Thanks for the pictures. Yesterday, by coincidence, I was looking at The pine ÂSarah Rachel on the Coenosium website and thinking about getting it this spring.
Gary

Now who's the flaunter!?!
Nice stuff and I'm obviously jealous.

You might consider being a personal shopper:

From our list of coveted cultivars you would pick the plants,
eliminate those listed you deem unsatisfactory,
hand our information off to Coenosiums having them ship to us.

Your compensation..??..a plant??

Barbara

I couldn't resist. I had to share such wonderful a wonderful experience.

I'd have a hard time shopping for conifers for other people. I am not real picky myself, so apart from looking for relatively good sized, healthy looking plants, I am a novice shopper.

I do know that Coenosiums stock is often larger then I have received from other nurseries. Still, while some of their stock is younger, I don't believe Bob sells them until he considers them acceptable. His level of expertise embarrasses mine, so he's the one to trust here, not me.

I don't know how well people's experience with Coenosiums are, but generally I think they go out of their way to make customers satisfied. If a cultivar looks poor, sick or too small I don't think they will offer it, unless you can't resist going without - like I did with a plant or two this trip. I got on the waiting list for a handful of special plants that are small now but highly regarded and difficult to find.

From my own experience with about a half dozen online nursuries, Coenosiums is at the middle-high end for prices but you get what you pay for. Many of the cultivars available are 2-3 years older(or more) then other nurseries
and who among us isn't looking for that nice, larger, healthier specimen.

I've decided to do damage control today as the heavy snow appears to have crushed a handful of smaller japanese maples, but I will find time to take some more photos and post them here.

Some better images, good riddance snow(never thought I'd say that here!):

Picea pungens 'Lutea' Searched all over for this plant. Was lucky to find it in the 'discontinued stash' at Coenosiums. Thanks Bob!
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Picea eng. 'Snake'. Another plant in the same stash. Wierd but cool.
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Pinus mugo 'Sunshine'
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Cedrus libani 'Green Prince' & Abies lar. 'Logans pass'
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Abies lar. 'Utah' & Pinus uni. 'Sea urchin'
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Abies concolor 'Archers dwarf' & Abies procera 'Robenek'
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Abies koreana 'Silberkugel' & Picea omorika 'Treblitsch'
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Pinus uni. 'Paradekissen' & Pinus strobus 'Sara Rachel'
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Abies larsocarpa 'Siskyou' - may need confirmation from Bob on this one - the label jumped out of the pot during the ride home.
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Abies koreana 'Nadalkissen'
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A few shots I took as well.

The 'holiday wreath' of a collector. I believe Bob said Calocedrus Dec. 'Berrima gold' was a big contributor.
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Abies norm. 'Golden spreader' spreading next to Picea omorika 'Pimoko'. Bad lighting - I spent all day talking with Bob.

Several Pinus cont. 'Chief Joseph' dot the landscape. Has to be the best pine.
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A 15ish year old Chief Joseph.
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Need Bob for this one. 'Zundert' or 'Carten's' perhaps?

Nice plants

'Bout all our local nurseries have to offer are some left over Christmas trees and an Iseli catalog. But the ONLA trade show is about a month off and Blue Sterling, Iseli, Stanley, Bizon, Monrovia, and some others will be tempting the attendees with some must have plants

Great plants Will! That Chief Joseph is beautiful, and so nice to start with a larger plant. I also love your Green Prince, and Snake. You are doing some very serious collecting there.

I'm so jealous -- you can just jump in the car and run over to Coenosium, in the middle of winter no less! Most of us can only sit home, wait for the spring availability lists to come out, and dream of packages arriving in April. Would be so wonderful to garden year-round.

Kim

who knew... 40 odd years of garden in a snow zone... who ever thought to go to a garden/arb or tree farm in the middle of winter.. NOT ME.. until i took a grafting class at gee tree ... and gary gave a two hour tour of his arb in mid-january ... i think single digits plus wind ...

if you live within 3 hours of SE MI ... make a day of going to hidden lakes in tipton MI .. and gee tree in Stockbridge MI ... in winter.. again ... go figure on that ...

listen fireboy .. dont bankrupt yourself 'needing to buy' everything you see .... be careful with that ...

the mugo ... would be carsten's .... or the other name ... i cant ID your pic.. but a proper spelling helps research if necessary ... short of asking bob ...

the picea pungens lutea ... is probably not much different that the P. p. 'aurea' i offered to send you for the cost of shipping ... but alas.... i gave it to bro-bot for Xmas ...

and .. that is the same landscape fabric in the pix .. not more.. right/???? lol

thanks for the pix

ken

Mrgpag, what is the ONLA trade show? I am new to the hobby and ignorant to that phrase.

Lucky indeed Kim. Coenosiums is a place I could spend weeks without getting bored. Just examining all the different cultivars. The place is SO huge that I could pretty easily get lost there. I think I've visited six or seven times now and there are areas and trees that I have not seen before still.

As much as I like dwarf and mini conifers, Coenosiums has just a huge quantity(maybe 1000) of large upright conifers. For the enthusiast, it's rather awe inspiring and I can't help but stroll through it all slowly.

Seeing 'mini' conifers at 3' high and wide is also pretty sobering. In twenty years I am going to have SERIOUS crowding issues lol.

And no Ken, that's the same landscaping fabric, on the path.

Ohio Nursery and Landscaping Association (ONLA) and the trade show is held in the Columbus Ohio Convention Center with plant and related vendors from all over the country showing off their stuff hoping to make some sales. A great late January activity. There's everything there from plant markers to huge tree spades and of course a lot of plant specimens.

OK, that settles it. I am going to visit Bob at Coenosium Gardens! I don't live too far from him. Less than an hour.
I'm not a collector, but I know what I like when I see it.
It looks like I'm going to like a lot.

Yeah, Bob and Dianne are generally very receptive to guests, just email them and ask if you can schedule a visit. Bring your camera!!!(

Will - the plant in the photo is far too vigorous to be Pinus mugo 'Carstens'

BTW ... i have Picea pungens SUNSHINE ....

it irritates me no end that they repeat the usage of SUNSHINE in a mugo ...

of course.. i have no idea which name has precedence ....

i mean really ... how many Cesserini plants can there be... and whats the deal with the Mrs. .... lol ... one thing for sure.. if joe named it.. it is unique .... just wish he was a bit more creative in his choice of names ... lol ... didnt she have a first name ... rotflmbo ....

ken

Hi Will,

The fir with the lost lable is Abies procera 'Siskyou' and the yellow mugo is Pinus mugo 'Zundert'.

Ken, Picea pungens 'Lutea' develops a nice yellow frosting where the sun hits it while Picea pungens 'Aurea' becomes a sickly yellow, irregularly growing tree. I first saw a large one at the National Arboretum and it looked very unhealthy. So, being a collector, I promptly propagated it for my collection. It is at the rear of my greenhouse and 8 feet tall. It is sickly looking and will probably be removed.

The Pinus mugo 'Sunshine' came from Linssen in Holland. He found it as a seedling. The Picea pungens 'Sunshine' came from the midwest. I'm not sure which actually came first (Welch gives the Picea a 2 year head start), but name repetition is acceptable provided it is in different genera. Of course, any name repetition is unfortunate but sometimes unavoidable.

Bob

Thanks for that info Bob and of course the awesome plants. I'm starting to get them into the ground now and giddy while doing it.