Picea crassifolia Qinghai spruce - yes, worth a try.
P. jezoensis Jezo spruce - forget it, too hot for it (subsp. hondoensis from honshu might be OK but likes plenty of rain).
P. koyamai Japanese spruce - worth a try.
P. likiangensis Likiang spruce - forget it, too hot for it in summer, too cold in winter. Related P. balfouriana and P. purpurea are worth a try.
P. meyeri Meyer spruce - well worth a try, should do well.
P. retroflexa Chinese spruce (P.asperata related? - yes, syn. of it)
P. schrenkiana Tianshan spruce - well worth a try, should do well.
P. gemmata Tapaoshan spruce - synonym of P. asperata.
P. pseudowilsonii - does not exist!
P. wilsonii - well worth a try, should do well.
P. engelmannii - won't like the summer heat, but might succeed while still fairly young.

Resin

You'd be moving out from the proven ornamental favorites in order to have something different. Many of these may look scruffy next to the nursery standards. Chances are the visual interest will instead come from details of the buds, leaves and strobili.

are any of them available in commerce... or is he going to have to start from seed???

is seed available ...???

ken

Meyer Spruce has been recommended as a worthy substitute for P. Pungens, especially in the eastern US where humidity causes problems. I've yet to see it offered at retail, but sounds promising. I did see one in a garden this past summer and color was more like the conventional green Colorado Spruce. Around here, P. pungens look good for about twenty years before problems set in.

Spruce,

I planted Picea crassifolia and wilsonii in spring, so far so good. I just planted P. meyerii, asperata and schrenkiana. I have 6-8 4mo. old P. koyamae.
I also have tons of seeds of P. engelmannii from southern New Mexico previously considered as P. mexicana. I can send you some if you feel like starting them from seed.

osprey

Don't buy from Arrowhead. Their prices are ridiculously high and the plants are usually poor quality, not on their own roots (grafted) and often die upon arrival. I saw they are selling small seedlings of dawn redwood for 95 bucks each!!

You are better off buying seeds from B and T and growing your own.

Most of these on my list are available from Forest Farm. I got a few off the list at Arrowhead. Are they really that bad? What about Gee Farms--maybe they have some of these. I need to check. Other places?

I have not grown many conifers from seed. Once some Douglas fir, and another time some NS from a special source. Generally something I am not eager to do.

--Spruce

I have a 5 ft Meyeri. It looks just like a picea pungens but slower growing. Mine is a blue grey color. David

Last year was my first time ordering conifers through the mail. I received a gift certificate for Arrowhead for Christmas 2007 and went wild ordering. I spent the certificate and about $700 more than that. The plants arrived about two weeks earlier than they should have, which probably accounted for some losses (they were pushing new growth). More than half of my order died, altogether about $500 worth of plants. I will never order from them again. One was more or less dead on arrival, some died within a few weeks, some struggled and died a month or two later. Very, very disappointing. The company policy is pretty much "don't complain because we won't do anything about it anyway." One conifer had some nasty burrowing larvae that spread to another (probably during shipping) and I threw those two out. The root systems were terrible on my Arrowhead conifers, I didn't realize how bad they were until my orders arrived from other companies and I had a basis of comparison. Very expensive lesson learned. It was heartbreaking and yes, I admit it, I shed a few tears for some of the losses.

Yikes! I ordered a few things from Alpine last week.

Is there a list of SAFE mail order vendors???

Sorry to hear you lost so much IC. I agree, their stock is horrible and WAAAAAY overpriced. Just compare similar plants with other nurseries to see. I won't buy anything else from them either and I know friends that agree. It seems they try to have alot of variety, but don't grow anything well.

Next time you receive conifers that are flushing, keep them in your garage, turn on an above light and wait till your zone is ready to plant. Very simple!
Sorry to hear about the root-systems. A seemingly uncomplicated issue that is always a problem with much of the nursery stock available. In these cases, it would be advisable that when the temps in your area are frost free, remove all the soil from suspected plants, untwist all the roots, snip them back and grow them on in either a temporary outdoor nursery bed for transplanting the following spring, or, up-pot them to a larger container and yes, wait a year.

There's always a solution! This being an excellent solution.

Dax

Dax, I have to respectfully disagree with you about solutions. When I sent in the order (through mail), I requested a week of deliver and specified "or later". I sent a letter through the mail as a follow-up. My entire order was in January with a requested week in the middle of May - big difference with when the order was sent. I did not receive any notice that the order was sent, so for all I know it sat on my porch and froze for a day or more (I don't go to that part of the house regularly unless I'm expecting a package). I kept everything on the back porch and nothing had a chance to freeze.

My solution is not to ever order again from Arrowhead - plain and simple. There are much better vendors around who have far superior customer service. There might not be one place with such an extensive list, but you know what, I'll take the "hassle" of piecing together what I want from several places over ordering again from Arrowhead ANY day. These were not cheap discount plants, the "cheapest" was $45 and there were several in the $100 range.

Looking at the Arrowhead website, who knows how long they will continue to be in business anyway. Not everyone has as bad an experience as I do, but just looking at the company's rating on Dave's Garden, I'm part of a large minority.

I concur..I have been growing plants for many years and know very well how to take care of plants after being shipped. I kept mine potted, in a greenhouse and under the best conditions possible. They were never stressed or exposed to the elements. They had clearly been poorly cared for and didn't survive the shipping/handling process.

I forgot what month it is and what zone you were. My bad. Plus I forgot to add that a friend here who does this I believe has a heated garage.

I was way wrong. . .

Dax

Not way wrong :)

I just get really touchy when I think about those plants and that company. Like I said, I don't think probably even half of the people that order from them have my experience. If my husband had not seen the package when we were driving to work one morning, it might have sat there even longer and then the whole order would have been lost. The gift certificate was from my FIL, who I don't particularly care for, so I used to allow myself to believe that it was jinxed to begin with! As I asked around, though, so many people have had the same experience as me.

My brother is getting married in Michigan next year - he and his fiancee live in NYC but her family is in Michigan and the wedding will be a lot less expensive up there. I'm excited about visiting all the plant nurseries up there!!!

Elizabeth