I've always liked the feel of Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus), Eastern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis) especially some of the looser cultivars, and untrimmed Yew (Taxus species). Trimmed Yews are often trimmed back to hard stiff older branches which aren't fun to run your fingers through, but untrimmed Yew have soft flexible recent growth which always felt good to me(even as a kid when I couldn't care less about plants). The smaller growing Limber Pine (Pinus reflexa) is smaller growing and also nice and soft, but it's still going to be much larger than what you're looking for. There are many cultivars of Thuja occidentalis which will fit for you, as well as cultivars of Yew. Another one I like to touch every time I see it is Himalayan Juniper (Juniperus squamata), especially the popular cultivar 'Blue Star' which only gets about 3 or 4 feet(roughly 1m) tall and wide. I also like the feel of Hinoki Cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) of which there are a ton of dwarf cultivars which would fit into your size requirements. I actually like the feeling of virtually all of the Cypress (Chamaecyparis sps.) species out there and most have smaller cultivars which easily fit into your size requirements. Is that more than 3? he he I hope I didn't overwhelm you with my response. The touch aspect of conifers is one of the things that kind of draws me to many of them, rather than pure visual interest in the landscape (or wild) which they also have.

in the alternative ....

stay away from Juniperus rigida and Picea pungens ....

ken

Thank you, thank you, kman04!

I'm pretty sure that my buddies along my back fence are P. strobus. Earl, who is about 3 days younger than God, is sort of a living institution around this town when it comes to trees. We needed to limb up our rather neglected deciduous trees after we moved here, so when Earl came out the first time he was willing to walk our small property and tell me what I had not yet identified. Before he gave the ID I knew they were pines, that they had (to me) kind of an irregular growth pattern, and their branches and needles were a pleasure to encounter. Gentle giants, I guess, though I suppose P. strobus isn't the pine to put in a size contest? Still for our home landscape these are sizable enough. I'm guessing they are about 30 years old.

So I already have your first pick! I got lucky, and I do have a real affection for these guys.

Great input about yews. That explains my exact experienceÂused to wonder why the things would suddenly bite me, but I bet it was because my hand had moved from softer new growth into regions that had been butchered and hacked by previous owners. Yep, we had some yews, but DH took them in disfavor and removed them, largely because they'd been tortured into ugliness.

I'm glad to get your input on Thuja occidentalis, Juniperus squamata ('Blue Star' and others?), Chamaecyparis sps. At this stage of the game I'm gleaning info from on-line descriptions. I try not to start with catalogs because of the hype, but sometimes other sources just don't quite tell me enough. Once I've got a pretty good general idea I can guide my poor husband around the nursery to check out real candidates for the garden. We tried this in the fall with conifers. It was fun to note all the differences, but I didn't yet feel confident about what I was getting myself into!

More than 3? Who's counting? I'm sort of hoping I'll be able to buy from local nurseries rather than on-line. But that means I need a certain amount of flexibility. If I just have one genus species cultivar that I just have to have, that will be the one that isn't available locally. I like plants that other people don't think about, but I'm of the opinion that you can create unusual, handsome gardens with readily available plants.

Wellspring

Every time I post someone slips in ahead of me? I even updated the page to check. Then I posted my response to kman04. So we will check this out scientifically and see if I can post without someone getting there before I doÂ

Thank you, Ken. So many plants, so little time. I appreciate knowing what not to go for.

Wellspring

Juniperus recurva is much more pleasant to hande than J. squamata, and also has an interesting dry, rustly feel to it.

Cupressus macnabiana is interesting to handle, slightly sticky with delightfully scented resin. Not hardy in IL though.

Interesting texture on Thujopsis dolabrata.

Resin

For tactile effect, my favorite is Cryptomeria japonica 'Elegans', the plume cryptomeria. The foliage is deceptively soft to the touch - it looks like it should be prickly but is not. The gold Monterey cypress 'Wilma Goldcrest' is second. Also very soft and any touch releases a pungent lemony-lime fragrance. Unfortunately, neither will be reliable hardy for you. Next would be any of the soft needled pines - strobus, flexilis, wallichiana, etc.

I'd second most of the Hinokis as well. Not exactly what I'd consider soft, but with an appealing and interesting texture. And so many dwarf selections to chose from!!

So what about the smaller versions of the Japanese pines, Pinus densiflora, P. parviflora, and P. thunbergii?
Some of these sound like they might be in my size range. What about the texture on these guys:

P. densiflora 'Low Glow'
P. thunbergii 'Banshosho'

In another thread Ken mentioned Thuja orientalis 'Morgan'. Do both Thuja occidentalis and T. orientalis generally fall into the "reasonably soft" category? I know I'll have to do some actual comparison of cultivars.

Based on suggestions above, some of these guys may find a home with me somewhere in the landscape:

Wellspring's List of Reasonably Soft to Soft Conifers for Zone 6 (sort of)

Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Compact Fernspray'
Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Coralliformis' Sounds interesting.
Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Hage' (Because we all need one that's green and small!)
Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Verdon'
Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Cream Ball'
Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Curly Tops'
Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Golden Pincushion'
Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Lemon Thread'
Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Vintage Gold'

For containers and possibly elsewhere, I'll also be looking for:
Microbiota decussata (which is described as being "soft" to touch. Is it?)

Pinus strobus 'Blue Shag'
Pinus strobus 'Horsford'
Pinus strobus 'Macopin'
Pinus strobus 'Sea Urchin'

Thuja occidentalis 'Degroot's Spire' This one is a frontrunner for the border along my driveway, see- Getting To Know Conifers thread.
Thuja occidentalis 'Golden Globe'
Thuja occidentalis 'Hetz Midget'
Thuja occidentalis 'Little Gem' Dk green.
Thuja occidentalis 'Rheingold'
Thuja occidentalis 'Teddy' Blue-green. Containers.(
Thuja occidentalis 'Tiny Tim' Med-green.
Thuja occidentalis 'Yellow Ribbon' Yellow-orange, matures med green. Red cones. Narrow pyramidal. Accent, specimen.

And, Resin is going to send me those odd ones I've never heard ofÂ

Gardengal, too bad those that smell so good won't work here. I'm still claiming zone 5 although the newspaper made it official last spring for zone 6.

My list is compiled from the MBG data base. I'm guessing there's nothing too unusual here, but a number of these do sound quite beautifulÂAny favorites here? Ones you particularly don't likeÂdidn't perform to expectations?

MostÂI am hopingÂshould be readily available.

Wellspring

I tend to favor Abies bracteata and Torreya californica in a dense intermixture. Good for the neighbors.

Chamaecyparis pisifera seems to generally be softer than Chamaecyparis obtusa. The cultivar 'Curly Tops' looks softer than most the others, but that's just because of the twisted growth and I find the easily available cultivar 'Boulevard' is very nice and soft to touch or brush up against. Out of the Juniperus squamata cultivars, I really like 'Blue Star' for some reason. It might not be super soft, but it's soft enough and it's blue foliage long leafed foliage(for a juniper) is interesting looking to me.

"I tend to favor Abies bracteata and Torreya californica in a dense intermixture. Good for the neighbors"

But not for softness, surely! Those two are the antithesis of softness!!

Resin

Thanks for the confirmation on that, Pineresin. I sort of figured pinetree30 thinks it might be funny for the dumb blind girl to mail order something that would be a bit of a surpriseÂ

1. Don't mail-order much, precisely because I don't even have the advantage of looking at pics.
2. I'll be touch testing whatever ends up making it home with me, understanding that in some instances the juvenile form may not feel quite the same as a more mature specimen. I'm not expecting satin or silk in all casesÂIsn't texture one of the beautiful things about conifers?
3. Not dumb. Ignorant about many things, yes, but not dumb. I/ig- "not"; gnor-ant: "knowing". Plenty that I don't know, not much that I can't learn if I put my mind to it. OnlyÂlife's so short!

In fact, although it wouldn't fit with what I will choose for my garden, I think a thread on the opposite of softness would be interesting. Gardengal gave an example of a conifer that feels soft but doesn't "look" soft. In my foggy visual memory -- going back to when I could see -- I remember conifers looking less soft, in general, than most other plant forms. Nowadays, spines, thorns, and prickly foliage are just not my thing, although I love some of the plants that exhibit these characteristics.

kman04- Do you particularly like the blue ones? I don't know how I missed Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Boulevard'. It's one of the ones MBG describes and it sounds lovely. Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star' is on my list in progress although I forgot to include it above.

I did take a look at Pineresin's J. recurva, but I'm not sure I'd get lucky enough to find one. I also cross referenced what I'm reading here with an old thread about 5 Conifers A Newby Must Have. Not much there that fits my current size constraints and my preference for softer forms. Good fun doing the research thoughÂ

Wellspring

no mail order???? ... you will not be able to buy 90% of what you have listed in a local manner .... unless you have some really good local nurseries ...

didnt you say.. that you will be visiting a local arb ... maybe i am confused ...

local gardens or arboretums are where you are going to feel/touch/smell these thing.. you arent going to do that on the web ...

my point simply being.. that you should NOT rule it out ... or you will end up with the same 5 conifers that all the big box stores sell .... or the 10 that upscale local nurseries have ....

ken

Hello wellspring and welcome to the conifer side of th GW.

Iseli nursery has a nice catalog you can download with a good description of the many conifers they sell. The catalog is in Adobe PDF format.

Assuming you want to purchase something from them, you will need to fine a nursery in your area that sells their conifer stock as Iseli is wholesale only.

I have had great success with their conifers and they can be purchased in several container sizes. Balled and burlap stock is also available.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Iseli 2007 catalog

Ken & Dave,

Here's my plan. Maybe it'll work?:

First of all, I have pretty limited funds. Not just average American limited. Think more limited than that! We are, however, extremely good at making the $$ go further than most households. I do have some "garden" funds ready to go, but the conifers are not the only thing I "need". I'm not expecting to buy the whole list, but figure that more options means more likelihood of coming across something worth taking home. Anyway, we believe in delayed gratification around here! SoÂ

Second of all, I will probably at least attempt to glean a find or two from the awful big box stores and local high end nurseries. Since I'm starting with nuttin' I'll probably score sumpin'? I think there may be some cautions with the big box sources, so sounds like I should pay attention to the tags, looking for a reputable source such as Dave mentioned.

Third of all--and I'm not exactly sure how well this will work--we will be making a St. Louis trip. The MBG website tries to give possible places where their plants can be purchased. I need to look into this further, but now you kind of get my other reason for sticking rather closely to what they (MBG) has grown. If my little plan works, I'll also put an on-site visit to the garden in the scheduleÂYummmm!

Fourth of all, more tentatively we may be in the Chicago area in early April. Actually, you sort of did that psychic thing again, guys, because you're already thinking about where this crazy lady's going to get the goods. Earlier today I started wondering what else I need to know about conifers. Like is fall the best planting time for most conifers? Will I be able to purchase in spring? If I do, when is the best time to get them in the ground? Sounds like some put on growth in spring and it might be an additional stress to be transplanting at the same time? Transplant before that, which might mean March for me, which is, oh man, 3 weeks away? Better to keep some things in containers? Wait and purchase in fall?

BTW, we've tried the Morton Arb with limited success. Don't get me wrong, I like hiking around. We used to live in Kentucky and I had my guide dog trained to do mountain trails! But without a knowledgeable guide, an arboretum is hard for me to access in any meaningful way. Great place to walk and hear the trees "talk" though My husband and son loved being there, too, but they don't have my passion for really trying to get to know the plantsÂWe did better at the Chicago BG, but that was because we mixed a tour in with just walking around.

Wellspring

Try Larch laricana and dawn redwoods.
Both are deciduous, but both are very soft and pleasant.

Wellspring,

I don't have any strong preference for blue cultivars. I do prefer them over the yellow ones though, since to me most of the yellow cultivars look sickly(just my opinion!). I think cultivars which are green, gray, blue, or variegated etc. are all equally appealing in the right spot(yes, sometimes even a yellow one looks good in the right spot, again my opinion). It's more coincidence that the cultivars I mentioned are also blue. I can't think of a green cultivar of Juniperus squamata that has the same texture as 'Blue Star'(I'm sure there very well could be some though) and I just happen to have a nice Chaemacyparis pisifera 'Boulevard' which I like to brush up against whenever I walk by it. 'Curly Top' and several other cultivars of this species also have nice soft foliage and they aren't all that blue.

Try Abies lasiocarpa arizonica..
but never Picea chihuahuana.

osprey

"just happen to have a nice Chaemacyparis pisifera 'Boulevard'"

Typo: Chamaecyparis

(wouldn't normally bother mentioning a typo like that, but when the recipient is using a voice synthesizer, it does matter!)

Resin

lol

I wonder how the voice synthesize pronounces latin?? Probably better than I do!

Also wonder how it pronounced the typo differently than the correct spelling.

Thanks to every one! Great forum.

I'm thinking evergreen conifers for myself, but the deciduous ones would fit what the thread question asked. I don't know that I've ever "met" a larch. Something else on my "investigate" list. The place where I go to get my dogs is not far from Muir sp. Forest in CA. The school takes all students and their dogs there for a treat. So, that's where I get my redwood fix. The dogs love it thereÂpure joy to them, too!

As for voice synthesizers--perceptive of you, Pineresin--they can have their moments. It's possible to switch the voice from American to Brit pronunciation. My son will occasionally switch to a rather high-pitched setting and then put it on German or French. Makes for an interesting surprise as the screen "speaks" theEnglish!

But, alas, it's not much help with the Latin. I've embarrassed myself more than once following the vs pronunciation at one of the snooty nurseries. I think the last time was a few years back when I was shopping around for heucheras. The vs says "You - chair - as". That's what I asked forÂWhat I got was a correction.

Anyway, I don't mind misspellings, but I do appreciate the helpfulness here.

Have a great and glorious day everybody!

Wellspring

For Chamaecyparis, it should say something like 'kam-eye-kipe-ariss'. What did it actually say?

If you're in the Muir Woods area, you won't find any larches, as they are trees which prefer colder climates. There might be some planted in parks or gardens high up in the mountains, but I doubt they could cope with the coastal lowland California climate. The nearest native larches to you are in northeastern Oregon, on the cold east side of the Cascades.

Resin

Ch- as in "schedule"Â

Wait. That won't work for the UK.

Ch- as in "chaos", "charisma", and "chimera"?

The Voice softens both the ch- and the -c- in Chamaecyparis, saying something like "cham-uh-sip-ariss".

What about Thuja? The Voice says it with a hard -j- as in "judge" or "Judy". My husband says it with the -y- sound.

Wellspring

p.s. Alas, I don't live in CA. I just visit there. This June I'll spend 2 weeks in San Jose for business.

Hubby is correct, it should be more like 'thooya' or 'tooya'. But I guess with the 'j' sound is easily enough understood.

Resin

Resin -'thooya'ok, never heard it pronounced 'tooya' before.

Hubby also says "tu-yuh". Very pure -u not the typical American -oo. He's an Austrian, not that that helps. Sometimes his t's, d's and th's all sound the same, so my mind mentally translated that part. He's the one who studied Latin, so I should probably listen to him rather than the computer. It's just confusing when his Latin pronunciation varies from the local. I sometimes can't tell if he's letting in a little german on the side!

Back to topic.

I went back up thread to think about my list and realised that no one actually confirmed whether certain general and/or specific choices should make it on the reasonably soft - soft list.

What about these:

Pinus densiflora, P. parviflora, and P. thunbergii?
Some cultivars sound like they might be in my size range. What about the texture on these guys:
P. densiflora 'Low Glow'
P. thunbergii 'Banshosho'

Microbiota decussata (which is described as being "soft" to touch. Is it?)

Thuja orientalis 'Morgan'

Wellspring

Pinus densiflora, P. parviflora, and P. thunbergii - not particularly soft. Not spiny either, though.

Microbiota decussata - reasonably soft, but not 'fluffy' soft the way some cypress cultivars (e.g. 'Boulevard') are. Thuja orientalis 'Morgan' - ditto.

Resin

Hi Wellspring, between Pinus densiflora 'Low Glow' and Pinus thunbergii 'Banshosho', for feel, I'd go with 'Low Glow'. Neither is particularly soft, but the ends of 'Banshosho's needles are downright sharp. Every time I clean out needles from the interior of this plant I notice this, and think I should be wearing gloves. Any Pinus parviflora is probably a good bet. There are a ton of cultivars and all are pleasing to touch.
It was a bright sunny day today so I went out in the yard and felt some of my conifers. Of the parvifloras 'Tanima no Yuki' was probably the softest.'Burke's Red Variegated' was the softest densiflora I have. Of course the Pinus strobus cultivars are all soft and I don't think you could go wrong with any of the cultivars you've previously mentioned. Have fun making your selections. Dan

P.S. Abies (True firs) are probably my favorite for tactile texture, but it sounds like you may be a little far south to grow these.

Hi Wellspring. Another suggestion for a tall narrow that is very striking and soft would be a Chamaecyparis (now Xanthocyparis) nootkatensis. Flat sprays of foliage that have a nice droopy appearance. I always have to handle the branches and play with them when I walk by. They really stand out in the landscape as focal points with a different "look". I've been finding some of the cultivars more readily available in local nurseries, although not the very narrow selections such as Van den Akker and Green Arrow. I have found them to be fast growers with sufficient water.

I would also give two thumbs up for the Microbiota decussata. Not extremely soft, but not really prickly either. Great groundcover conifer -- nice purple winter color and fast growing.

As Dan mentioned, the true firs are great to touch - very rubbery. The Abies concolor is suppose to be better suited to the warmer temps, but I haven't tried one yet (sounds like we're in about the same zone situation). Beautiful soft blue colors.

Pinus strobus 'Blue Shag' is a nice soft strobus with a low mounding habit that might be found at a local nursery.

Kim