... etc ... then in another post ... 5 dwarfs ... dwarves?? ... etc ... now.. a. kor ... i can do them in MI ... dave in KC .. i THINK.. cant do them.. and its about NIGHT heat and humidity ... day heat is irrelevant ... as its hot as hell in my garden.. [mind you.. not right now.. brrr.. lol] .. and if i recall my geography ... w/o looking.. you are probably somewhere between us.. latitude wise .. so i dont know what to tell you.. other than to repeat what i think i have said before ... find some local labeled arboretums.. and go see if they grow them ... also.. if you join the ACSoc ... you will get a member directory ... many collectors.. would enjoy a phone call ... and offer an invite to their gardens... [though many just like the conifer quarterly, and dont necessarily have a collection.. per se] ... and you mentioned 8 hour drive .. in that other post... man there are a lot of places to shop.. within that driving range.. lol ... i hope dave chimes in to correct me.. if i am wrong on the a. kor. ... finally ... clay is ONLY a 'planting issue' ... i have conifer friends in cleveland.. who has the worst clay soil i have ever seen ... and he can deal with it.. so can you.. its all about planting 'high' ... and berming a good soil ... its more about the transplant.. and giving the tree time to adjust with the drainage .. rather than ONLY certain trees can cope with such.. i am sure.. you have trees everywhere in your area ... and they grew naturally ... in your clay.. and cope well ... and they live hundreds of years ... again.. to come full circle.. most were not interfered with by transplant ... and as for the area that retains water ... design a bog.. that is not a tree area ... or.. many years down the line in your learning curve ... a more precise post.. will get you more precise info.. ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

Thanks a whole lot for the helpful replies! The only suggestion I got from a local nursery was a dwarf Alberta Spruce, but on further research it seems it probably won't do well here in the long term, as it looks like it requires colder winters. Is that correct? This tree will mostly stay in the patio. I will just bring it inside for a couple of days on Christmas. I have a very inquisitive and adventurous one year old, who is likely to hurt himself (and the tree) during one of his "explorations." Plus, as Ken pointed out, conifers are unlikely to do well as houseplants anyway... I also really liked the suggestions for Yew, hemlock, Norfolk Island pine and Monterey Cypress as well. (Calothamnus seems like it will require full sun, which I don't have. And I want to avoid anything too spiky, so I'd want to avoid Bunya bunya - thanks for the generous offer though!) Now I need to find out where to get one of these locally. I'm thinking Yew should be available in any local nursery. I'd ideally like to see a Norfolk Island pine too, because its form/shape is what my 3 year old would most likely to be excited about for a Christmas tree, and it seems they do well in overall warmer climates? I think I'll go and look around at a nursery today and see what they offer. Shastensis, if you are around the Bay area, could you also suggest some good local nurseries? Thank you, all, for the input. This newbie really appreciates your guidance and any further comments will be most appreciated as well.