Another shot of a black pine I am excited about: Pinus thunbergii 'Emery's Dwarf'. Not a miniature per say, but looks like it's a 2-3" a year guy and VERY dense. A lotta buds! Looks like it may have come from down under? Anyone know more to it's discovery? Thanks! -Will

I love these debates about soil amendments.However, much as I respect scientific research and their findings, I'm also a strong believer in personal experience. Many gardeners have compost heaps and return to the land what the plants and/or the animals got out of it. It's part of the satisfaction of gardening.Not everyone owns a well drained piece of land wich was grazing pasture for horses some years ago.When I started planting this plot of land ten years ago I was bending the prongs on my garden fork, wrestling with rocks and hard,bone dry clay. I'd call my wife when I came across a worm, just so she could see for herself. I wasn't going to wait until I had dug over and composted the whole site, so I started planting some shrubs and some fruit trees plus also conifers in the last four years or so;some bare root, some B&B and many container-grown plants.I have always made large & deeply-dug planting holes, to wich are added a barrowload of compost, a handful of superphosphate and some Magnesium sulphate. Now we have lots of earthworms.I call them the Labour Party.They tunnel their way through the garden and, if I were a tree root, I would follow them, through these thousands of galleries in wich they leave their worm-casts, for my root-hairs to feed upon and send back the minerals to the mother-plant. Slowly, the planting holes are becoming one as the garden gets fuller.I do not regret putting life back in the soil. Also, on one or two occasions I was too hasty and planted in smaller holes, with the soil 'as is'. These mostly turned out to be the losers - but not always. T. PS. I'm eagerly awaiting better weather conditions as I too have a small 'Thunderhead' still to plant.

Thank you Mike. Indeed it is hard to imagine Greece with snowfalls but we do get some. Extensive snowfall this year up to 5-6 feet in some nothern regions with higher elevations. For me, at 2800 feet altitude, 2 feet is a lot of snow, but I recall my grandparents telling me stories of 5-6 feet in the old days. Maybe true, I don't know. But it's strange seeing a lot of US gardens, even in zones down to 5, not completely covered in snow this time of year (Ken's for example), or do I see autumn images uploaded instead of fresh images? Sam, this is just a usual Cupressus macrocarpa 'Goldcrest' planted last, late winter and never irrigated. Just 5-6 waterings through july and August. I guess the combination of full sun, low temps (around -8C during night) and dry conditions through spring-summer brought up nice coloring. It is quite bright yellow-white all year round for me. Best regards, Fotis

Talk about mega-newbie question! ..... Does anyone have any suggestion on good places to find pure Japanese Black Pine species(and Japanese Red Pines) online for purchase? hey..WELCOME first.. be prepared to be enabled ... lol second.. let get you up to speed on using latin names .... Japanese Red Pine (Pinus densiflora) .. densiflora is about as common as they come.. if you cant find good CULTIVARS for sale .... mail order.. just give up now ... lol... do you know the difference between as species and a cultivar .... ?? generally.. species are otherwise know as forest trees.. and unless you have a couple hundred acres.. you dont really want them in your garden ... what you should be looking for.. is a Cultivated Variety [aka CultiVar] chosen for its size... shape.. color.. texture.. making it somehow unique to the species ... BTW.. do you know what 'Oculis-draconis' means? ... it will define why this one was chosen for propagation??? next.. make plans to remove all your grass ... in the next few decades... lol ... there is so much we can teach you.. if you wish to hang around ... an easy way to start.. is to read thru the 60 odd pages of posts.. and then zero in on specific questions for new posts ... all pix can be reloaded if you want to see them... soooo ... do you really want a bunch of extremely large forest trees.. or are you looking for cultivars.. and once you answer that question.. are you looking for color.. size.. texture.. etc ... here is a link to a primer on conifers ... pay special attention to the section on Conifer Sizes.. what i call ANNUAL GROWTH RATE ... that is what defines mini.. dwarf.. intermediate.. and large plants .... [and has been covered in hundreds of posts] .. but if you have specific ???'s.. feel free.. we can cover it again ...: http://www.conifersociety.org/cs2/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=3 how about a pic or two of your potential garden space ..... in a new post.. and we can brainstorm that for you also ... welcome.. and good luck ken Here is a link that might be useful: vast potential ....