A visit to Western Evergreen nursery
A few days ago I took advantage of some very nice Fall weather and drove on down to Western Evergreen nursery. A smaller-offshoot of his parents(and grandparent's?) Christmas tree farm, Jason Hupp has some neat plants to offer to the collector or gardener alike.
Western Evergreen offers intermediate and large growing conifers for the most part as well as some smaller dwarves. A big part of Jason's offerings are liners of various species that can be readily used for grafting or mass planting, at remarkable prices. Though Jason generally doesn't have time for in-person visits, my trip also uncovered a very large number of new and unique cultivars. Drake's Crossing Nursery(Christmast tree farm) has fields and fields of conifers growing for the Christmas tree business and one huge advantage for Jason is this provides a massive amount of plants and irregular seedlings that Jason finds, observes and occasionally introduces. Thuja plicata 'Whipcord', Abies procera 'Delbar's Cascade', and Acer palmatum 'Hupp's Dwarf' are just some of the more well known introductions by the family over the year.
Jason is a collector and plant lover himself, and a tour around his 1/2 acre garden displays a few dozen completely unique and interesting conifer cultivars. A nice blue fluffy white pine(strobus), a very unique small weeping noble fir, wildly variegated Bosnian pines and highly irregular/unusual seedlings of several other species are present. As a collector, this presents something of a 'back-stage' pass and for me, easily justified the 5+ hours of driving. I'll highlight some of the cooler newer plants in the 'Abies procera' gallery I hope to get started in the next few days.
Most of the newer plants Jason has found are still under observation though expect to see some introduced in the near future. The nursery still has some great offerings, and as highlighted in my online nursery review page, the prices are excellent as well. Naturally because it's a shipping process and largely a one-man operation, Jason appreciates larger/bulk orders, but if you could only afford a half dozen trees, Jason may still be able to accomodate you. Jason primarily sells gallons and 'liners', which are one-year plants usually. I've included a few shots to give you an idea what to expect. Whether you need 100 small giant redwood seedlings or a few dozen conifer cultivars, Western Evergreen nursery should be an appealing option.
These are mostly one-gallon offerings. Like Coenosium Gardens and Porterhowse farms, Jason insists on selling older gallon plants, not one-year grafts in gallon pots.
The 'drool' area, Jason's stock plants include some real doozies! I tried to shoplift a few, but he's very organized and his cat prowls the nursery dutifully.
-Will
Comments (37)
PRODavid Olszyk, President, American Conifer Society
12 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
firefightergardener
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Western Evergreen Order
Comments (16)Well, I think there's a time and place for everything. Some of Ken's post crack me up and I would miss not having them. I'll be "direct" with people when I have to be as well. However in this case I don't think he's being fair to say the bumper's post had NOTHING to do with the OP's post. They are about the same nursery! By the standards of some thread bumpers, that's actually a pretty reasonable coefficient of correlation! I personally wouldn't order a random assortment of anything...but if conifer kid really wants that for some reason, I can see why he thought to bump this thread. Maybe not necessary, but not an outrageous violation of board protocols. I think with a program like that, you're basically going to get the leftovers. Not to put down the nursery, but that's what they would logically send out in such a batch. You're not going to get the rarer and more desirable stuff. So, by definition it's not intended for serious collectors (which most of us are, presumably) but rather punters grazing at garden shops. "Cute little conifers" seems to be a retailing trend in horticulture right now....See MoreMy visit to Woodlanders Nursery today
Comments (5)Woodlander doesn NOT stand behind their plants NOR respond to rmails. My plants from Woodlanders, 3 evergreen Viburnum Japonica and one citrus, had yellow leaves upon arrival. I emailed a photo to them, they did not answer. we planted snyway. Now they are simply dying. I emailed another photo of them planted, looking worse…. Woodlanders does not respond nor obviously will they make good on their plant orders. for sure i wont order from them again. Beware!...See MoreNew Plants from Western Evergreen
Comments (8)Yep, Jason sent you some very nice good quality conifers! Some name corrections: Pinus parviflora 'Azuma Goyo' Must be written as Pinus parviflora 'Azumu'. You can leave the "Goyo" part because it's just the Japanese word for Pinus parviflora. Pinus parviflora 'Goldilocks' This is a synonym for what is Pinus parviflora 'Tenysu-kazu'. Pinus parviflora 'Hagarumo' Must be written as Pinus parviflora 'Hagoromo' Pinus parviflora 'Ogon Janome' Must be written as Pinus parviflora 'Ogon-janome' Pinus thunbergii 'Shirome Janone' Must be written as Pinus thunbergii 'Shirome-janone' I hope I helped you with this info......See MoreWesternEvergreen Order
Comments (16)Thanks everyone! My plans this year have changed... my beds I've created in 2011 & 2012 have small 1' tall plants, spaced 12'+ apart and 20 yards of mulch in each bed. Plus I have a lot of junk ground cover plants that I made the mistake of putting in. The new beds I'm working on now will only feature conifers, Japanese Maples and a few other large trees that are already in place. I've cleared off my last 2 acres this past spring at the back of my property (an area around 220' x 350' that is pictured below). I have the rope and roundup down creating all the pathways I need. My plan is to have almost all the dwarf to large conifers planted by the end of 2014. They all are getting spaced 20-30' apart with a large mulch ring so they are easy to mow around with the cub. These plants are just a few of the ones I'll need to buy in 2014. I'll need at least 50 more to fill it up which I plan to order most from Western Evergreen and also some from Conifer Kingdom next spring. The Pergola will also go up in 2014 and is represented wit the # below. It'll be 3-4 years before I start to mulch. So these little guys have a chance to get larger. I'm only doing it this way because most plants are 12" tall and are spaced 20-30' apart. It would be a wasteful to put down 200 yards of mulch when you could barely see the plants. Well I guess I'll show you all my plan that I've been working on this fall and into the coming years. Keep in mind all the larger bold tree icons in beds 11 & 12 are planted and they were the ones from Conifer Kingdom & Western Evergreen. The smaller icons are place holders until I order more plants in the spring. I had to redesign the couple beds in the middle this past weekend.. which is why I have blue lines in the drawing. I haven't had a chance to update the drawing just yet. It's much easier going off a drawing than what I've been doing the past couple years... designing the beds with rope not having a clue on how it was coming together....See Moredietzjm
12 years agolast modified: 9 years ago- PRO
David Olszyk, President, American Conifer Society
12 years agolast modified: 9 years ago sluice
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoblue_yew
12 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
Cher
12 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
dansgrdn
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agofirefightergardener
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoJason rarely if ever visits these forums, so I'll have to email him with these questions. I can answer what he told me during the visit anyway. He had at least two very cool gold-tipped/gold hued Bosnian Pines. I think he was close to naming one and then I presume grafting it soon. If you have checked them out before, he has already named and introduced several newer plants to his inventory.
I traded a few plants for some goodies, mostly plants that are under observation still. Most are noble fir cultivars, my favorite conifer but I'll post a few of the evaluation plants here.
Note the brackets instead of the use of an apostrophy, which designates these plants are not officially registered, released or named and are still under an evaluation period.
Picea pungens [Mint Julep]. A smaller, spreading Colorado spruce dwarf. Jason found the original plant in a neighbors yard. He's unsure if it's worth releasing to this point.
Picea abies [Dwarf Cupressina]. Noteworthy for it's very compact dwarf growth which resembles Picea mariana 'Blue Teardrop'. I've asked Jason for a photo of his plant. It was COOL.
-Will
Ament
12 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
whaas_5a
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agofirefightergardener
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoA night photo, so not the greatest perspective. This plant is about seven years old according to Jason. Picea abies [Slow Cupressina]. I imagine he'll end up releasing it since it is so choice.
Abies procera [Tolines Farm WB(top)]. Another new plant under observation, this is a very dwarf witches broom from a field-grown Abies procera. The actual tree had what appeared to be two witches brooms, or rather a broom and then at the top of that broom, another smaller one.
Here is the broom in the field.
-Will
gardener365
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agojohnplace
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoAment
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12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoEmbothrium
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoAment
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agowhaas_5a
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agofirefightergardener
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoI wouldn't pay too much attention to Bboy. He's a gardenweb forum troll who while occasionally posting useful information, largely posts negative, biased crap and pisses off forum go'ers. I'd love to see dcsteg and him go at it, deathmatch 2000 style! The next positive thing he says will be the first I have seen.
Nothing was done to the photos and things looked fine both in person and the photos. I wouldn't have driven hours to visit a tree nursery I thought had lousy offerings. Regarding the pots, Jason and I had a discussion about root systems and we both agreed that in many circles people overreact about root conditions, particularly in the case of very small plants. Nevertheless, I think you'll find the roots from Western Evergreen's nursery in fine shape.
Moving on, as this is the easiest way to deal with Trolls, here are a few photos of a potential future introduction:
Pinus heldreichii [Bosnian Sunrise].
Candles in May.
July.
Autumn.
Closeup.
I've asked Jason to share photos and more info about potential new releases, both to receive feedback and let collectors make wishlists.
-Will
sluice
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoAment
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alley_cat_gw_7b
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11 years agolast modified: 9 years agoConifer K(7b GA)
6 years ago
bamboo_nuts
6 years ago
Sara Malone (Zone 9b)
6 years agoChuck
6 years ago
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