brilliant will!!!!!!

its easy to tell you dont have snow plow issues ... or road salt .. lol ....

now i just hope you dont have easement police issues ....

keep up God's work .. in re conifers, at least...

ken

It is quite astonishing what you have managed to achieve. Please can you identify two plants for me - in the 3rd picture from the end I can see a nice pyramidal spruce and pine on the right hand side. Please can you name them!
Thanks.
Richard

Most exemplary work.

I bet you feel like a million bucks. Good labor, then results.

Fantastic...

Dax

Hi Will,

I am just blown away by the quality and quantity of plants you have collected over the past two years.

Do you plan to keep buying conifers and developing new areas till there is no room left? You have 2-3 years left before you are going to have to cull 1/3-1/2 of those cultivars from each bed. I am just curious as to what thought or plan will be implemented when push comes to shove?

When this bug bites you some control has to come into play. I finally got a handle with my obsession. No more new beds as what I have now are maturing with some cultivars slated to be yanked to be replace with rare dwarf varieties. A new look when you round to corner is what I am after. Not with just any cultivar but with something that grabs you as a thing of beauty. There are varieties now coming into play that were not there 10 years ago that now make this possible.

You are correct about being a fun and healthy hobby to be in. Just don't let it overwhelm you. If it does then the opposite will come into play.

Good luck,

Dave

Dave

Richard, the spruce is Picea omorika 'Zuckerhut' and the pine is Pinus strobus 'Beran'. Both are medium dwarves and both are about 5-6 years old.

So far I've been able to stay ahead of it pretty well Dave. I do have more 'time' then most to devote to it, I detest relationships(I'm a pretty happy single-guy), have a steady, regular hour job and I judiciously use my vacation time in Summer to handle watering/weeding/ planting/care details. This year I actually had quite a bit of 'extra time' and it allowed me to work on a few extra projects, several lengthy road-trips and still play on my four softball teams.

Also with our super-mild Winters, I have a LOT of time between December and March for projects, pruning, moving of plants, etc.

I think the biggest key for me long-term is my friendship and business-partnership with a local nursery owner. He is about 60% complete with an enormous botanical garden about a half-mile from my house. As it becomes apparent certain plants will have to go, we'll attempt to dig and then transport them to open ground. Of the 91-acre gardens, about 30 is undeveloped and he is eager to pay me a decent rate for plants that we can move over. I've sold or traded at least 100 plants to him already, and now I can enjoy the pride of watching them grow in a great botanical garden.

I think ultimately in a decade or two from now, I'll end up with between 300-500 conifer cultivars on my little plot of land, the vast majority of those being miniatures, narrow uprights or sprawling plants that mesh well with others. Ditto the Japanese maples(now over 300 cultivars on my property), I'll prune, transplant or cull the ones that aren't playing well with others.

I guess I consider fitting everything in a necessary challenge as I can't imagine just sitting around and not 'working' on my gardens down the road.

By far the biggest challenge is watering but hopefully in 2-3 years the vast majority of my plants will be well established and won't need supplemental water except for the hottest few stretches of Summer.

I do appreciate the words of wisdom Dave, your gardens are some of my main inspiration. While plants are large and sometimes squeezed in, everything looks to be in perfect harmony and your great selections of different colors, textures and plant types is really an acquired skill. I aspire to that level of gardening.

I may post a few more images of this in the next few weeks as I make some final touches, but more importantly, I'll surely be posting some of these images in Autumn when the dozen or so Japanese maples are in their full glory.

Thanks again for the comments!

-Will

You should probably consider fencing, or other protective measures (if proximity to street allows it). You have presented a bunch of small collectibles to a publicly accessible area - that is not in full view of your house.

Excellent!

Very impressive ! ....AND inspiring !!

PS. bboy mentions an issue that concerns me too -- I certainly DON'T put my most valuable plants in the front yard -- if only because of random vandalism.... kids on bikes, etc., etc. (in winter, before the big snowfalls, I put stakes in the ground around the smaller plants, to discourage people from straying off the sidewalk to take any sort of short-cuts....)

Speechless !!!

Security is an issue for me but I'm much less concerned then most people, and I think at least(knock on wood) for now, I have good reason.

First, I avoid putting any plant down by the street that would just KILL me if it was stolen. About the only plant down there that has much emotional attachment is a 2-3 year graft of Picea abies 'Dandylion', a golden-seedling gift from Bob Fincham. That said, I'm sure Bob has a dozen more grafts in the works so it's hardly irreplacable. I try and keep my 'really coveted' plants closer to the house where you'd have to drive up my driveway, park, dig up the plants and then leave before my neighbor called the cops. This leads me to the second point.

My neighbor is a retired police officer and he's also a neighborhood bulldog. He constantly walks his dog(3-5 times a day, every day), mows the yard and generally watches things with a California-cautious eye. It's good to have neighbors like this who can monitor things when I'm gone. While he and his wife do take small trips, it's certainly refreshing to know that it wouldn't be easy to dig up a half dozen plants without him noticing. Especially now since there is no parking on the street, you'd really be out of place parking next to this new bed.

Finally, we're in a dead-end cul de sac in a VERY quiet, low-crime area of Washington. People frequently leave their garage doors open, etc. without too much worry.

I guess ultimately if someone wanted to rob me they could and in this day and age, if someone really wants to rob me for my plants then I guess they need the plants(or money) more then I do.

Hopefully it never comes to that. If they asked, I'd just give them a few for free and show them my plants.

-Will

Making some more 'finishing touches to this project. I added some short perennials, grasses and pea gravel for the dry-creek bed and filled in some of the smaller holes with more miniature/dwarf conifers. At the base of the street I hammered in some 'lava rock' to help pad down the weedblock which should both help prevent weeds at the street level and also help prevent erosion(the weedblock acts like a catch-all.

Most of my neighbors were thrilled to see me finally get rid of this weed-patch and while it will always be somewhat vulnerable to vandalism or theft, I'm comfortable enough in my quite neck of the woods to feel secure leaving it mostly to the eyes of my neighbors.

Really the idea was to have a low-maintenance, low-water(eventually) landscaping with a large palate of colors, textures, sizes and shapes. In a few years of growth I think this will be accomplished.

Many of the perennials I transplanted from the back flower bed - a bed that needs serious renovation - but the flowers are worth keeping. The move in mid-August proved difficult for the plants but most perked up with some regular watering the first week after the move.

Most of the Japanese maples are Acer japonicum, which in my experience, handle full sun better and also have the best fall color. While some day they will grow tall, most are behind the conifer beds so they will not shade out the plants that really want the sun. I'll try and post photos once they start showing off in Autumn.

Recycled rock from the digging of many holes and a couple bags of pea-gravel to fill in the gaps.

A few more closeups. Yes I know the plants are close together! :)

Thanks for taking a look.

-Will

WOW.

Fourth pic from the bottom, what is the blue spruce on the right?

Also what are the two small blue spruces in front of the utility box?

Amazing-I think in the winter you should write a book :)

Very impressive. Love it!

Miclino, the spruces next to the utility box are Picea pungens Iseli Fastigata' and picea pungens 'Scottie', a slow growing narrowish cone.

I think the plant you're talking about towards the bottom is Abies procera 'Delbar's Cascade'.

Glad you liked my chaotic design.

-Will

great job .looks amazing.how many redbulls did you drink during this project to finish so quickly? what is that tall bright yellow conifer by the street edge,that is one of the brightest yellows i have ever seen.i want one!!!!