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What conifers would you plant here?

6 years ago

Hello all!!! I've been busy Building gardens this summer. I haven't posted much but I've surely been reading all of your posts ;) I'd like to show you what we have created and ask for your opinions, and suggestions. I know it's "a lot of rock" not to everyone's taste...(but that cannot be changed lol). I am hoping to soften it with a weeping tree or two, crawling perrenials and the sort. The big question is what would you plant lovers plant here? I am zone 7-8 (Fraser valley of Vancouver bc---which means it's debatable lol) the site is on my west fence, north side of my house. My property is one rectangular acre. I've got a few shrubs which we've dug from here and there on the property and plenty of holes to fill with conifers!!!!

I can post more close ups tomorrow should anyone request :) thanks in advance for all input! Cheers!

Featured Answer

plantkiller_il_5

6 years ago

what the others didn't say , was ,NICE JOB ! looks great,,,those perennials can be moved ,,,,,boy , a thousand plants could look nice there

ron

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Comments (13)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
6 years ago
i surely know nothing about BC ... so whatever i suggest is for others to opine whether they will work ...

how about a weeping larch ... deciduous for winter interest ... and very easily pruned to fit it in ...

you already have a lot of plants.. i see a few trees and conifers.. are you really sure you have space for much of anything ... perhaps giving it a year or two.. to fill in.. will better define what you have room for ...

ken
missionmom thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
6 years ago
I'd have to agree with ken - the area already seems to have quite a bit of existing plantings. If you want to add more conifers, I'd look to dwarf forms, of which there are literally a skazillion to choose from. And there's not really much you couldn't plant in the Vancouver, BC area - pretty much ANY conifer species will work, outside of the tropicals :-))
missionmom thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
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I have a free account at Photobucket. I upload a photo there from my computer. If you go to photobucket or the like, you will see you can start an "album". Once you sign up for a photobucket account (it's free), start an album, you click on "choose files" under "upload images and video". You can upload them from your computer, phone, email, etc. When the upload is complete, mouse over the photo you want to share and a window shows beneath it. On the little window click once on "html code" which will highlight the code, then right click and copy the code. Now, get out of the site and go to your post where it says "optional link url" in preview your post. Paste the copied code you got off of photobucket into the optional link url box, name the link whatever you want and click preview message, then if all is as you want, click submit message. There is a "test forum" here, where you can test out your photo posting. Hope I've spelled it out simply, lol, I'm not the best at explaining stuff. Good Luck! kentstar
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the big tree.. above the back of the chair ... is an oak .... look for the first V ..... and you will see .... make a nose print on your screen .. lol.. a slight suggestion of the white house everything is hiding ... closer than the oak .. on the far end of the bending bed.. is a variegated oak ...come around the bend ....toward the chair .... and there is a variegated liquidamber ... no one said you have to plant plain old green trees ... lol .. the height created closer to the viewer.. easily can hide something 200 feet away in my case ... with 125 feet.. man can you put in some gardens.. forget about the fence .... go to the hardware store... and get some marking flags like miss dig uses .... sit on each corner of the patio .... good to have a hyperactive kid available .... send them out to put flags where views need to be blocked ... then go to each window in the house... and add more flags.. or have hyperman move them slightly ... continue ad nauseum .. until you have a real idea of what you need where ... once this is done... think about how you can make 3 beds which include all the flags ... roundup grass... add mulch ... start planting conifers and trees ... i can post a tutorial on such.. if you ever get that far .... get the drift???? good luck ken
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Your choices here in the PNW are not exactly limited :-) Pieris, rhododendrons and azaleas, skimmia, aucuba, winter daphne, sarcococca, Viburnum davidii and camellia will all tolerate significant shade although may not bloom heavily if too strong a shade. If only partial shade, your list will increase dramatically - Nandina, lonicera nitida, Mexican orange, the boring box and Japanese holly, euonymus, etc, etc, etc............. Any good local nursery should have a full selection available in the next few weeks, if not already in stock.
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GARDEN GAL...Thanks for the good info ...we are in zone 9A or B....and we could grow St.Johns for a living...we are surrounded by a forest and it grows everywhere with no upkeep at all...it is now covering almost the whole hillside behind our house about 70 feet wide and about 30-40 feet deep from about 3 -4 little slips planted behind the house ....also lots of them in front and in our meadow...from a few planted near the house and have been harvesting from that spot for 15 years to plant in the woods...we are in the forest with lots of huge pines and oak trees so i treasure the green...as the usual ground cover would be leaves and pine needles ....as to the variegated pampas i didn’t know they were unusual but have been grabbing everything variegated as we have so much solid green around us...we have also hundreds of beautiful variegated Irises and have been supplying bulbs to everyone who will take them for years....we are gone for the winter so i also appreciate all these varieties as they survive even through the occasional snow fall and are a beautiful greeting when we get home in the spring...since we have all kinds of wildlife....deer...squirrels ...lots of birds....raccoons...foxes..bobcats...even... we finally had to fence about 3 acres around our house as some of our neighbors around our vernal meadow have horses and cows too....
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Sara Malone Zone 9b
6 years ago
Probably avoid Picea pungens and Abies pinsapo cultivars but otherwise the advice above sounds right to me!
missionmom thanked Sara Malone Zone 9b
sc77 (6b MA)
6 years ago
Is anything being moved around, in the current setup, I don't see to many spots. What I do see, is a lot of real estate on the rocks for weeping/crawling conifers. You could grow something like Picea abies 'Gold Drift' as a ground cover to break up some of the hardscape, or any Juniperus horizontalis cultivars like 'Mother Lode' or 'Blue Chip'. Other ideas for low grow Cedrus deodara 'Feelin Blue'

For the small spots there are endless options in all the different colors. I'd add in a few Abies koreana 'Kohout's Ice Breaker', Abies procera 'Blaue Hexe', Cephalotaxus harringtonia 'Gold Splash'... The list goes on and on.. just mix different shapes, colors, textures, and it will look great.

Shawn
missionmom thanked sc77 (6b MA)
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
6 years ago
Sara, the Abies pinsapo actually does quite well here but the Picea pungens.......not so much :-) And I tell that to my clients all the time - don't know why I forgot to mention that!
missionmom
Original Author
6 years ago
I guess I didn't do such a great job with photos especially for scale. I'm heading back there now to get a few more close ups. I think I have 3 spots for sure that will fit some mighty conifers. I'm thinking things that are well behaved in the garden. It's not the widest bed. I see many of the existing shrubs getting moved around... It's actually a bad habit of mine when I start playing musical plants. My thoughts were maybe an umbrella pine? Nootkas... But I already have a few and was hoping for something really unique. Oriental spruces but I know nothing about them... Wouldn't say I'm a rookie exactly but certainly no expert :)

I like the idea of planting foreground space with weeping crawling conifers and perhaps having deciduous trees along the fence. I get really hung up on year round privacy dream... Atleast for the backyard.
missionmom
Original Author
6 years ago
Sara Malone Zone 9b
6 years ago
Garden gal that is interesting - it's native to Spain and I STILL killed one by overwatering, even though it's a similar climate and I knew the drill.
paula_b_gardener 5b_ON
6 years ago
Wow! That is a lot of work, I love the look.
stuartlawrence (7b L.I. NY)
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Beautiful space for conifers!

A few of my favorites:

Picea Abies 'Gold Drift'

Chamaecyparis Nootkatensis 'Van Den Akker'

Chamaecyparis Nootkatensis 'Strict Weeping'

Pinus Strobus 'Angel Falls Pine'

Larix decidua 'Pendula'

Larix decidua 'Puli"

Cupressus glabra 'Raywood's Weeping'

Picea Glauca 'Pendula'
jahwana
6 years ago
Just beautiful
Mike McGarvey
6 years ago
Groundcovers would be a nice addition.

Abies pinsapo 'Glauca' grew to about 40 ft in my garden before the Sapsuckers killed it. I'm up in the foothills SE of Seattle and get more winter rain than Seattle. My Abies pinsapo 'aurea' is doing fine at about 12 feet and probably too young for Sapsuckers. I just wish it had more aurea to it.

Mike

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