Killer dwarves! How about a recent pic of your supremely fine Picea pungens 'Super Maixner'?

Hmmm...they do not like too much summer precipitation. In places in the UK where there is a growing season surplus of 150mm or more, growth is suboptimal. This is in line with its native range. vancouver for instance receives less rain in summer than where I live. In total, you are of course correct but there has to be a lot of rain from october till march. A wintersurplus. Based on regeneration, it thrives here in moist and above all nutrient rich soil that is well aeriated. So not clay and not poor sandy soil. May be this regeneration pics tell you somehting. Some you have seen before. Others not. Pseudotsuga is very close to my home on sand. Tsuga heterophylla is on higer ground with boulderclay/sand mix. Sitka spruce is on boulderclay as I have mentioned before. You can find good regeneration of Doug fir anywhere in the NL, but like this is a bit rare. Tsuga in the central part of Holland (where they want to get rid of all foreign trees and other species). You know this one. Sitka spruce regeneration on a former Sea bottom in he middle-northern part o f The Netherlands. I don't what thriving means in this case: they thrive as a species, but individual trees may not do well...Anyway: they look very healthy in each case where there was abundant regeneration. I the hyperoceanic parts of Europe, particularly found in The UK and Ireland are excellent for Sitka spruce. The Netherlands is not so oceanic. So you'll only find comparable or somehwat comparable circumstances locally... Still: looks like good regeneration!

Don't plant the seed strain: 'Ambrolauri'. They're advertised as 2-weeks later vegetators, but, are not as cold-hardy. That's from experience here. I think you're really pushing it with Nordmann, +oM. They're solid zone 5b in my opinion. You can try a few of course. You'd find out what you want to know with a dozen. Treehaven sells big seedlings and 25 is their minimum order. I'd definitely start with more roots/plant. Dax

Dean you have some of the best! Apparently including you! ;-) Sorry, I'm the website editor, can't stop selling. BTW if you haven't already seen them, we've been posting many articles from the SER newsletters on the site. We have a new web manager, a member in Atlanta, who is really great (he's about 22, that probably explains some of the energy, but he's also really smart).