10 Most distinct conifers

15 years ago

As a collector/enthusiast of conifers I am struck by how many conifers appear rather 'ordinary' or similar to eachother, especially of course in the highly cloned Picea abies species. This tendency seems to only emphasize the very unique quality of a number of conifers I've encountered or seen pictures of. Here's my list of ten collector conifers(in no particular order) I consider to have a lot of 'character':

1. Abies pinsanpo 'Horstmann Nana'. Stiff, blue-green needles radiate around similarly stiff branches. Mine seems to grow about 4" a year. It's a pretty unique look.

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2. Picea orientalis 'Nutans'. Small dark green needles on a medium-fast growing irregular upright. The branches seem to do what they want, with some order but a lot of chaos. My specimen is young, but already showing some interesting character.

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Bob Fincham has this fantastic specimen in his garden at Coenosiums. Looks like something out of a Dr. Suess book. Picture use with permission.

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3. Picea abies 'Gold Drift'. A most unique cultivar. The growth habit is very similar to Picea abies 'Pendula' with weeping, spreading branches. Staked for height or let ramble down over a bank or rocks, the difference is that this cultivar colors gold where the sun hits. The color stays for much of the year.

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4. Abies koreana 'Gait'. A very heavy coning upright dwarf. According to text, it begins heavily coning at about 10 years of age. The images(from Coenosiums website) do the rest of the talking.

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5. Picea pungens 'Pendula'. A fairly rare and most unusual conifer, it shares the same bright silver/blue needles of the 'Glauca' subspecies, but has to be staked for height. This fantastic image and specimen is in Dave(dcsteg)'s garden. As with all 'staked' weepers, I find it most interesting in that each specimen is essentially one-of-a-kind since they are trained differently. I believe this fantastic image and specimen is in Dave(dcsteg)'s garden.

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6. Larix kaempferi 'Wolterdingen'. A dwarf conifer, growing wider then tall, it has three distinct colors during the year, spring green, turquiose blue and then hues of gold/white/orange in fall. This picture probably doesn't do it justice but it's the best I could find in my files.

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7. Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca Pendula'. Couldn't make this list without including this amazing cultivar. Although common enough that it is probably in your neighborhood Lowe's, this sweeping, curving, trainable cedar throws down pendulous ice-blue branches however it is trained. One member on these boards described it as a conifer after an ice storm and I find that description perfect. Photo from 'Serendipity nursery.

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8. Abies concolor 'Candicans'. I don't have this cultivar myself(yet!), but many feel it is the brightest silver/blue of all conifers. In the sun, the color can appear closer to white at the tips. Blinding. Standard upright growth with perhaps a wider base. Image from Rich's Foxwillow garden.

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9. Chamaecyparis nootkatensis 'Van den Aker' & 'Green Arrow'. Basically any conifer collector(and really any garden) should have one of these super narrow, upright weeping conifers. Twenty foot specimens can be as thin as one foot and it's graceful, slightly tilted silhouette graces any skyline. Picture copy/pasted from Bluespruce's fantastic images from Foxhollow.

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10. Picea abies 'Witchel'. An astonishingly slow growing conifer, a must for the miniature collector. I believe this specimen is between ten and fifteen years old. Seldom seen for sale and very difficult to grow, this conifer is reported to grow at around 1/8th of an inch a year or less.

Bob Fincham described it as a 'moss covered rock'. image from Coenosiums.

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Feel free to add some of your own! It's winter and all we can do is dream of Spring and share some photos.

Will

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Comments (20)

sprucebud
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you for sharing those. Here are some interesting ones from the point of view of colour and cones!
Picea pungens Maigold
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And another of the same plant
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Picea pungens Hermann Naue
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Picea abies Acrocona Pusch
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pineresin
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The ten most botanically distinct conifers, approximately:

1 Sciadopitys
2 Cunninghamia
3 Taiwania
4 Wollemia
~5= Cathaya
~5= Saxegothaea
~5= Parasitaxus
~5= Microcachrys
~5= Microstrobos
~5= Austrotaxus

Resin
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firefightergardener
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Yeah. There are some very distinct conifer Genus that I didn't mention because they are so uncommon they aren't even available for consumers.

Should have titled it 'most distinct mainstream conifers' ie. spruce, pines, firs, cypress, etc.
redwingconifer
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Sciadopitys are available from a number of places. I picked a couple up from Coenosium this fall and Bethlehem Nursery has a very extensive selection. Link has a photo from Bethlehem.

Here is a link that might be useful: S.v. 'Green Parasol'
Embothrium
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
'Horstmann's Nana' is a synonym of 'Horstmann'. Picea abies 'Pendula' may be synonym of 'Glauca Pendula'. There is no 'Pendula' Colorado spruce with a fully documented history. Perhaps the one shown here is the plant put out under than name by Iseli starting around 1978.
gardener365
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Cedrus deodara 'Aurea' (p.s. try to make your photos smaller, please). From The Gotelli Collection at the US National Arb. Photo taken in late May:
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Picea smithiana - US National Arb.
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Araucaria araucana - no photo

Pinus bungeana - US National Arb.
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Picea omorika 'Pendula Bruns' (Bickelhaupt, Clinton, IA August)
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Tsuga canadensis 'Betsy Rose' - Garden of Chub Harper, IL
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Sciadopitys verticillata 'Wintergreen' - Chub Harper
Because it can be grown in Illinois zone 5.
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Pinus contorta 'Taylor's Sunburst' - Chub Harper
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Abies koreana 'Silberlocke' - Bickelhaupt March
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A hundred more. Good choices firefighter.

Dax
gardener365
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Change that to 'Betty Rose' Tsuga canadensis.
I now see Sprucebud added a bunch. Excellent choices. That 'Herman Naue' is on the extra tight list.

Later,

Dax
Embothrium
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
That was, of course supposed to be Picea pungens 'Pendula'.
mrgpag SW OH Z5/6
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I would like to add Picea abies 'Pendula' seen here at Yew Dell Gardens several years ago
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stevemy
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I'm partial to pines, mostly because they do better in my region of the US. In no particular order here's some of my favorite that I have in the ground. They all have elements that set them apart IMO.

Pinus strobus 'Winter Gold'
Pinus strobus Gold Painted
Picea orientalis 'Tom Thumb'
Pinus densiflora 'oculis draconis'
picea sitchensis 'papoose' {{gwi:630333}}From the Garden Years
{{gwi:630334}}From the Garden Years
{{gwi:630335}}From the Garden Years
{{gwi:630336}}From the Garden Years
{{gwi:630337}}From the Garden Years

Here is a link that might be useful: My Blog
spruceman
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I love the P.orientalis 'Nutans.' But how a small tree looks is not a really good guide to what kind of tree it will be in 30 years. I have seen some older ones, and I love them, but they do not look so irregular or chaotic. As they grow larger, the individual irregularities of their "noddings" tend to merge into a very graceful, though still, though less prominently, irregular weeping habit.

But, in sum, I can't think of any conifer more attractive for my tastes, than a "grown up 'nutans.' Gorgeous!

--Spruce
Embothrium
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
As P. pungens 'Pendula' may perhaps be P. abies 'Pendula' is a loose term with no specific application. The cultivar usually provided under the name in general commerce is P. abies 'Reflexa'.
Embothrium
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
As P. pungens 'Pendula' may perhaps be as well P. abies 'Pendula' is...
firefightergardener
Original Author
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
"Picea abies 'Pendula' may be synonym of 'Glauca Pendula'. There is no 'Pendula' Colorado spruce with a fully documented history. Perhaps the one shown here is the plant put out under than name by Iseli starting around 1978."

So there is no Picea pungens 'Pendula'? People just have blue-colored Picea abies 'Reflexa' or 'Pendula'?

I know the two species are sometimes confused as in the Picea pungens 'Mrs. Cesarrini' debate. I own the plant and it really looks more like a Picea abies then Picea pungens.
dcsteg
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The one in the back ground that is also a weeper is Picea abies 'Reflexa'.

The Picea p.'Pendula' was purchased with the Iseli tag on it in 1998. It's an Iseli introduction.

Some facts from Bob Finchamn: He calls it Picea pungens Glauca Pendula A tree that meanders its way upward with the leader often knuckling back over. Its blue foliage and the drooping branches make this plant a natural for the informal landscape. Unfortunately this plant can be very hard to find as it takes many years to develop a mature outline, and most nurseries wont take the time to develop such a plant.

Dave
Embothrium
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Apparently my attempt at clarification was not completely successful. What I was saying was the two names could be similar in the respect of not referring to any single clearly defined and documented cultivar.

Plants being sold as Picea pungens 'Pendula' in North America dates back to 1915 or earlier. The selling of stock under this name by Iseli around 1978 marks the beginning of large-scale production, not the introduction of the name to commerce.

If that is what he thinks then Bob is not alone in thinking 'Pendula' is a synomyn of 'Glauca Pendula'; it's probably pretty safe to adopt that view as correct and call such plants 'Glauca Pendula' instead of 'Pendula'.

He shows and discusses 'Glauca Pendula' on his web site:

Here is a link that might be useful: DWARF COLORADO SPRUCES
midtn
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hey Dax,

Thanks for posting the National Arboretum and Chub Harper photos. I've been to both and enjoy seeing the pics. That Cedrus deodara 'Aurea' is sweet. I was there at the right time and saw it just after it had pushed new growth.

Jeff
tunilla
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hi.Agree about Cedrus deodara 'Aurea'.Would it be sensitive to late spring frosts? T.
gardener365
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Hi Tunilla,

I don't think so. It's a zone 6 plant. I know you live on top of a mountain so it will be colder but general experience with the rest of your conifers/plants should give you an idea of what is tolerable and what isn't.

"Deodar is tolerant of dry sites and is very hardy, although the needles may be damaged at the tips in some winters. Zone 6"
['Conifers' by Keith Rushforth, pg. 95 (1987)]

Dax
tunilla
15 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks Dax. By the way...I'm told that C. deodara 'Vink's Golden' is now considered a superior selection.Any comments? T.

10 Most distinct conifers

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