Hi Blue . I take it the weather is too lousy to go out there and take winter pictures ? Same here ; some snow and a pretty cold spell (-15°C / 5° F) wich luckily didn't last too long. Raining cats and dogs right now.
Thanks for the colourful summer-shots!
And a Merry X-mas to you and your family - and everybody else !!! T.

Thanks...one way to get things going around here.

I always enjoy photos of your garden.

Beautiful conifers/companion plants make for one of the best conifer gardens I know of.

Merry Christmas,

Dave

Thanks tunilla & Dave,
No snow here, but everything is pretty frozen up right now, supposed to start getting a bit milder from tomorrow.
Merry Christmas to you both.

Summer is too far away to even think about it. These pictures a very nice dreams now.
Gary

Beautiful pictures of your gardens. Thanks for sharing.
CH

In the picture showing abies concolor 'Hexe', please can you tell me the identity of the plant top left (slightly weeping, upright habit). Looks very interesting.
Also, I love the picea pungens 'Snow Cushion'.
Richard

Richard, it's Tsuga mertensiana 'Nana Pendula'

Incredible! Thanks.

Thanks, Stephen. It's a beautiful plant.

Always nice. A beautiful, incredible garden.
Thank you very much.
Do you shear 'Teddy' to keep it from splaying out? I had a couple, but gave them away because of that. I wasn't about to shear mine several times a year to keep it together.
BoTann

BoTann, I have never found it necessary to shear the 'Teddy' it's completely natural.

I was struck by the very precise form of Teddy as well. Not a single needle out of place!! I just do not possess the talent for making a garden look as perfectly designed and planted as you and Botann do.

The 'Teddy' in his garden doesn't appear to be the same one for sale in the states.

Dave

Dave, I would be surprised if it's a different cultivar , don't forget it's a tight juvenile form and we don't get the harsh winters of snow and ice damage to open it up, that perhaps you guys do in the States.

I swear I saw a picture from you Stephen with snow on your conifers. Wasn't it last year? If not, do you *never* get snow accumulations? I always figured your weather nearly mirrored that of the Pacific Northwest, in general, and thus would occasionally get snow storms dropping 20-30 cm's of snow.

I have three 'Teddy' specimens, and the two oldest are certainly trying to 'open up' from heavy rains and probably last years monster snow storm. The two largest are in pots and I have been thinking about planting them in the ground - perhaps surrounded by heather - with hopes they would stay tighter in their older age.

-Will

Hi Will,
We had snow back in February, but that was the first significant snowfall since I started here, and after a couple of days it was gone. Also here in the south of the UK it's even milder than the rest of the country, so perhaps the lack of extremes here is conducive to growing 'Teddy' well.

Maybe I should have planted them in a 'leaner' soil. I've been amending a lot of my soil for years with woodchips. Also, when I first moved here, I used a bulldozer to move the low lying, heavy soil, to higher locations where the soil was thin. Heavier soil holds water longer in our dry summers, producing lusher growth than would normally happen without supplemental water.

As always, just gorgeous Stephen! Looks like you've made lots of room for new specimens in at least one bed.

Abies concolor 'Hexe' is definitely going on my list for next spring. Yours is a beauty!

Also love your Cham. pisifera 'Sungold' -- you've never had to prune it to keep that low form?

Is that a J. maple behind and to the left of the Picea pungens 'Snow cushion'? Looks like the lions head 'Shishigashira'. If I remember correctly, you had mentioned you have trouble growing Japanese maples in your area.

Kim

Hi Kim,
The 'Sungold' has never been pruned, except for taking a few cuttings occasionally over the years. It stays very compact dense low growing, and always retains a very good gold colour all year.
The J.maple is 'Shishigashira' and is doing ok, but then it is one of the easiest to grow. My problem trying to get maples established here is mainly because my soil is very sandy and can dry out just a bit too much in the summer. I think the other mistake I made was not getting more maples planted from the beginning, so they had time to establish without the root competition from other plants.