what size???

what budget per tree????

windbreaks ... by definition are soil conservation ... i just got my mailer from the county soil conservation district... cheap and small ... google your county plus soil cons district ...

also check out musser forests for bulk smaller stuff ...

for GGiants... check out botany shop ...

google all ...

in my experience ... wayside has a beautiful catalog... but their stock is tiny for the price ..

once you have the order made.. come back for how to do it ... include info like zone .. soil ... and any other pertinent facts ...

good luck

ken

size- i would like 3-5 ft for now. budget wise-just being competitive in price is good enough-I know shipping costs and such do add up though. I figured the more you buy the more you can save on that. I did google some stuff but I have no experience with many of the places- and basically don't know anything about there reputation. i was hoping someone here has had a similar positive experience with such a site and similar trees that they could share with me.

If you're looking for large plants (3-5ft). I would suggest going to a local nursery and try to get them to add your plants to a spring order.

I'm not sure where your at but most nurseries shouldn't have a problem getting Norway spruce in the spring. IMO, mail order is great for smaller plant stock or rare plants.

There are lots of nurseries that sell NS--and other tree--seedlings. It may depend on where you are--it is good to get NS seedlings from a nursery that uses a seed source that is in a climate similar to your own. I have bought from Musser Forests (seed source a central PA grove), Vans Pines (seed source a southern Michigan grove), and Carino Nurseries (seed source PA and/or Austria). All three of these produce good seedlings and I have had something like a 98% survival rate. All of these places offer 2 and 3 year seedlings, and various sizes of larger transplants. Generally they are sold in amounts of 50 or more, but some of these places offer "homeowner specials." And, I think, Musser has begun to sell from a "Retail" catalogue where smaller numbers are the norm.

--Spruce

not sure if they sell seedlings are around here ( SE MA) I would have to check around. I know one nursery I dealt with imported alot of stock from oregon ( blue spruce etc). probably why I haven't had much luck with them yet? makes sense to check in early on maybe to put in an order, thanks for the advice
thetman

Best deal on the net:
Treehaven Evergreen Nursery. Call the guy.

Dax

the soil conservation district is a FEDERAL PROGRAM ...

the thought the MA is not using federal monies is beyond me.. lol

ken

I would mix in some Serbian and Oriental Spruce for variety and fun. If you want 3 to 5 foot Norway Spruce for cheap, you are going to have to make some sort of quanity deal with a local nursery/landscaper.

You could fill in the spaces of small trees with Miscanthus Grass (grows 5-7 feet high) while the trees grow.

Avoid Wayside! They will rip you off in every way possible... small poor quality, vastly overpriced shipping, and they will charge your credit card first and then send you unwanted unreturnable "substitutions" months later! Scammers!

(http://www.evergreenplantnursery.com) has nice cheap small trees, but they are 2 foot. Shipping is low.

I would like to mix it up with different stuff- I mentioned norway spruce mostly because from what I have read it seems to to do well with growth rate, disease, strength etc. I will have to check out serbian and oriental- not very familar with them. I know personally I have had mixed results with blue spruce. It could be a number of reasons why- but the larger ones I planet (8ft.) have been iffy at best. It seems the smaller bakeri I planet are still doing well. Thanks for the heads up on wayside- I only purchase two smaller steeplechase's last may- so far they are both alive -we'll see in the spring! I do want to layer the look of the trees- basically its 300x 50ft to 25ft area i want to cover. i have had good luck with skyrocket junipers so far and plan to use some green giants as well in the narrower parts.
thetman

Sounds like you're well on your way, plan-wise. You may already know this, but if you do groupings of each tree type you end up going with, the aesthetic results can be better than say, mixing the species in a specific pattern.

Seems like for the size plants you want, the idea of going with placing an order with a local firm would be best, though I do like Botany Shops Green Giants. They will grow fast enough that the size this outfit will ship will work well in your plan.

+oM

Thetman:

The idea of a mixed planting is a good one, but it is much more complicated. Certain kinds of trees grow well with others, some others are not compatible. For example, I don't think putting Norway spruce and green giants together is a good idea, because the NS are much more spreading, and if they encroach on the green giants, the effect does not really look good. But NS and white pine go together much better, although the white pine, if you get very small trees, start faster.

Oriental spruce is one of my favorite trees--much finer and usually denser foliage than NS, but they grow more slowly than NS or white pine. So, I would not plant oriental spruce any closer than 30 feet from a Norway spruce or white pine. One difficulty, one that I think is really a tragedy, Oriental spruce can be hard to find. Serbian spruce can also be a bit hard to find, and on most sites, Serbian spruce is also slower than NS.

Well, all kinds of tree combinations raise different issues of compatibility. When you plant you need to think about how things will look after 30 years of growth, and which trees may be crowded too much by others. If you can refine your ideas a bit more and get back to us, maybe we can give more help.

Tom's idea of groupings makes things much simpler, or you could plant taller, faster growing trees behind, slower and smaller ones in front with the proper spacing between. Maybe an idea would to put narrrower ones is front. Another possibility is some hardwood treees for color against the evergreens.

Anyway, you have a nice sized area to work with and gives you lots of flexibility

--Spruce

great ideas guys thanks. I will try to come up with some sort of drawing for this. As for the green giants I would probably keep them in an area closer to the home and shed and then develop into the larger norways and such further away. Again thanks for the input- welcome to any suggestions or advice.
thetman

I'm not planting a distance but rather mixed specimens throughout six acres. I'm using:
Oriental Spruce
Serbian Spruce
Korean Fir.

All from Treehaven. Approximately 36 dollar is necessary per group. The large seedlings are about 1.39 each. Big & Bulky.

Call the guy, he has everything, when you're ready.

Dax

Dax...then where will the corn be planted?

treehaven- I will check it out. one thing is that i was apprehensive in planting too small-due to the abundant deer and rabbit population in my area, I'm afraid they would nibble them to nothing once they started budding up for growth. I could be wrong about this.I know they will eat pratcially anything when really hungry but I didn't want to tempt them further with some nice supple little ones.
thetman

Sorry I'm late on this post but I think Serbian spruce and Norway spruce look great together. We have several of each growing at the edge of our property line, and there's no problem so far with them co-existing. They are roughly 20-25 feet tall at this point. The NS are growing slightly faster but the SS are a very nice compliment to them. Just leave quite a bit of space since the NS will grow much wider than the SS.

HTH,

Dave

just curious how far apart did you plant the norways and serbians?
thetman

Ours are planted in a semi-random pattern, not evenly spaced, for a more 'natural' look but I believe the spacing between most trees is about 20 to 25 feet. They are not touching yet but in a few years they will. NS can get quite wide! SS is much narrower from what I've seen.

Dave

Aha Barbara, I did something right accidentally and left in front of my home what I thought was going to be a sledding area that didn't pan out as well as another hill... I'm in business.

thetman, I'd space Norways 25 feet apart and Serbians 12 foot on centers. That outta be perfect for you. So if you plant a Norway leave a distance of 18 feet to a Serbian (1/2 of 1/2 equals the sum of both on center).

Dax

I've been organizing my bookmarks:
Here's a great link:
Scroll to Sec. B for conifers
As I was thinking today, you could space them closer. I would. Instead of 25 feet, go 20 and instead of 10-12 as I suggested, go 8-10.

Dax

Here is a link that might be useful: Woody Plant Height and Width

thanks for the information guys and the link-I know its hard to fight the urge to plant closer together since they are so small when you plant them. But from what I've been reading the norway tend to take off a pretty decent growth rate. I wanted to go outside and get some exact measurements of the area but right now its like 10 degrees out -lots of ice and snow in the area so we'll see. c'mon spring!
thetman