Another company not well known, that is really just one guy, is...

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Western Evergreen Nursery

Operated by the son of a large Christmas tree farm family in Silverton Oregon, Western Evergreen is a small online business ran by Jason Hupp. If the name is familiar, it's because a good number of really cool conifers(and other plants: Acer palmatum Hupp's Dwarf) have been discovered as seedlings in their Christmas tree farms. Jason is very active in searching and observing new plants and he finds neat new plants on a regular basis.

INVENTORY: **** Western Evergreen nursery has some cool plants available and a nice selection of a few hundred cultivars. Some are common, some are rare and some are EXCLUSIVE, discoveries of Jason(or his family) and thus as a collector, I am intrigued by his offerings each year. He primarily offers smaller plants, 'liners' which are basically brand new fresh grafts and 1-gallon plants but he also has larger stock available if you're interested though as usual, it's not real effective or cost effecient to ship large conifers. Western Evergreen focuses mostly on larger conifers, not miniatures or small dwarves.

STOCK QUALITY/SIZE: **** Jason does either all of the grafting or most of it, plus the care of the plants himself. This is basically an operation out of his home. His plant experience is probably extensive given his family history and he grafts plants well and takes care of potted plants better then most. I have had exceptional success both with tender 'liners' and older plants, both shipped and picked up in person. Older plants were shaped well and often turned into picture perfect specimens right out of the pot. Out of several dozen plants I've picked up from Western Evergreen, I've had maybe one or two plants give me any issues and this was probably due to cold, not the plant health.

GENERAL EXPERIENCE/CUSTOMER SERVICE: *** Jason is a very nice guy. He happily and proudly showed me around his gardens, his nursery and his families cool older plant gardens. With all this nice stuff in mind, this is NOT a nursery you should expect instant assistance or attention from. Jason no doubt works hard on his primary job and this little thing called life so if your email doesn't get answered right away or your order is a week late, you'll know why. I never had a problem, I just want to warn anyone expecting the royal treatment that this is a one-man operation.

VALUE: ***** As you'll see in the photos below, Western Evergreen offers very nice plants at a very affordable price. Shipping has been reasonable and plants are either very inexpensive(and small) or nicely sized and still very affordable. For bang for your buck, this is probably the BEST online nursery I have experience with.If you're penny pinching this is a good guy to get ahold of.

jason@drakescrossingnursery.com

Do keep in mind that these plants have all grown a year since I bought them but these are a few of his offerings I came away with:

Sequoia giganteum 'Glaucum'. A brand new graft, $6. Yeah six bucks.

Pinus parviflora 'Hagoromo'(a year ago), $10. 1-gallon. You won't see a better deal then that.

Pinus nigra 'Oregon Green'. $7(a year ago). 1-gallon plant.

Pseudotsuga menziesii 'Graceful Grace'. $12. Another great offering.

Pseudotsuga menziesii 'Whiskey Hill'. $15, one-year plant. An exclusive plant offering, and a subsequently higher price, but still a good value for a newer introduction.
Western Evergreen is a newer nursery but it's ran very well and offers nice plants at some of the best prices you'll ever see.

Western Evergreen is a newer nursery but it's ran very well and offers nice plants at some of the best prices you'll ever see. Email Jason if you're interested, give him a few days, and happy conifer hunting.

Next are Bethlehem Nursery and Oregongrown Nursery(formerly Oregongrownnursery of Ebay).

Just submitted my first order to Western Evergreen. Great selection! Thanks Will, keep 'em coming!

Matt

Is there a website for Western Evergreen? I've found Drake's Crossing Website, but they appear to be wholesale.

You'll need to get on Jason's email list and he sends availability exclusively thru emails.

jason@drakescrossingnursery.com

Will, appreciate the addtional reviews and sources!

Pseudotsuga menziesii 'Graceful Grace'...is your bluer than most?

Will, I had a few other sources confirm that 'Royal Knight' grows 6-8" a year.

Since both you and Ken got yours from Girards I believe they sent you the wrong plants...we all know they are quite capable of that!lol! They do over 1,000 conifer grafts per year.

I had 4 out of 20 that were mislabeled from them. 2 of 4 where pleasant surprises!

You're probably right Will though it is planted in a dry spot with poor soil so it's possibly still correct. I will monitor it closely.

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Bethlehem Nursery

Bethlehem nursery is ran and operated by Dennis Dodge, a long-time conifer collector and grower from Connecticut. His mail-order nursery focuses on very small dwarves and miniatures and sciadopitys verticillata has been a specialty of his as well.

www.bethlehem nursery.com and email: graftforyou@aol.com

INVENTORY: **** Bethlehem nursery offers a 'new availability' email a few times a year, usually in Winter to previous customers, or by request. The vast majority of plant offerings are for true miniature conifers or slower growing dwarves. Many of these plants are VERY VERY rare and you'd be hard pressed to find another source in the US. The list has some information but because some of these plants are so rare, getting detailed information can be difficult. The total volume of offerings varies from year to year but the inventory is very substancial, usually a few hundred cultivars or more. There's no denying though that Dennis has some great little offerings to any collector.

STOCK QUALITY/SIZE: **** Bethlehem nursery offers smaller plants, usually in 3-4" shallow pots. These plants are usually one, two or sometimes three-year plants. Most are quite tender so a new collector or gardener might want to make sure they aren't stepped on after planting(or even keep potted a few months). That said, their quality is high and I've had *one* plant loss in over 30 ordered. Dennis' experience is evident in the stock he offers. While these plants are a little smaller then other nurseries offer, they are quite rare in most instances so there isn't any 'leftovers' most years, Dennis probably sells the vast majority of his grafts quickly.

CUSTOMER SERVICE/GENERAL EXPERIENCE: **** I have had no issues now with three plant orders. I lost one pine, probably due to shipping stress or by poor care but otherwise the plants have come shipped VERY well, quickly and in late-Spring when they have a nice healthy flush going. No worries here about planting something that is dead already. Dennis works almost strictly via email and I have paid *after* plant orders arrived. Most recently a few months after my order came safely. Don't count on this in the future though, and be happy if this is the process with your order.

VALUE: **** Bethlehem offers nice, rare plants at a very affodable price. Considering how rare many of his offerings are, these plants are a bargain at these prices despite their young age. Shipping was reasonable too, for me, all the way across country was $40 for 13 plants.

A few examples of his offerings(bought this Winter and arrived this June):

Abies lasiocarpa 'Stanley K'. $22. Grafted a little high(standard), a VERY good price for such a rare plant.

Picea sitchensis 'Nana Kalous'. $21.

Bethlehem is a fine conifer nursery. Good quality, rare conifers, offered at a good value shipped fast and healthy. Buzz an email by Dennis and he'll take care of your conifer addiction, for this year at least.

-Will

The color of the Parviflora Hogoromo looks outstanding. Is that typical?

Will, I think the 'Graceful Grace' is a normal color. I shot these photos midday on a cloudy but bright day. I'll have to take a closer look though because it looks a little blue to me as well.

baxz5oh: that color is fairly representative of the cultivar, though again I'd say it's enhanced a bit by a photo mid-day on a bright cloudy day.

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OREGON GROWN NURSURY(Formerly of Ebay)

The Oregon Grown Nursery Ebay store made it's appearance a few years ago displaying many numerous offerings of rare and unusual deciduous plants, Japanese maples and conifer cultivars. I don't know their owner though it appears to be mostly a small operation by a plant propogater from Vancouver, Washington.

http://www.ioffer.com/selling/oregongrownnursery/Home-Garden-240000

INVENTORY: **** OGN(Oregon Grown Nursery) has a wide selection of plants ranging from unusual deciduous trees, to Japanese maples and a few hundred conifer cultivars. These range from the mundane to the the fairly rare. Mostly they offer larger growing conifers though they do have a few dozen selections that qualify as smaller dwarves. They offer various sized plants but most are young, newly grafted plants in 'liner' pots.

STOCK QUALITY/SIZE: ** One common complaint with this merchant is that the plants are very small/young. Accompanied by a large photo of a mature/beautiful specimen of course only leads to further disappointment by some when their 1-year graft with a little fuzzy new growth is all that is present. They do offer some older plants that have some size to them but almost all of their offerings will be what you might consider a 1-gallon sized plant or smaller and 3-4 years old, tops.

CUSTOMER SERVICE/GENERAL EXPERIENCE: ** Another element that has lead both myself and others to feel a bit turned off here is a general lack of attention and customer service. It's entirely possible that this is one guy doing all of this work, grafting, potting, watering, packing up orders and then shipping several dozen orders a week. Whatever the case, it has some times been difficult to make contact with the owner and problems and disputes were harder to settle then your average online nursery. Another concern was a series of obvious mislabeled plants(see below). Some were clearly mislabeled, others were mystery plants and a few came unlabeled, that I had to research my ebay purchases to find what I had bought. Plants were almost always healthy though and shipping was fine, secure and timely, so it's not all doom and gloom.

VALUE: *** Pricing of plants range from $12-14 for smaller plants and $30 for the higher-end or older plants. Shipping wasn't overly affordable though and given that many plants are very new, the prices seemed 'fair' though nothing to write home about.

Overall there are some potential glitches to work through but the large inventory, solid plant health and affordability makes OGN at least an option for collectors and gardeners alike, even if it's not perhaps the best nursery I've ever ordered from. I'd recommend them with a side portion of patience and a dash of forgiveness.

Pinus parviflora 'Hagoromo', $11. Not a bad specimen just hard to recommend this over a larger plant from Western Evergreen.

Pinus thunbergii 'Banshosho(one year of growth on it), $15.

Picea abies 'Kluis'. $10. Tiny.

Abies lasiocarpa 'Argentea', labeled incorrectly as Pseudotsuga menziesii 'Blue Bear'. $16.

-Will

Oregon Grown Nursery is now Japanesemaplesandconifers on ebay.

Whaas, that explains why the labels of the plants I bought from the latter had the tags from the former... :-)

The one item they sent me that was actually correct (meaning that it had the correct label), might well not be correct after all, judging from this vendor's history of mislabeling plants.

I'd like to offer my own review of OregonGrown/JapaneseMaplesandConifers: They suck.