Ah, Dave, I think we are talking about different kinds of things here. I would have done exactly what you have done with your Omorica pendula. Yes! But this Mission blue thing is quite a different kind of tree, I think. I see them often in local nurseries, and they are growing exactly like the species Colorado Blue spruce--strong, vigorous upright growers with strong leaders. My assumption here is that this Mission blue spruce in question will grow exactly like a seedling (species) blue spruce--I will bet its origin is from a seedling, and although it is grafted as a cultivar, it will grow just like a seedling spruce, My understanding here is that the one that we are talking about has long since established a leader and that impulse to grow and replace this leader is very, very strong. If you have a regular seedling blue spruce there is little or nothing one can do to defeat this strong impulse to grow from a single, occasionally double, leader. I have had some of my spruces lose their leaders to weevils several years in a row and each time by the end of the season in which the leader was lost, a new one was growing. You just can't keep these things down! In this case, leave the thing alone. With many other kinds of cultivars, especially "pendula" varieties, they are much more likely to need some help. If they are young grafts, many, if not most, must be staked for a period of time. And if you saw my previous post on the subject, sometimes they need to be staked for a frustratingly long period of time. And if once a leader is finally established and then lost, I would guess some more staking will be in order. In this case, if I understand the description by the original poster here, the leader was not realy even completely lost--just snipped off somewhere above the point that the year's growth started. It will re-grow even "easier than pie." --Spruce P.S. Forgive me if I an going overboard here trying to avoid a misunderatanding. You are one of the most knowlegeable conifer people in this forum. I wish I knew half as much as you do.

Wow - you dug up a seriously old post! So I did end up planting a very long screen -- basically the entire length of the property line -- and I'm actually really happy with how it turned out. We used Thuja Green Giant arborvitae in the center where the tallest part of the house we are trying to block out is -- we planted them a decent distance apart, not all jammed up like I see people do for a property line screen. They have grown fast, widened out, and are basically almost up to the roof of the house we are trying to hide. I think they should cap out right about 35 feet or so, which won't block the view. We planted a few during our initial planting then filled in with a few more a couple years later -- those later plantings are a bit stunted - not sure if it's because we squeezed them into less space or they were just inferior to begin with (originals came from a nursery and were planted by a landscaper, later ones from Home Depot and we DIYed them). But they are all growing well and healthy, and seem impervious to deer, wind, cold, snow, etc. To the sides of the arborvitate, we used Nellie Stevens hollies. They too have grown fast. They don't much care for the wind -- they ended up looking pretty bad by the end of the last two winters (which were brutally cold and windy) but they filled in with new leaves in the spring. The deer don't seem to eat them either. And again, I think they cap out at 20 feet or so. To the sides of that (which is getting away from blocking the house and now just screening their yard from ours) we used forsythias planted very close together that we let grow wild into a thick hedge -- mainly because I love forsythia. It's not evergreeen but the hedge is so thick and branches are so close together that it does a decent job of screening even in winter. And in spring when it is in bloom, it is an absolutely stunning wall of yellow. Again the deer don't bother them and they seem to grow well without much care. And finally at the very end of the property lines, we used sea green junipers -- again, we were looking for something evergreen but it didn't need to be tall - we were only trying to hide the neighbor's "junk pile" which was unfortunately located so that it was the first thing you saw when you pulled into our driveway. Those are the plants that look the sickliest -- there's always big brown patches in them and the snow breaks the branches. But they are farthest from the house and from far away they look ok, so I don't mind them. I think if I had to do it over again, I'd have used all forsythia instead of also using juniper -- the forsythia are just so amazingly gorgeous when they are in bloom. I would take a picture for you but we are in the middle of a storm right now -- if I remember, I will get one tomorrow. Here's a link to a pic of what it looked like when we first planted itin 2009: Newly planted And here's a shot from the summer of 2012 (sorry for lousy pic -- best I could find): Three years old I would say that this year it really started to look good since the green giants are basically touching now.

To maximize your margin for error, why not make a soil that virtually eliminates the possibility of over-watering and leaves you with only the responsibility of making sure it's watered often enough? The fertilizing part is easy. By adopting this sort of soil, you're also not limited in the size of pot you can use. When using soils that don't support a soggy layer at the bottom, you can grow very small plants in very large pots. Al

Hi everyone. I was a frequent flier on GW back when it was dominated by rosarians and my yard was dominated by dozens and dozens of roses. New life stage, new plant material, new pest and disease strategies to learn. So glad to find you all here. Its been unseasonably warm in the mid-Atlantic (since before Christmas) and everything is starting early. Spider mites already are heavily infesting my weeping spruce, umbrella pine, weeping cedar, and Black Dragon cryptomeria, among others. Neither a thorough hosing nor Neem oil did anything to discourage them last fall, and the plants paid a price. I thought it would take the mites a while to rebuild populations after winter, but apparently not.. I also have a number of plants, including a large (and expensive!) Ogon Janome, and a recumbent cedar that have defoliated all but last year's growth, and their remaining whorls look exactly like the images/videos I have seen of Dothistroma needle blight. Finally, my shore pine, who was happy as a clam in a pot on my deck for four years and went into the ground last fall, is showing similar lower-to-upper, inside-out browning and needle drop, and out of the tips of his branches are sprouting abnormally long and splayed needles. I had a certified arborist from a reputable company (my second) out this morning, but it seems in this area they don't have much to say about dwarf/ornamental conifers. He didn't know, took some samples but said "it wouldn't change our health program whether it turns out to be this or turns out to be that, a fungus is a fungus, pretty much". In which case, I think I might as well tackle it myself. So my question is, would it be safe (for the plants; I still have my rose protective gear) to start a fungicide/miticide program that rotates Daconil/Avid and a copper or Mancozeb with Forbid? I recall that certain rose cultivars are sensitive to certain '-cides' that are generally widely tolerated. Is the same true for conifers -- do I need to avoid certain things on certain plants? I know no oils on cryptomeria or blue-foliaged plants. I don't want to apply any more chemical than is absolutely necessary to get and keep control of disease and sucking pests, but I am having trouble locating information on what such a schedule would look like. FWIW, these plants have been in the ground only 2-3 years, so still under some stress. Thanks so much for any advice. Leslie