anyone growing norway spruce in zone 8 in the southeast?
themerck
17 years ago
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conifers
17 years agoRelated Discussions
anyone growing Portlands in the Southeast?
Comments (7)I'm glad that ffff mentioned Glendora, because it's my favorite of the class. Virtually identical in habit to Sydonie, with darker pink flowers. Arthur de Sansal is a dog in my garden. Even with fungicide, he blackspots and has been growing backward since I planted him in 2009. I haven't looked, so I don't know if he made it through this winter ... I'm kind of hoping that he didn't. In my garden, Indigo is short and it suckers with wild abandon. I have it in a place where this is welcome. It's a consideration for you....See MoreNorway Spruce spacing
Comments (12)leave them be ... they will grow together ... to make a solid wall ... the branches facing each other.. will.. as you think.. brown and thin.. as they lose sun ... who cares .. they will be interior ... all facets.. facing out.. to the sun .. will grow without losing needles ... you trim up becasue you wnat the space under.. not for losing branches ... you are having a problem 'seeing' the difference between forest trees .. and individual specimens ... and i cant think of a way of googling that to show you ... all conifers shed needles in 1 to 3 years ... and off hand.. i am thinking this one holds for 3 years .... correct me if i am wrong ... but come.. 20 or 30 years down the line.. if you were to crawl inside. and stand near a trunk.. they will be all nudie inside.. that is what happens.. when the interiors get shaded ... now... listen careful ... if you want to move them.. crikey man.. focus.. MOVE EVERY OTHER ONE... lol ..... and space them 30 feet apart..; and leave half undisturbed .... and even that isnt going to be enough ... thats only 15 feet for each tree from center ... but even still... i have one that came with my house .... and i will guess its about 20 years old.. and its already past the 30 feet wide ... its the nature of the beast ... sounds like you have plenty of space.. move on to some new project.... you are investing way to much thought into this project ... ken ps: or you could harvest every other one.. over the years... for xmas trees... if you learn how to shear them to that shape ... hey.. work smart.. not hard... lol ......See MoreWhat's a better choice - blue spruce or norway spruce
Comments (26)Wow - you dug up a seriously old post! So I did end up planting a very long screen -- basically the entire length of the property line -- and I'm actually really happy with how it turned out. We used Thuja Green Giant arborvitae in the center where the tallest part of the house we are trying to block out is -- we planted them a decent distance apart, not all jammed up like I see people do for a property line screen. They have grown fast, widened out, and are basically almost up to the roof of the house we are trying to hide. I think they should cap out right about 35 feet or so, which won't block the view. We planted a few during our initial planting then filled in with a few more a couple years later -- those later plantings are a bit stunted - not sure if it's because we squeezed them into less space or they were just inferior to begin with (originals came from a nursery and were planted by a landscaper, later ones from Home Depot and we DIYed them). But they are all growing well and healthy, and seem impervious to deer, wind, cold, snow, etc. To the sides of the arborvitate, we used Nellie Stevens hollies. They too have grown fast. They don't much care for the wind -- they ended up looking pretty bad by the end of the last two winters (which were brutally cold and windy) but they filled in with new leaves in the spring. The deer don't seem to eat them either. And again, I think they cap out at 20 feet or so. To the sides of that (which is getting away from blocking the house and now just screening their yard from ours) we used forsythias planted very close together that we let grow wild into a thick hedge -- mainly because I love forsythia. It's not evergreeen but the hedge is so thick and branches are so close together that it does a decent job of screening even in winter. And in spring when it is in bloom, it is an absolutely stunning wall of yellow. Again the deer don't bother them and they seem to grow well without much care. And finally at the very end of the property lines, we used sea green junipers -- again, we were looking for something evergreen but it didn't need to be tall - we were only trying to hide the neighbor's "junk pile" which was unfortunately located so that it was the first thing you saw when you pulled into our driveway. Those are the plants that look the sickliest -- there's always big brown patches in them and the snow breaks the branches. But they are farthest from the house and from far away they look ok, so I don't mind them. I think if I had to do it over again, I'd have used all forsythia instead of also using juniper -- the forsythia are just so amazingly gorgeous when they are in bloom. I would take a picture for you but we are in the middle of a storm right now -- if I remember, I will get one tomorrow. Here's a link to a pic of what it looked like when we first planted itin 2009: Newly planted And here's a shot from the summer of 2012 (sorry for lousy pic -- best I could find): Three years old I would say that this year it really started to look good since the green giants are basically touching now....See Morenorway spruce grown in the southeast
Comments (2)I am a big fan of Norway spruce and its wide adaptability, but based on what I have seen so far, which I admit is not very much, I can't really recommend it for the southeast. Here in Northern VA it does really wonderfully, even in the hotter and drier places. One of the best specimens I know is in Upper Marlboro MD. But driving sough through VA I notice fewer and fewer nice ones, and no really great ones by the time I get to Charlottesville, VA. I have seen some OK trees in Asheville, NC, in the mountains, but driving south east to places like Savannah, I don't remember seeing many, if any. But there are places in the north, such as in parts of the Finger Lakes region of NY where I don't see many nice ones. I think it is sometimes a soil nutrients issue, but I am not sure what. Perhaps magnesium, but I am only guessing. Anyway, there is no harm in trying some. I have posted elsewhere about the seen source/strain issue. In any case, you have the native pines, and of course baldcypress. I usually don't like to plant trees in places where they are not really fully suited. I would rather have a glorious loblolly pine than a poor NS. --Spruce...See Morethemerck
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