Fabulous !!!
Glad to see some European conifer photos on the forum -- they're waaaaaaaay too few & far between, in general.

PS. that A. n. Golden Spreader looks kind of threatening -- in the sense that I haven't foreseen that kind of size for the two tiny ones I planted some time ago....

We have real conifers in England, too!

{{gwi:607994}}
Abies grandis, 54m tall

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Sequoiadendron giganteum, 45-46m tall

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Araucaria araucana

Real conifers, of course, have cones . . .
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Araucaria araucana

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Picea mariana

Resin

GEORGEOUS PICTURES !!! That such beauty and grandeur exists is so soothing and inspiring. Heaven must be full of these.

Bluespruce53, great photos! I really enjoyed looking through them. Foxhollow looks like a great place to visit. Thanks for sharing the pictures. Dan

Wow! Breathtaking! Nice job... Thanks for posting them!

Resin -Dwarf conifers are REAL conifers whatever you may think, I would appreciate you not trying to hijack this thread , start one of your own.

Hi Bluespruce,

Sorry if you feel it's hijacked - my post is fully within the thread title topic 'Conifer pics from England' (all of my pics are from England, too). Maybe should have titled it 'Dwarf Conifer pics from England' or 'Conifer cultivar pics from England'?

Yeah, of course they're real conifers in the genetic sense, though very arguably not in the dictionary or biological-reproductive definition "plants that bear cones".

Resin

nice pics,tho I was expecting to see those like Resin posted. Resin,where were those taken?

Thanks EVERYONE for the pics, this forum needs many more!

Resin those are incredible shots! Might you be able to tell us how old most of those stands are?

Unbelievable,... what can't you guys grow there?!

Nate

i just noticed something. You said of Picea abies Tompa that its easy to propagate from cuttings,but I thought all members of the pine family were virtually impossible to take cuttings from.

". . . have cones(!)" LOL

Oh brother.

Thank you both very much. Kinda speechless but I like feeling dumb! LOL

Thanks again to both of you,

Nice raised bed. I see what I need to do.

Later,

Dax

"You said of Picea abies Tompa that its easy to propagate from cuttings,but I thought all members of the pine family were virtually impossible to take cuttings from"

Hi Greenlarry - this cultivar is (like dwarf Alberta Spruce) a fixed juvenile type; juvenile material is always (in all conifer families, and probably all plant families) easier to get to root than material from adult plants.

It still isn't easy in the sense that a willow is easy to root, you won't be successful just sticking a twig in a toothmug on the windowsill. It needs a deal of care and decent propagation equipment.

Resin

I always enjoy photos of old growth conifer stands and their associated cones. They have their place on the forum. For the most part the majority on the forum will never have the opportunity to have the land to enjoy this kind of setting. That is why I enjoy the photos. I am one of them.

Conifer gardening is what this particular forum is about. Being able to post a question and getting a reasonable answer to many concerns that go with developing a conifer garden that is pleasing to the eye.

While some people think broad expanses of rolling hills loaded with large conifers is the end thing and nothing else is acceptable. I disagree. If you read between the lines we have two groups in confrontation with each other on this forum. The old school big is better and the person with the postage stamp lot that thinks only in dwarf or miniature terms.

I fall into the latter group. I really think conifer gardening on an average size lot is a thing of beauty and is a work of a life time to keep presentable. Rather then looking at a stand of the same conifers for miles on end I would rather look at a small conifer garden with many different cultivars growing together. You never get tired of looking at it and the wheels never quit turning as to how you can make it better. To me that's living and the choices to keep it interesting are endless.

To each his own. I think we can live together in spite of our differences.

Dave

your absolutely right Dave. I have a small garden and would like a few small conifers here and there,but even if I hated the things I'd still be on here because I love big trees,and am just coming to appreciate conifers as trees rather than just living garden ornaments. This is new to me really,I don't know why but I'd never seen conifers as trees before. Im not an avid gardener,but I still come here for the trees.

Thanks for the wonderful pics everyone. Oh, why am I cursed to live in zone 4a?
Mike

I would like to have a dwarf conifer garden, but alas, the deer. My wife and I have talked about the possibility of building a walled garden, but we have other priorities for our resources now.

What I think should be a more popular thing to do, but which I see done very rarely, is the planting of large conifers in small groups or groves--as few as three trees for a group, up to 10 or 12 for a small grove. Here in the eastern US groups of white pine or Norway spruce (or mixed) can be absolutely stunning and can work in landscapes with other trees. But this kind of planting is virtually never done. And, although you can't do it on a very small lot, you really don't need that much space.

--Spruce

Spruceman,a sacred grove of conifers,now that sounds a nice place to be!

"a sacred grove of conifers,now that sounds a nice place to be!"

Important to keep the deer out though, or it would be a scared grove.

Resin,

Yeah right, sorry I might have known it would be my fault for not stating it was a dwarf conifer thread, nothing to do with the fact that you take every opportunity to make snide comments about dwarf and ornimental conifers then ?
Greenlarry - I didn't realize you were asking Resin about how easy Picea abies Tompa was to propagate from cuttings ?

Bluespruce.

jaro,
A zoom lens was used for the Abies nordmanniana Golden Spreader pic, might look a little more threatening than it is, this plant is 5 feet tall by 6 feet wide at it's base, age is about 20 years.
Bluespruce.

Bluespruce, i was addressing you but I was also addresing the board in general as this is a community of knowledgeable people with the occasional newbie like myself searching for knowledge from anyone with the answers.

Well, let me "hijack" this thread a bit to talk about a general issue. I was an English teacher for 32 years and for the last 15 or so did a lot of teaching using discussion forums much like these here. At first I used a program that created topics that allowed digressions in the topics. Later that program was replaced with one that created topics that required responders to strictly address a specific post/response. It was more strictly "threaded," so to speak.

Well, after using the new program for a while I desperately wanted the old one back. All the freedom of expression and enthusiasm of my students in the discussions vanished. It all became a chore for them and they felt they could no longer be spontaneous.

This is not to say that some programs/situations in some communities should not be very strict about relevance to the topic at hand--serious academic discussions where all the participants have a similar level of training and interests. But we are a mixed bunch here--very, very mixed in terms of interests and experience. So I advocate for us to loosen up and be tolerant of digressions and misunderstandings and let all the participants here, whatever their intersts and needs may be, feel comfortable.

--Spruce

I think the two different tracks of conifer use highlighted in this thread-"garden conifers" and full sized specie plants display nicely the wonder of conifers. I like both approaches and for f*ck sake, there's room for both in this world!

Having said that, I am consistently impressed with the pics, primarily posted by Mr. Pineresin, of full sized 'introduced' conifers growing in the Brirish Isles. I recall an absolutely stunning Western hemlock he posted a while back, and now these. It sure appears that England is a GREAT place for the culture of many N. American species.

BTW Bluespruce, do you know the identity of the magenta flowering plant in the pic of Pinus sylvestris 'kelpie'? It's a good one too!

+oM

Tom,it looks like some kind of Heather to me(Erica,Calluna or Daboecia etc)

Erica cinerea Pentreath, at it's best in June and July, colour is a bit washed out at this stage.

Now I don't feel so bad not knowing what the plants identity is, me being a pro horticulturist and all. We don't/can't grow that ericaceous stuff around here.

+oM

Heathers and conifers SO go together don't they! And there are absolutely hundreds of cultivars out there,almost as many as Roses!

Stunning pics! The dwarf conifers look absolutely fabulous in such a wonderful garden setting.

Coniferprincess

I like the pic of the garden with the house(cottage?) on the left. Is that muhly grass in the middle too?

Looking through past postings and rejuvenating a few with great pictures and ideas for us gardeners and cultivar collectors
...hoping there will be even more great stuff added!

Barbara

Hi re-juvenator.This is a good one isn't it?I like the debate:.dwarf versus 'real' conifers.Very funny.Someone must have planted those real ones when they were probably not unlike their dwarf cousins.Resin comes along 50 years later and at the click of a button he becomes a 'real' gardener? I said in an earlier thread that I think that creating a garden is a courageous act.In fact,I think all planting is.Planting for now and for posterity,for ourselves but also for those who come after us.I used to do garden construction work in the London suburbs.You wouldn't believe how many private garbage dumps I have seen.And amongst all that thrash someone decides to have a patio,or a lawn,or a pergola or a wooden fence with some nice trellis on top of it.We hire a skip (container) and wheel out rusty washing machines,car tyres,soggy matrasses and what have you.Occasionally we demolish a WWII bomb-shelter.When the work is done it stands out like a vase of roses on the moon.When you come along five years later,you notice the neighbours have also made an effort,and their neighbours too,and so on.Now,twenty-odd years later,some of those gardens have huge trees in them.Very pretty when young,but alas,wrong choice for the available space.
So,the miniature,the dwarf or semi-dwarf -be it conifers or something else-are indispensable for Mr and Mrs Jones's
garden.Much as I admire the wonders of nature,I also admire the creative spirit of man.That's what keeps him or her ticking. T.