Hobbiton conifers of the week, July 23rd

11 years ago

A baker's dozen this week as I have had the entire day to work in the garden, take photos, remove the dead and dying(Lost two pines). As per Will's(Waas) request, I have tried to include the source for each plant.

First a curiosity. Last year, these three plants: Abies veitchii 'Rumburk', Abies procera 'Blaue Hexe' and Abies koreana 'Kohout's Icebreaker' all put on tremendous growth, almost three inches on each of their fastest branches. This year they have grown even faster! Apparently they are very happy with their spot. These three cultivars will eventually be allowed to grow into and around eachother, my own design plan, similar to what people do with perennials. Time will tell how bad of great this idea is.

The overall planting:

Abies veitchii 'Rumburk'. That upward leader is over four inches long. Source: (Coenosium Gardens)

Abies procera 'Blaue Hexe' - Robust in all directions, a few of the branches are three inches or so. (Coenosium Gardens)

Abies koreana 'Kohout's Icebreaker' - Massive terminal growth of the leader, over five inches(13 cm!). (Coenosium Gardens)

Maybe these plants will tighten up when they get more crowded or with age. Maybe they just love the 12+ hours of direct sun and plentiful water/fast draining soil. In any case, needless to say, I'll have plenty of scion-wood for trades soon.

Cedrus libani var. atlantica 'Horstmann' - A *slower* growing blue atlas cedar, which in our climate here in the PNW, means just a very fast growing cultivar, not an enormously fast growing cultivar. 5-6 years old. (S&S)

Pinus parviflora 'Fuku-zumi' - One of the best, most of this shape is natural. (Local nursery)

Picea mariana 'Aureovariegata' - One of the best colored conifers I grow, IMO. Golden-blue-green needles. Perfect form. (Bonsai Bob-Ebay, four years ago).

Closeups.

Pinus densiflora 'Pendula' - All over the place and very fast growing. Fourth year in the ground. (Local Wa. state nursery).

Pinus strobus 'Sara Rachel' - A lovely, conical plant. Similar to a hershey's kiss. (Coenosium Gardens)

Pinus sylvestris 'Jeremy' (Coenosium Gardens)

Crytomeria japonica 'Sekkan' What a great plant, remarkable color with no burn at all. (Local nursery)

Sequioadendron giganteum 'Powder Blue' - An enormously fast growing, hazy blue giant redwood. Over seven feet of growth in two years despite horrific, compacted soil and dry Summers. (Local Nursery)

Sciadopitys verticillata 'Ossorio's Gold' - One of the best. (Coenosium Gardens)

Pinus thunbergiana 'Kotobuki' (Local nursery)

Picea pungens 'Montana Ave.' - Now here's a great example of sunlight desires of conifers. These are the same plants, planted the same year(3 years ago), from the same source and looked identical when I planted them.

Moderate to heavy-shade(and in a pot). Struggling ugly-ducky.

Part shade.

Full Sun. Doesn't even look like the same cultivar.

Pinus parviflora 'Tenysu-kazu' incorrectly known as Goldilocks. Brilliant varigation, mostly gold, full sun. (Local nursery - Boyko nursery origin).

Tenysu-kazu(Goldilocks)

Closeup.

And the planting - my signature 'chaos'.

A maple for the week. Acer palmatum 'Kotomaru' - Tiny red new leaves contrast well with the older golden-red-orange-green foliage for great effect. Mildly 'trimmed' each year but slow growing and about eight years old. An interesting tidbit, about three years ago I literally ran this tree over in a snowstorm trying to get out of my steep driveway. It was stuck under my car for a few hours, bent to hell. I finally righted my car and then the next day in the same snow storm I ran it over again. Tough little bugger and amazingly beautiful despite dry, full-sun conditions.

Hope you enjoyed, and fire away questions, I'll do my best.

-Will

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Comments (19)

Garen Rees
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Your Picea mariana 'Aureovariegata' always looks fantastic in your garden... drool

Sorry, I should have asked this in your other post, but where did you get the Juniperus communis 'Horstmann'?
sprucebud
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Great photos and very interesting to see the effects of shade too.
Thanks.
Richard
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That sucks, that was a nice one too! I'm amazed at how these conifers get smoked in the heat. None of my decidious plants are dieing. The worst I've observed is limp leaves on Clethra and Hydrangea then some sun scroch on JMs. The soft pines are getting hit hard. Only the ones in part sun are doing ok. To my surprise (so far) my firs are doing ok. Abies veitchii 'Heddergott' will be the first to die though. Its a shame as I really like that one. Last four days where 100, 104, 102 and 100 (forecast today). As hot as of some zone 6'ers far south of me. All four days broke records. The hottest DAY of ALL TIME was 105 set in late July 1999. That should give an idea of how extremely abnormal the temps are here in WI. 24 degrees above average 2 days ago. I don't know if I had tears or if those where the sweat bullets pouring from face while watering last night as I witnessed the condition of some of my plants. Another interesting observation is that the only flying bugs I've seen are fireflys and a few mosquitos. No japanese beetles, butterflies, honeybees, wasps, hornets. Complaining is welcomed in this thread right? I'm going to feel pretty good about mail ordering the majority of my plants for fall.
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Hobbiton conifers of the week, July 16th
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Thank you Robyn, Alex, Mike, Will and Richard. The mailbox garden is basically gardening by idiots 101, just put in a bunch of colorful plants and vines and let them grow. The hydrangeas are cut to the ground each year and sprout back vigorously and bloom by late July. The clematis vines just love hiding in the shade of the deciduous plants and jump from canopy to canopy. It's a happy situation. Alex, as Will said, 'Billie' is much more compact then 'Nellie D' and both are beautiful parvifloras, I believe Proudfoot introductions? He was a breeder/collector from Scotland if my memory serves me, only recently having passed on. I also readily recommend the bark nuggets I use. Typically what I have done is use a cheaper, finer bark for the underlaying and often initial mulching. This finer bark is probably better for contact with the roots and soil, though it does offer a better opportunity for weeds to germinate. The larger, thicker bark has both an attractive look to it(imo at least), but it takes longer to degrade and weeds often can't germinate, landing on the large pieces and drying out. It's about $5 more a yard(I think about $30 a yard here), but since it may last a decade or more before it needs replacing, I am very very happy about spreading it out my gardens. Thanks for looking folks, without your interest, there's no reason to share! -Will
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mesterhazypinetum
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Will,
I'm a fan of your yellow Picea mariana, great shots.
Zsolt
Cher
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Beautiful shots Will. Everything is coming together for you and looks great. The acer is beautiful.
Cher
gardener365
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I like 'Sarah Rachel', but I like many others!
I think... maybe I'm wrong... that Bob Fincham is the originator of Sarah Rachel.

Dax
coniferjoy
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Will, beautiful specimens in colour and shape!
With keeping the leader at your 'Rumburk', it will grow into a little tree.
The same will count for your 'Kohout's Icebreaker'.

Pinus parvflora 'Fuku-zumi'
Must be written as 'Fuku-zu-mi'.

Your Picea mariana 'Aureovariegata' is a real beauty.
The pic was taken at the right time!

No, Dax, the 'Sarah Rachel' was found as a seedling selection by Sidney Waxman...
maple_grove_gw
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Nice beds Will, everything is thriving, as we have come to expect from your garden.

What's the other golden spruce behind Picea mariana 'Aureovariegata' - lime-gold in hue? They look great together - each gold bringing out the tone of the other.

Alex
sluice
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Nice! The Crytomeria japonica 'Sekkan' is incredible!
arceesmith
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Will, I love your regular updates from 'Hobbiton' - always a delight to see your collection. Years from now, your collection and your yearly updates will be a tremendous resource for so many conifer enthusiasts, new and old.

Keep it up! :^)
alley_cat_gw_7b
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dude, That spread was real enjoyable!
firefightergardener
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you for the compliments. Perhaps what my gardens lack in design, flow and traditional garden aspects will be more then made up for in historical documentation, attention to detail and scope. My gardening goals(year-round color/texture interest, ease of maintenance and display of various plant collections) are coming together and while things will be ever changing and plants coming and going, I will be happy to have a shovel and pruning saw in my hands for the years to come.

Thank you for the info Edwin and I've made changes to Pinus strobus 'Sarah Rachel' as well as Pinus parviflora Fuku-zu-mi.

Alex, the Golden monster spruce is Picea abies 'Aurea' - and it grows very fast! I am glad the colors contrast well as for now, I haven't decided if I am going to remove either. They are about four feet from eachother, so someday they will be married. :)

Garen, my source for Juniperus communis 'Horstmann' was S&S nursery though I don't know if it's still in production. I haven't seen it anywhere else.

Maybe we should start a database of our own with cultivars and their sources. It would be neat to be able to find sources for plants easily just by going to an online database.

-Will
Garen Rees
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I believe that d@vesg@rden.com provides this sort of resource in some sort of way (Gardenweb has banned any mention of d@vesg@rden.com due to spamming on the forums, hence the replacement of the (a) with an (@). I have found sources for a few cultivars through their site but it requires the vendors to enroll with a yearly enrollment fee and that probably won't happen. Could be a cool resource.
Garen Rees
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I believe that d@vesg@rden.com provides this sort of resource in some sort of way (Gardenweb has banned any mention of d@vesg@rden.com due to spamming on the forums, hence the replacement of the (a) with an (@). I have found sources for a few cultivars through their site but it requires the vendors to enroll with a yearly enrollment fee and that probably won't happen. Could be a cool resource.
dcsteg
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Please explain the connotation "Hobbiton" and how that relates to your garden?

Dave
whaas_5a
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Best thread of plants yet!
dcsteg
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Will,

Nice spread on your cultivars.

I was wondering aboutour Cedrus libani var. atlantica 'Horstmann'.

A photo of mine. Same cultivar? Maybe Edwin can chime in.

Dave

{{gwi:747847}}

Foliage.
{{gwi:747849}}
davidtree
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
A great garden enjoy the new pictures every week.
firefightergardener
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks for the additional nice compliments, we all like flattery for our hard labors of love.

Dave the naming of my garden wasn't something I was very comfortable with originally but it makes it easier then saying the gardens of that firefighter gardener guy.

Hobbiton is a fantasy realm from the world-wide acclaimed masterpiece novels by J.R.R. Tolkien: Lord of the Rings(also wrote The Hobbit). It's one of the greatest pieces of literature I have ever read and my parents read it to me as a very young child. It's deep in my heart and my tribute to the books are naming my garden after the green, happy, gardening-heavy and friendly neighborhood of most of the hobbits in the books "Hobbiton". Additionally with the focus on miniature plants, some even carrying names like 'Hobbit', 'Pixie Dust', 'Troll', 'Elf', 'Goblin' and plenty of Dwarves, it seemed appropriate.

As to 'Horstmann', I would say that we have the same cultivar but yours was trained, staked and pruned early in life, whereas mine is a side-grafted specimen that hasn't figured out a leader yet. I haven't decided whether I will prune it or not - and in either case, I think it will spread eventually. Cedrus libani var. atlantica are generally wide-growing plants, narrow being the very rare exception. Your specimen is beautifully narrow now but may require some pruning to keep it tight over the years.

Out to water I go!

-Will
coniferjoy
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Dave, I also think that the both of you do have the 'Horstmann', but like Will said, yours was trained, staked and pruned in an earlier time which will give it another appaerence...

Hobbiton conifers of the week, July 23rd

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Garen Rees

sprucebud

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Hobbiton conifers of the week, July 23rd

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