Not to sway you at all, but there are some very cool, rare plants available at conventions that you may not find offered anywhere else. And, since the convention is so close to your home, it would be silly not to attend (IMHO). Depending on how far you live from the hotel, you may not even have to pay for lodging - a bonus for being close.

Going to the arboretum with the convention will also allow you to ask many questions about the plants and get information that you won't get if you attend by yourself.

Just some food for thought... (:o)
Hope to see you there...
Mike
tl³

"Saw arboretum pics, and now I"m ruined." I pity your soul.

Tell the husband this. Conifer gardens are maintenance-free. You plant them only to water the first and second year and then from there on out, assuming you had any slightest bit of common sense regarding planning for the future, you will never have to do these things:

as you age, you won't need to be out cutting back perennials, ...dividing them, watering or they will die (in extreme cases only do conifers need supplemental water) - so all the back breaking work is gone after a conifer garden is planted. Spacing is key! Space for your age at time of planting or if you have the room to space even further.

All that talk about 250 volunteers, well, that's for all the grounds work on a ton of acres for "immaculate" public displays.

Conifer gardens are just the opposite of "work". And they live a long time. When you get old, mulch em well and carry a lightweight sprayer with an herbicide. That's the work involved if you don't go organic and heck, there are organic weed killers and suppressers out already...

See ya,

Dax

Hey Mike,

Any snow today? I guess that's a silly question.

"Not to sway you at all, but there are some very cool, rare plants available at conventions that you may not find offered anywhere else".

How true but you better have a wheelbarrow full of money. With everybody sitting around their table with a few drinks in them it gets real pricey when the bidding gets going. Another reason is the money goes for a good cause, so everybody bids them high.

Are you coming to the ACS convention in Iowa?

Dave

Hi Dave,
No snow - YET! The snow is on its way though. I heard that we may get 8" to 10" by tomorrow afternoon. Not exactly nice spring weather. (:o(

Yes, wheelbarrows full of money always help. I purchased a very nice Pinus ponderosa broom seedling that Jerry Morris started, when I was at the 2003 Central Region meeting in IL. I think I paid 35.00 for the plant at the auction. I didn't think that was too bad. The plant is approx. 18" high now and a very nice full plant.

Yes, I am going to the convention. Are you? If so, I may see you twice in the month of June, this summer.

I actually like the silent auction better than the verbal auction; it seems that the prices don't go quite as high during the silent auction.
Thanks,
Mike

Thanks for the info regarding the convention. I will keep that in mind. I was wondering about sources on plants that I'd probably not seen before, so being able to find them at the convention explains a lot.
I'm not worried about the work with conifers as I had already determined that they were very much less labor intensive than my perennials and shrubs - dramatically less! I won't be giving up my perennials anytime soon, but I feel this strange "force" pulling me...and if pics of the arboretum do this, just imagine seeing it in person!
With my newfound knowledge that everyone has shared about conifers never stopping growing, etc., I'm a little disappointed on one hand with the stuff I planted last year. Not my windbreak (I'll die before it fills in), but other places where I didn't do just trees. I figured so carefully last year, thinking I was calculating to fullest space needed - until death do we part sort of thing. Now, it seems I may have calculated out only 10 years at best - at least on my hillsides. (I was hoping to plant them and water and forget it and never dig up or worry about overgrown plants again).I'm trying not to be disappointed because that's a long time off and why worry now and what's done is done! Worst case, I move or trim at a future date.
However, I do have a very large flag pole area 50 x 50 that I started last year with the thought to add to over the next 3 years and I am pleased to 1)know I can move things around still, 2) there's plenty elbow room, and 3) glad that I will have the opportunity to learn more and avoid a "boring" ending to the project. I made the decision last year to keep it in conifers with the exception of the cannas around the base of the pole, and now that I've discovered all my friends at Gardenweb, I'm so happy about the decision.
All in all, I'm pleased and will enjoy the next 10 years and not worry. It's too bad I didn't look beyond local providers for more variety on what I'ved already done, but I'm sure I can always find some room to add a new plant!

Are any of you readers just done with buying plants, or is this an ongoing obsession that never ends? Coming from a background of southern gardening mothers/aunts, who incoporated a lot of flowering shrubs into their flower gardens, I tried to do the same when we moved up to a zone 5. I "accidentally" got into "this" by using evergreens in place of some of my flowering shrubs when I saw that I wasn't going to be able to duplicate many plantings that I was accustomed to. I must say that I had my first attraction to all this conifer business when I discovered that Japanese gardening used a lot of conifers and other evergreens to produce a soothing and calming effect.

Anyway, I digress. Seems that conifers has it's whole own brand of nice people for the most part, too, and that's very nice! OK Battle Star Galactica usurps everything else and I must cut this off. Sorry for the long post. Snow must do that to me.