on the left.. the blue tree is abies concolor candicans.. behind it is an apple ... EVERYTHING PAST THE APPLE.. but for the giant cherries way in back.. and the oak on the right top ... WAS ADDED SINCE I MOVED HERE IN 1/2000 ... it was previously a meadow horse pasture .... all were one gal plants averaging about $20 ... i realize you are moving from the house building to the landscaping .... but you can do so much better than what you are thinking right now .... and i addressed where you should visit for inspiration .... your next best planting time is ground thaw next april ... spend the whole winter thinking up a plan.. and do better than some GG's and some pines ... its akin to saying i will paint the living room white ... and buy some lawn chairs for the space ... i presumes you plan on living in the house you just built for decades.. well .. then plan out an outdoor living space with as much care as you did the house and the interior... and these gg's were 6 inches tall in 4/2001 ... 2 inch peat pot and 4 inch rooting ... $2 a piece ... and the pix were last year .... if you want to drive up to adrian MI ... i can give you a tour ... the beauty of conifers.. except for the ones that have seasonal color change.. is that you can look at them all year round .... ken

probably going to slaughter the name ... but how about : Picea abies 'Virgata' ... leader growth is easily 2 to 3 feet ... but i dont know if its zone appropriate for you ... but if you insist on a pine.. how about a winter yellow .. like Louie ... again.. if it will work in your area .... or if you want to stick with green... at least a sublime pine.. like ... carp.. i just blanked.. lol.... Pinus koraiensis ... or even wallichiana in your zone .... or: Picea omorika 'Pendula' -- Weeping Serbian Spruce ... with its white undersides.. and slightly blue tinge .... or one of the spring yellow blush pungens .... like early gold or colonial gold ... mine went from one foot to about 15 in 10 years ... and just to set you straight.. just about anything FAST GROWING .... is weak wooded ... and subject to the same storm and ice damage you have already noted ..... i would not look for pines.. like strobus.. that do 3 to 5 feet per year.. find something in the 1.5 to 3 foot growth range .. MAX!!!!! you asked for ideas.. and it is for you or others to determine if my ideas would work in your area .... ken ps: joy says it should be Picea abies 'Cranstonii' ... rather than virigata ... lets see if he did a reply.. before he got to my ps... lol ... Here is a link that might be useful: link

Whenever long term outcomes are being considered I wouldn't plant one where there wasn't room for a full-sized tree anyway. Some years ago I saw one at the Yakima Area Arboretum that looked to be at least 40 ft. across, ca. 2005 examples of what are probably the same clone were being noted in Seattle more than 30 ft. tall (with the similar looking 'Glenmore Silver' having grown 66 ft. tall from a ca. 1951 planting). At the page I linked to above you can see how big the P. strobiformis gets, whatever exact botanical placement the cultivar should get within what is apparently a complex that could use some additional analysis (an existing tendency is to call the garden tree P. flexilis var. reflexa 'Vanderwolf's Pyramid') we are not talking about a dwarf conifer by any means. Although being a plant place where they should know better this year a nearby independent garden center planted a couple of these about 6 ft. or so apart with the existing branches probably less than three feet from the edge of the parking lot. A waste of time and money as it won't be too long before they are overwhelming the space. Although another independent garden center here has managed to hang onto a similar planting in a narrow parking strip with the trees now being somewhere around 20 ft. tall. But the human-level presentation has become one of the pitchy trunks and trashy crown interiors shared with most pines having become fully exposed, the Christmas tree look now long gone. Their branches are for the time being high enough for them to fit into the space physically, but visually they do not fit anymore at all. In both instances clearly the trees were selected and located based on their size and condition at time of planting, and not on what they were genetically programmed to become. This is how bungalows become engulfed by trees, small yards become plant ghettos (dense thickets of once attractive specimens deformed and spoiled by having grown into one another). This post was edited by bboy on Sat, Aug 23, 14 at 16:49

Hi again - Thanks for your replies. Here's another picture. Hopefully this one will be a little better for you, Ken. Just let me know if you would like more pics. I took several shots of it. I live in Joplin, MO (the place the EF5 tornado hit a couple years ago, though it missed us by 3/4 mile). The tree was grown in Oregon and I bought it from the Home Depot here (the one that was on the national news and destroyed by the tornado - not that anyone member that or that it even matters as far as this tree is concerned). Anyway, the tree is in very rocky and well-drained soil. I hate to admit it, but I don't know what type of oil I have here (that's because I'm just a beginner and didn't even have any interest in trees or doing yard work of any sort until this summer and I haven't had a chance to get to that yet). We have a lot of native oak trees around if that tells anyone anything. Anyway, my Limber Pine seems to be getting worse by the day. I had given it a good soaking since I hadn't watered it in a week or two, and then we happened to get a lot of rain over several days, so maybe it just got too much water(?). As far as transplant shock, it had looked beautiful and very happy for about 3 months, then all of a sudden it's turning yellow. This seemed to begin after I'd watered it, however it's possible it could have started before that and I just didn't notice it, being that it began on the west side of the tree and I don't often look at it from that side.