Without a doubt one of the most beautiful gardens anywhere and always a pleasure to see new photos that I haven't seen before. Thanks.
Cher

You crack me up Edwin. Miss 'Universe'.

That's a beautiful, lol, 'Logan Pass'. ahh, so funny still. Sorry still cracking myself up!

That Blue Lou is pretty dang nice too.

Hope to see a lot more photos guys - albeit grafting time for Henk (and you).

Thanks,

Dax

Edwin, Thanks for the beautiful photos. Great garden and very special people. We are going to need some follow-up on the Miss Universe debate. Jay

i like mugo patches ...

the rock garden is awesome ... can you tell me what that plant is just off to the left sorta halfway to nowhere.. lol ...

is K.G. related some how to kary gee???

i thought henk took all the pix.. nice to see him for once ...

if you look into the pic of henk and bob.. i think you see mr yeti universe 2010 ...

its going to be a long wait until day 13 or so.. isnt it.. lol ...

thx for the pix ....

ken

Edwin, thanks for the wonderful pictures of your tour as well as your ongoing contributions to the forum. Did you guys ever come to a conclusion about the future of the conifer world? :)
Bill

The man and gardens who started it all for me. Bob is an amazing guy, knowledgable, generous, hospitable, friendly and even-keeled. So many visits and I still see things I've never seen before. So many great plants, I take something home almost every time. Great stuff Edwin/Henk!

-Will

If you would have stopped in WI you could have met Ms. USA!

Damn! A few more to add to the wishlist! Can someone please tell me when this is going to stop?

'K.G.' and 'Blue Lou' are nice specimens I haven't seen before.

whaas..

it will end when the wife and child leave you, after you fill all the garages and the house with potted conifers .. and have no lawn left ...

i though you announced.. with your xmas delivery.. that you had no more space..

whats the point of keeping a TO DIE FOR LIST???

ken

Awesome analysis Ken. Whaas this is hurting you, we understand. And I said to myself 'why graft anymore?' I don't have the room. What am I doing? Grafting. Ken, care to analyze?

Dax
P.s. I have this dilemma called 'space'. I won't plant anything that will touch something else in 50 years. Is this o.k.?

No more room for big boys, only dwarfs.

I have gotten to the point that I will be digging up plants and gifting them. Only the best (in my eyes) will prosper!

Will, sounds familiar! In twenty years, I'll be buying/trading for new plants each Spring. All true collectors do. Plants die, sometimes get ugly, sometimes they get too big and need to be culled. New opportunities arrive and this gives any collector a happy chance to plop down a special new plant. Happy hunting! :)

-Will

The saga continues! Thanks for the tour Edwin.

The Gold Drift looks fantastic flowing through the rocks!

Dax, I'm glad that I cracked you up with my comment to that pic.
A lot of people think that conifers are a serious thing which it is but I like to combinate it with some kind of humor :0)
I realy don't know what Bob and Henk ware talking about but the Miss Universe thing came up in my mind, I don't know why :0)
Like told before, conifers, girls, some food and beer, it's the most ideal situation were we can live in.
For the gals among us the situation will be a little bit differend.
I guess it will be conifers, boys, some food and wine :0)

Jay, good idea to follow up on the Miss Universe debate.
You may start, maybe some others will follow :0)
It will be off topic, but who cares?

Ken, the Pinus koraiensis 'K.G.' is named after 2 important women in Gary Gee's live.
Those are Kaye Gee (his wife) and Kary Gee (his daughter).
Naming it this way he can honour them both :0)
All pics seen here were taken by me, except the one's were you see me on, those were taken by Henk.
Most of the time I've only eyes for the conifers in the gardens and unfortunately I'll forget to take a picture of the owner...

Bill, In fact we came to one big conclusion when we finished our U.S.A. tour:
We are very proud that we met the top of the American conifer loving people and seeing their huge collections, but we're very afraid that most of these collections will be gone if the older generation isn't among us any more.
This will be a great loss in 2 ways, the loss of those fine people and the loss of their collections.
For the future it's very important to take care of both and to start with this right now...

Will (ffg) you're right about everything you mentioned about Bob, we've the same experiences :0)
He and Larry Stanley payed me a visit several years ago and my help to his new book "small Conifers for Small Gardens" was a great honour for me.

Will (whaas), the Pinus koraiensis 'K.G.' was named before as 'Gee Broom', may be you recognize that cultivar name?
To meet Miss U.S.A. in Wisconsin sounds great to me.
I did some research and you're right, it's worth the trip.
You don't have to worry that I'll forget to take pics of her, even when she's in your conifer garden :0)

Here is a link that might be useful: Miss USA 2012

Edwin, the loss of the older, wiser, conifer-loving generation will definitely be a great loss. That is why young fellows like me (now 18) need to step up and preserve the incredible collections they have started, and hopefully cultivate (no pun intended) an interest for conifers in other young people.
I was only 15 when I joined the forums here (as expressed in my user name: monkeytreeboy15), and I have always found plants, especially conifers, intensely interesting. I hope to some day be able to have my own collection of plants that is even half as magnificent as yours or Bob's or so many others on this forum.
I truly enjoy talking with fellow "cone-heads" because we all speak our own plant language, and thank you for sharing your photos from this trip. Perhaps next time I could tag along. ;0)

-Sam

First, I have to say Sam, you are amazing to be 18 and take such an interesting gardening. Kudos to you. You speak so well! Just think by starting so young you will hopefully have the opportunity to see your gardens develop into a very mature gardens of conifers.

Edwin, Thank you for sharing the photos and taking us on the tour with you and Henk. It is my greatest dream to visit Coenosium Gardens. I'm hoping some time within the next couple years for sure. Do you need to phone ahead? Or is it open to the general public?

Pinus mugo 'Patches' and Picea abies 'Gold Drift' are gorgeous. I definitely will be adding them to my want list. My favorite is the beautiful parviflora...but I know they do not do well up this far north so I will just have to enjoy photos.

What is the golden pinus looking plant in the middle lower portion of the photo labeled Part of the Rock Garden? It appears to have the look of a golden mugo. It is so lovely looking.

Thanks for sharing your photos.

Sam, I'm very happy that you're interested in conifers at such a young age.
I was also 18 years old when my interest in conifers started, so at this point we started in the same way.
But here's the problem you'll face one day: most of the U.S.A. famous conifer nurseriemen are over 55 years old and they're thinking about their retirement and doesn't have anybody who will follow up their businesses.
In the meanwhile there's not a second generation who started a conifer nursery in the way they did, so a big gap wil arise.
This big gap will be getting bigger now because some day their collections and knowledge will be gone and a lot of special and rare conifers are not longer propagated and will die out.
In other words, you're to late to save all this, you had to be born earlier.
That's the way how it is now and how it will gonna be...

If I were you, I had a good conversation with Bob soon and make plans to take over his business when he will retire.
Learn as much as you can from him, he can teach you all you need to know because he's also a good school teacher.
Doing all this then there's a chance for you to save the U.S. conifer world, otherwise it will be history about the conifer glory days which you can only reed back in books...

Lady, I think you can better call Bob if you want to pay a visit to his gardens.
I'm not sure if the yellow pine is a Pinus mugo, I think Bob can tell you if he wants to jump in.

I think it's Pinus contorta 'Frisian Gold' myself, but we'll need Bob to chime in since the photo is at such a distance and the plant is obscured a bit.

Great discussion here and I am happy to see Sam 'becoming of age' and still so furiously interested in conifers. I myself technically represent the younger generation and while I do plan on grafting some day on my own, I don't plan on having a business out of my gardens. Time will tell, though I have two or three nurseries already that are interested in acquiring grafts and plants from my gardens and many of my rare ones will certainly be saved over time.

Bob surely has a magnificient place, but he has done an amazing job of propogating, sharing and spreading his collection all over the country. While I am certain many of the very rare and almost unheard of plants from his place may be even harder to find once Bob stops propogating, 95% have been spread around and I am sure the great conifers in the US will live on well past the rest of us.

-Will

Will, that's the spirit I was hope for to read here!
Cooperation between you and Sam will be the key, only then there's a chance to continue the U.S. conifer assortment.
Indeed, time will tell...I wish you both all the luck you'll need!

If Bob was discussing Miss Universe, I'll bet Diane was in the running.;-) They are both genuinely nice folks.

Thank's for the update, Edwin.

tj

Seems really odd that you guys are starting to write off our friend Bob. I spent a good portion of the day at Coenosium Gardens today, collecting and grafting various spruce cultivars. He's showing no signs of slowing down at all. In fact, once he's retired from teaching school he'll have a lot more time on his hands to get into all sorts of mischief.

My best recommendation for our trusty band of hobbyists here is simply to assemble the best conifer collections possible, keep everything maintained and, most importantly, identified. To me, knowing the story behind the plant is just as important as its identity. As I work on my conifer database, I have places where I put the name of the originator and place of the plant's origin.

GW is a powerful tool. Let's use it as a means to trade plants, scion wood, you name it. The end result will only be a more complete assortment of conifers for the likes of Edwin and Henk to study. ;)

~Dave

I agree with Dave, I think there are enough hobbyists that are interested in grafting that will keep a lot of the conifers worthy of growing alive amongst other hobbyists. But when I attend meetings I have noticed there is a rather small number (if any) of the younger generation that are interested in conifers or gardening.

I know once my collection expands I will definitely be sharing scion with others. I have been so fortunate to have people think of me and send me scion wood. So far, things I've grafted are doing very well. It's a handful to ensure the temps, humidity, water etc are all in check. But I can not see that I will be ever be giving up grafting. I have enjoyed this more than I have any part of gardening that I've done thus far. I LOVE it!

Thanks to those of you who have generously shared scion wood with me. I really appreciate that and will reciprocate when possible.

One thing we should think about is trying to mentor a couple young folks ourselves in hopes of getting them involved in gardening and conifers. I had a young girl that used to come over and talk to me about my garden plants. She has moved away for college now but what a wonderful opportunity I was presented with to inspire her to one day be a gardener.

Hi all. Don't order a pine box for me yet. I intend to be around for some time yet. Besides, I have another book I have to complete.

Ladylotus, the golden conifer is Pinus mugo 'Carstens'.

I remember when I was the only young guy who was into conifers and learned a lot from the old timers, most of whom are gone now. One of my goals in my books is to pass on information I learned from them so it isn't lost forever. Young people tend to be too busy to attend plant society meetings and the need to make a living precludes devoting too much time to plants. If I hadn't been a school teacher I probably wouldn't be where I am today either.

Bob

I found some other pics taken that same day...
Our forum friend Dave was among us that afternoon, I guess he had a hard time saying good bye to us when we visited him at our first day of this trip ;0)

These pics were taken in Bob's plastic folie greenhouse.
Bob was showing us his variegated Abies koreana seedlings.
The seeds were collected from the cultivar 'Gelbbunt' wich means "Yellow Variegated" in the German language.
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I'd love to see the day when I have that much plant material in just a corner, you know.

Dax

I have no doubt that both Bob and Henk would be the ones to beat in the talent portion of the Miss Universe contest, but I'm a little concerned about their success in the swimsuit segment. That being said, I love that 'Logan Pass' shot and I am wondering if I have any time to visit Bob before grafting season is over - looks like he may be able to share a scion or two... :^)

Ohhh... You meant they were talking about the actual contestants, not themselves. Well, I'm embarrassed.

Yeah, speaking about that, I don't hear anything no more about Will's (whaas) invitation to meet Miss U.S.A. in Wisconsin.
Well, he does have plenty of time to arrange all this because there's a big chance that Henk and I will come back again next year...
In the meanwhile she can learn the song "C is for Conifers" which can make her candidate for the ACS President.
I bet she will get a lot of votes then :0)

I can't speak for the future grafters and nursery owners but there sure are quite a few 20 and 30 something hobbyists on this forum. I've yet to check out TJ's collection but I can tell you between Matt and I we're putting together a pretty serious collection together in WI.

Edwin, I don't think I'll have much luck getting her to talk conifers but a meeting could be arranged! I know her indirectly through a family member.

Will, that's all great news you're telling here!
I'll inform you as soon as we know our schedule for next year, we will keep in touch about this, thanks!

I know one thing for sure, if she will be future ACS President you won't have a lack of young male members no longer :0)

Bob, I'm glad to hear you are writing a new book. Just yesterday I was reading Small Conifers for Small Gardens. I mentioned to Terri that I hoped you might do a Medium Conifers for Larger Gardens. Any chance? It was good to see you at the national. Jay

Bob, thank you for providing a name to the conifer. I grafted several scion of Carstens, it is gorgeous I hope my grafts take.

Hi Jay,

Right now I am focused on finishing my teaching career and organizing my thoughts about how to proceed on my second book. Its main focus will be on the compact through species normal conifers for the garden. I figure about two years of additional photography and research as I do the writing and self publishing until it will become available.

This was another great day for us!
We also visited Coenosium Gardens in 2004, this was during the DCS U.S.A. field trip.
In that time I wasn't into conifers as much as I'm now, which changed a lot since that time.
Bob was like a mentor to me, you know a person to look up to with all his knowledge.
I learned myself how to listen and remember the stories about conifers which were told by people like Bob.
Now it's time for me to continue telling those stories to people who are interested...

All for me left to say: Bob thanks for everything you're doing for the conifer world, I still hope you'll be among us for a long time!
Also thanks for having us at your beautiful gardens!

joy I wouldn't have guessed that your passion for conifers hadn't been as strong before 2004. Obviously since that time you have searched out wherever you could for knowledge about them to know what you know. Kudos for the dedication to be at the top of your field, for acknowledging those that helped along the way, and offering to help so many more.
Cher

we.. or at least me .. have been waiting for day 4.. and beyond...

ken