shadyindylady, It would be a tough pick to say which conifer is my favorite.I have about 200. Compared to some of the conifer enthusiasts I'm just a beginner though. How much space do you have for this conifer? Do you like green,blue, gold or variegated foliage or are you looking for a spring show that will serve as a backdrop for the rest of the year? Or do you want it to have impressive cones? I get alot of my conifers mail order. (check out Ceonosium Gardens, Porterhouse Nursery, Gee Nursery to name a few). Locally I've aquired quite a few plants from Rich's Foxwillow Pines in Woodstock Illinois. I'd check out every local nursery in your area though and see what they have. Chances are if they carry plants from Iseli Nursery they'll have a couple of cool things. They are a wholesale nursery that supply a lot of local nuseries. Their 2005 catalog is online with alot of pictures to give you some ideas. Hope this helps. If you give me some more specifics I'll do my best to give you some recommendations. Thanks for the compliments and glad you liked the photos. Dan

My Larches look like they could break bud today while I am at work, same with a couple Cedrus libani cvs. My Barberry's, Willows, Spirea, and a few Birch are leafed out already . I'm keeping a close eye on the weather though, I just planted a large Metasequoia glyptostrobodies 'Ogon' last fall, and am worried it will come out to early and get killed in a frost. I have heard that is an issues in colder areas for them. Things look to be coming out way to early here...Hopefully we don't get a late frost. It's been a crazy spring here... I'm running up to Lake Erie next weekend to go fishing. My buddy up there has called nearly every day this week with reports telling me what they were catching and I didn't believe him...Walleye are running about a month early this year...Guess that makes up for them being a month late last year. Three weeks ago guys were dragging john boats across the ice to get into the lake and catching nice fish. Guys I know are getting three tickets in a 15 minute single drift! Craziness! Eliot

I'll try and post some pictures once my conifers wake up more. One thing this post makes me note is how amazingly different the weather is across the U.S. and accordingly, how different the conifers and other plants grow. Your weather for example Dave, it looks like you had snow on the ground in late March/early April, then in 3-4 weeks later you're seeing temps each day in the 70s and 80s. it's quite literally a 'burst' into Spring that happens in a matter of weeks then you get what locals here would call 'Summer weather' from there on out. Here we get temps in the low 50s from about mid February as plants slowly start to yawn across the garden. Now 10-12 weeks past the yawning stage, we've blistered our daily highs all the way into the upper 50's and low 60's(!). We won't see regular 70 degree days until July or later. Our plants wake up in various waves, some(Japanese maples/Picea glauca) can be in their second push before many other plants(Picea pungens in particular) push for the first time. I think our Spring lasts about 16 weeks, while yours seem more like 16 days. I have a 'Perry's Gold' specimen in my yard, and along with my other gold-pushing conifers, I'll be measuring it's 'gold phase' to get an idea how slow they really are. I looked at it today and it's just barely beginning to break bud here - not even enough to share a picture. -Will

Dh has the day off today, and uncharacteristically offered to get in the car and drive over in front of the xmas guy's place, to take a picture of the stakes. He is the last person on earth to want to do anything like that. He likes to stay far away from trouble, but he wanted to get a closer look at the stakes. You'll see there's some missing trees because xmas guy sold so many this past Christmas season. He always has bare spots this time of year. Click on the picture. That conifer on the far right is on xmas guy's property. That's his personal tree, and is not for sale. Look how close that one stake is to that tree. You might not be able to tell, but dh said it is right next to it. You can also see the stake on the left, showing how wide the driveway will be. It's actually wider than it appears from our house. Wide enough for boats, or perhaps two lanes of cars? Our lake is on the right side of xmas guy's building. The people in xmas guy's campground are going to be pissed beyond belief. They're going to flip at seeing cars coming in from behind them, and in and around their RV's etc. Add in the fact that these new driveway people are coming in for FREE, whereas part of their seasonal fee for staying there includes daily access to the lake. Regarding the laws out here as to how close you can install driveways to someone else's property, I just don't know. We're zoned as an agricultural area, if that matters. I doubt the son would sue, unless he wants to risk his father bulldozing ALL those trees down. A quirky story about the xmas guy. Many moons ago, long before we bought this house, xmas guy's sister lived here. She and her xmas brother got into a huge fight, and she called the police on him, and then sued him for damage to her front door. The next day she had a dead rooster tossed on her roof. lol I know I shouldn't laugh, but every time I tell that story I do. It's just so bizarre to me that someone would do that. He further retaliated by saying she couldn't use the shared driveway anymore, but grandma stepped in and told her xmas grandson to knock it off. So, that's about it, for now. I'll update if anything more happens.