Which Conifer type is first to grow in Spring?

noki

14 years ago

Which Conifer type is first to grow in Spring? In zones that have freezing weather normally.

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Comments (10)

gardener365
14 years ago
The ones that are least hardy. Here I noticed my Abies firma 'Golden Hue' with large swelling buds between 1-2 weeks ago. Many other conifers, also, were showing bud break. Larches, too seemed to be ahead of the game. Everything is breaking now.

Dax
pineresin
14 years ago
Generally, larches. Maybe because they can't sit and wait relying on last year's leaves to do the photosynthesis.

Larches from cold climates are particularly prone to leafing out early when planted in milder climates; I've seen Larix gmelinii (from zone 0 in eastern Siberia) out in leaf in Britain (zone 9) in early January.

Resin
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I am going to have to concure with the first to push out is Larix kaempferi(or all Larix in my case). It's already in mid-Spring form while many others are snoozing away. My first Japanese maple to leaf out was 'Ueno Homare' - about Mid-February - and it has suffered wicked frost burn - so I am glad none of my conifers woke up at the same time. I think a close second might be Cedrus, they are all ready to burst and a few have shoots that are opening now as well.
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Spring is ideal but early fall is fine too. The trick is to ensure its well watered prior to the first freeze. Abies DEMANDS well drained soil. They can really struggle in wet soils when the snow melts if its not draining well. This is the very reason you will "rarely" see this plant growing in clay soils successfully. I learned the hard way that as a species there are seed variants (hopefully that is the right terminalogy) and therefore there are various shades of blue, silver and green. My neighbor has one that is turqouise and mine are green. I bought them in March and asked why the plant looked so green and he said it will be blue when it flushes...not what a lieing jag off. Obviously you'd have more control with selected cutlivars. Avoid 'Candicans'. It has awesome cones and needle color but they are very thin, gangly looking plants. Its been consistent in the ones I've seen in person. My neighbors plant. Congrats on your first potential conifer. Be sure to venture over to that forum.
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I'm going to contact houzz with a recommendation (surely to be ignored) about making some kind of reminder appear for new posters, saying they should state their part of the country. Far too much time is wasted dealing with that, each time a n00b comes along. Back in 2008 I was asked to help someone create a lawn care forum. The very first contribution I made was to have a mandatory field for registration asking where they live. There are people who don't get it at first and put in "midwest" or something equally vague. Once we explain it to them, they all give us a city and state. The ones that get me say SoCal. Well...that reaches from Bakersfield to San Diego from Santa Barbara to Blythe. It goes from 50 feet below sea level to 10,000 feet with hills and mountains all over. Just saying SoCal is meaningless. Even saying Los Angeles is meaningless, because nobody really lives in Los Angeles. Santa Monica and Long beach are much different from Pasadena or Pomona.
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The red male cones in the 3rd photo is not Tsuga canadensis 'Sargentii' but Picea abies 'Pendula' by the look of it. All three look good though. You can probably remove the nursery training stakes on the Silberlocke and the Pendula...they are not going to help with anything now (plus the plastic tape tends to choke the stems as it grows)
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ryan_tree
14 years ago
My Dawn Redwoods are already fully budded out and growing crazy. I think it's too early, but we'll see.

Ryan
botann
14 years ago
My Larches are leafed out.
Ryan, my Dawn Redwoods are also doing fine.
Here's a 'Miss Grace' I just acquired.
{{gwi:679925}}
I'm going to put it in a larger pot for the summer and then plant it out this fall.
amidheliot
14 years ago
My Larches look like they could break bud today while I am at work, same with a couple Cedrus libani cvs. My Barberry's, Willows, Spirea, and a few Birch are leafed out already . I'm keeping a close eye on the weather though, I just planted a large Metasequoia glyptostrobodies 'Ogon' last fall, and am worried it will come out to early and get killed in a frost. I have heard that is an issues in colder areas for them. Things look to be coming out way to early here...Hopefully we don't get a late frost. It's been a crazy spring here...

I'm running up to Lake Erie next weekend to go fishing. My buddy up there has called nearly every day this week with reports telling me what they were catching and I didn't believe him...Walleye are running about a month early this year...Guess that makes up for them being a month late last year. Three weeks ago guys were dragging john boats across the ice to get into the lake and catching nice fish. Guys I know are getting three tickets in a 15 minute single drift! Craziness!

Eliot
hogmanay
14 years ago
i think the first "signs of life" would be from deciduous conifers, common ones are bald cypress and dawn redwood around my area

my baby norway spruce and american arborvitae just now seemed to wake up a little
salicaceae
14 years ago
It was always the larches first for me in Minnesota...My Abies firma are still dormant ad dawn redwoods have just begun to grow. Pseudolarix just began too. Pinus patula and P. yunnanensis have candles 4-6" long already.
tunilla
14 years ago
Same here..larches. But everything else is pushin' bud too.
Won't get fooled again.Seems like plants are more intelligent than people. (no harm ment...posts are much appreciated!)T.
gardener365
14 years ago
Heh heh heh Tunilla.

Dax
firefightergardener
14 years ago
For me larix is first with Picea glauca var. alberta conica follows next. Many of the smaller miniature/dwarf clones have already made their first push at my place. I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Pines seem to be last for me.

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Which Conifer type is first to grow in Spring?

Comments (10)

gardener365

pineresin

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ryan_tree

botann

amidheliot

hogmanay

salicaceae

tunilla

gardener365

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