Dave, your Skylands is GORGEOUS. Makes me want one. What is the blue conifer to the upper right? The combination of the bright yellow and that blue is really stunning. You have a great eye for color and balance in your gardens. Thanks for sharing the photo.

Nice tree and nice combination. Think it was one of your pics last year which inspired me to put sonething blue near mine.

Mine will be there in a decade or so!

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Dave, your skylands is just amazingly beautiful! Also one of my favorite spruces, and yours is a darn near perfect specimen! I have always wanted one of these but most of the ones I have found have been both not exactly the best looking trees, and have been prohibitively expensive. *sigh*... one day. Until then I will just keep admiring yours! Kudos!

Tornado, yours is a nice little guy too. I hope one day yours grows up to be that beautiful!

thx dave ...

ken

Absolutely stunning Dave!

Your welcome Ken.

I know you have tried this cultivar several times with no success. Well for that matter I am on my second one. I completely toasted mine in one summer. With still a lot to learn, I misplaced it in full sun for 8 hours without any protection.

Our micro climates are similar other then my season starts 2-3 weeks ahead of yours.

What about Gee Farms? Do they grow it for display? Close to you right?

Dave

they have that 40+ footer at hidden lakes.. just 10 miles away .. but they are in a glacial kettle.. and i suspect winter winds howl right over the conifer area ...they actually have a few things that i cant grow ...

a couple of mine.. were grafted by me.. from gee's stock ... but that was very long ago in my learning curve ...

ken

A wonderful specimen Dave and AMAZING it handled your Summer drought/heat last year. Gives me a lot of 'rope' when discussing it's hardiness with local landscapers/gardeners. I know you shaded it some and it's been in the ground a little bit, but can you clarify how much sun, roughly it gets, how much you shaded it and how often you think it gets natural/unnatural water during the growing season?

Thanks!

-Will

Will,

There is no rocket science in growing this conifer.

In some cases a persons micro climate may play a role in it being a non starter for whatever reason.

Mine was 3-4 ft. tall when planted. I shaded the sunny side just in the growing season for 2 years. No need to shade in winter.

It now sets in a full 8 hours of sun and needs no watering under normal rain fall conditions. We receive 40" on average each year. Last year was a killer and of course watering was the norm. Still lost a few conifers, Pinus strobus being hit the hardest.

There you have it.

Dave

Thing is looking pretty damn happy. I plan to put the shades up in another month or so.

Looks great! Mine was planted just over a year ago and I kept it under a shade cloth the entire year. This year I'm planing to take one side of the shade cloth down to give it a little more morning sun then take it completely down next year. It's just started to push about a week ago!

Gorgeous Skylands Dave. Nice little one toronado. It's nice to see the trees at different stages of growth. That really helped me to decide on certain ones and placement.

Ladylotus, that beautiful blue conifer to the right of Dave's Skylands is Picea pungens 'The Blues' I believe.

Here's my new 4' 'Skylands'. I normally try not to spend over $40 for my trees but I finally hunted down a Skylands in the Cincinnati area and couldn't resist it's alluring spell. It's a must have. Now I'm $100 poorer but 100% happier. I'm not sure if I overpaid or got a deal. Either way I'm extremely happy to have one!

I hope to take advantage of the blue and gold together and planted it near my 3' Picea engelmannii 'Bush's Lace'. It's just out of view to the left in the pic. I also have the giant eye sore shade cloth erected and ready for the 2 year haul. It's ugly but I'm sure it's worth it. I just hope I don't get impatient and take it down next year. I think I will even leave it up in the winter as my little Pinus Sylvestris 'Gold Coin' is planted near by and looks like it received a wee bit of burn over the winter.

The Skylands was extremely root bound so I had to perform some root surgery that turned out to be not so gentle especially when I uncoiled the main encircling root. I hope I did the right thing and that it does okay. It seems happy as it has just started to push. I can't wait for the show like Daves =)

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Oh wow. I have a Bush's Lace up near my Skylands also! What a small world.

Took this today with the cell at MOBOT

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Oh wow. I have a Bush's Lace up near my Skylands also! What a small world.

Took this today with the cell at MOBOT

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Oh wow, that's a nice combination of color. These older skylands are quite a site to look forward to.

That cracks me up about the Bush's Lace and Skyands. Great minds think alike =)

Dave, your tree is beautiful. You have certainly inspired others in this love of conifers, look at this thread!

Toronado, how long have you had your tree and how large was it when you purchased it?

Garen, very nice too. Makes me think I should of looked a little closer at the one I saw yesterday in Dixon.

See now if I could find one the size of Garen's and at that price, I think I would be in heaven. Not sure where to look tho. Oh well, Ill keep an eye out.

Dave, how old and and tall is your tree? Also, this may be crazy but how wide is it at the bottom and half way up? I always ask a lot of questions but need it for good reason. Thanks for the nice picture.

Just curious to see how close my guess is.

11 years old (actual age of the plant) and 6' peak width.