its going to be pretty hard at this distance ...

the two at the door and at the lamp post look like larix kaempferi/decidua 'Pendula' ...... or maybe a weeping taxodium, if there is such an animal ...

there is a picea pungens making a V in the middle bottom ...

maybe some spiny heaths or heathers spread about.. but i am no spert on those ...

maybe picea glauca 'rainbows end' in the bottom right ...

the color is shifted toward yellow or green.. i can tell from the picea pungens.. which should be blue... so that complicates the whole thing ...

and the tall thin gangly one in the forefront is trimmed up like a Larix eurolepis 'Varied Directions'

that's the best i can do at this focus level ...

ken

Tall thin one at the front looks to me like Metasequoia, heavily trimmed.

Resin

I'll give some of them a shot:
The weeping tree in the foreground is a cultivar of either Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), possibly 'Cascade Falls', or Dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptrostroboides), 'Miss Grace', both of which are available through Klehm's Songsparrow (www.songsparrow.com). The plant at its base is some cultivar of Blue spruce (Picea pungens) or possibly a Fir (Abies procera??), and the two globe shaped plants on either side of it are some form of Cryptomeria japonica. The plant weeping directly under the window is some form of Larch (Larix). The 3 upright weepers against the door/wall could either be Larch, Dawn redwood, or Bald cypress. The trees lining either side of the garden are Dawn redwood. All of these are widely available, if not locally to you, through lots of on-line nurseries.

If you like this look, you have to get Adrian Bloom's book, Gardening with Conifers. Beautiful pictures, conifer identification, and will give you lot's of good ideas. You could easily put something similar to this garden together, but do give it a lot more room as this garden will quickly outgrow its space. Good luck, and have fun! Kim

i got hooked on this.. and spent 30 minutes searching the web under the address and the designer.. i found plans to many of the show gardens.. but not this one ...

i suggest you hit your own link and use the CONTACT US link to contact the web page and see if they can provide the plan ...

good luck

ken

I don't want to discourage you from having this look, it is a very beautiful setting. The bottom line is the area is way over planted with conifer material. For show they often do this for the quote: "The now look". In 2 years you won't be able to recognize this setting because the plants will grow and compete for the little space available.
I would contact the nursery or person who designed this area and have them work with you to design a area for long term enjoyment. They can also give you the correct names of the conifer material in the photo.

Good luck,

Dave

"The bottom line is the area is way over planted with conifer material. For show they often do this for the quote: "The now look". In 2 years you won't be able to recognize this setting because the plants will grow and compete for the little space available"

Very true - of course they can get away with this to win a prize at a 3-day show, but it won't work in reality!

Resin

LOL even my yard isn't planted that densely. After 3 years when roots establish, hooboy, that front yard won't be walk-through or even see-through. Pretty at the moment though. Hard to have patience for trees to grow; that's why exotic groundcovers exist.

Dawn Redwood is one of the largest possible trees at maturity, with an amazing trunk ...

Also, what do you think that front yard costs? A pretty penny, lots of trees. Worth it, of course, but distributed to the side and back yards too.

I'm really liking my picea mariana, identified on this forum, for its dark forest green color; great contrast with the golden threadbranch types. If that front yard were mine I'd want more deep greens to show off the cultivars.

Hi everyone. Thanks for giving it a shot. I was hoping most of these plants could be replaced with dwarfs, or miniatures, or whatever the correct term is, so the end result was the look here. I was planning to use half or fully buried containers to fill in the spots in the meantime, while the in ground plants filled out. Maybe I'm a dreamer, (all right I admit there's no maybe about it,) but I always try to get around the not full enough looking, (to me) scenario by using big containers full of plants that I remove and re-pot anew, or plant in ground, as they grow too big and crowded. I like the full look.

I will look at the book and try to track down the designer, as suggested, thanks for those ideas. I'll also try to find evergreen plants which stay small, whether they be conifers, heaths and heathers, or... for a calm sea of green. Usually I'm all about colour and variegation, so this is a departure and will be somewhat hidden in my back yard, for an escape from the noise of bright color and zigzag patterns. Plus I need a pond in a bad way. :) I will also so enjoy whiling away the hours looking up the plants identified here. Thanks again everyone!

Yeona

Hi Yeona,
The display garden at Chelsea 2005 was created by the British Conifer Growers Association, and is primarily just a display to show the different types of cultivars available, colour, form, texture etc, the garden setting is just for effect and not really practical in reality as others have already pointed out. Just for information some of the plants likely to be on display are - Taxodium distichum Cascade Falls, Metasequoia glyptostroboides Gold Rush (Ogon in the US) Cryptomeria japonica Globosa, Picea glauca Daisy's White, Juniperus squamata Blue Star, Holger or Dream Joy, Platycladus (Thuja) orientalis Franky Boy, Thuja occidentalis Rheingold and or Golden Tuffet, Cmamaecyparis pisifera Sungold, the weeping conifers at the back are possibly Cedrus glauca Pendula's, the two grass like conifers near the front are young Pinus Wallichiana's
Bluespruce.

Yeona, is is perfectly reasonable to develop a garden that is substantially dwarf conifers that will provide the same aesthetic feel as the one depicted. Obviously, consideration must be given to the plant selection and spacing based on mature growth, but it can be done. And there are literally hundreds of dwarf and/or very slow growing cultivars from which to choose. This may be an instance where hiring a design professional to help you in formulating a plan may be a worthwhile investment.

Personally, I'd consider contouring the planting area a bit to provide some slight changes in height and adding some larger landscape boulders as well. Rocks and dwarf conifers are a very natural pairing and combining these with some heaths/heathers and some low growing groundcovers can result in a very attractive, soothing and low maintenance garden. And very well suited to the character of your PNW location.

I just have to comment (as a sometime lurker here) that I think this was a wonderful exercise and shows what a great bunch of folks hang out at this forum -- there was a lot of helpful, positive input, a great idea that got you the answers from the design group and a further formulation on how to make it work in your own world, Yeona.

Really a great commentary! (& so informative - I loved the garden, its look and I've learned a lot by the identifications & comments).

A fine example of what GW and its groups should all be about.

>After 3 years when roots establishRoot elongation occurs mostly in fall. The spring after the first fall after planting top growth should be pretty much up to speed. You can see see this phenomenon easily on fast-growing pines that have been dug from a commercial field recently, then replanted. There are long internodes from when the pine was being rushed along by the grower, with a much shorter one-year section following cutting of the roots during transplanting, ending at the top with another, faster section(s) immediately after - indicating the most recent years since the tree was lifted and the new roots elongated.