Kiss Balázs, Pilismarót HUN He is a forrestal engineer with a special outlook to conifers. Juniperus chinensis Körmend Published 2010 Mesterházy in Conifer Treasury of Hungary 1.0 Breeder/Found 1995 Kiss Balázs of seed in Körmend HUN. The seedbed was planted by Horváth Ferenc, Körmend HUN. Introduced 2003 Kiss Balázs Nursery, Pilismarót HUN Description A natural dense dwarf, looks like a flat top green globe. Mother plant in Pilismarót in the Kiss Balázs Collection, along the Danube bend. Photo documentation Photo author me Photo author me Juniperus communis Kiserdõ in the meaning of Little Forest Published 2010 Mesterházy in Conifer Treasury of Hungary 1.0 Breeder/Found 2009 Kiss Balázs HUN Introduced Kiss Balázs Nursery, Pilismarót HUN Description Selected of seed this broad dense fastigiate type beauty. After a while sidebranchlets turn to the sky and form a narrow habit. Shows a little greeny forest at age. Great find. Very similar to Juniperus pingii Loderi in habit. Photo documentation Juniperus communis Kiserdõ Photo author Juniperus communis Kiserdõ Photo author Juniperus communis Kiserdõ Photo author Picea abies Tahi Published 2010 Mesterházy in Conifer Treasury of Hungary 1.0 Breeder/Found 1986 Kiss Balázs HUN Introduced Kiss Balázs Collection, Pilismarót HUN Description A seedling dwarf, some times breakes out, this gives a strange habit to the clone. Photo documentation Photo author me Picea obovata Mongólia Published 2010 Mesterházy in Conifer Treasury of Hungary 1.0 Breeder/Found 2009 Kiss Balázs HUN Introduced Kiss Balázs Nursery, Pilismarót HUN Description A dwarf WB seedling, found 1982 in Mongolia by Barabits Miklós & Kiss Balázs HUN. 1,5 m in 27 years, conical green form with short branchlets. Photo documentation Photo author me Photo author me Pinus nigra Isaszeg Published 2010 Mesterházy in the Conifer Treasury of Hungary 1.0 Breeder/Found 1980 Kiss Balázs found in Isaszeg HUN of seed Introduced 1984 Kiss Balázs Nursery, Pilismarót HUN Description A slow growing seedling dwarf with a dense habit, looks like a mushroom. Grows very slowly, remains on a dwarfy Pinus pinea. Photo documentation Pinus nigra Isaszeg Photo author me Pinus nigra Isaszeg Photo author me Pinus sylvestris Isaszeg Published 1995 Mesterházy Zsolt in the Conifer Treasury Breeder/Found 1980 Kiss Balázs, Németh Rudolf and Varga Lajos forestry engineers wild found in the Isaszeg Forest, near Budapest HUN as a natural seedling. Introduced 1984 Kiss Balázs Nursery, Pilismarót HUN Description A /Viridis/ type dense, narrow columnar conical clone from a European common pine (Scots pine), 4 m in 30 years, witchs broom with green colour. Original (grafted) plants in Dömös, Pilismarót and Körösladány HUN. Zone 4. Photo documentation Photo author me Photo author me Photo author me Thuja occidentalis Gabi Published 2010 Mesterházy in Conifer Treasury of Hungary 1.0 Breeder/Found 2009 Kiss Balázs HUN Introduced Kiss Balázs Nursery, Pilismarót HUN Description Created of Thuja occidentalis Smaragd seed this 1/3 size goldie, irregular dense column. Having a sight to her, makes the day happy. Photo documentation Photo author me Photo author me Photo author me Zsolt

'Smaragd' appearing at big boxes here every year are all quite apparently freshly - and perhaps carelessly - dug, often with tiny or broken balls, leaning tops etc. Warehouse stores are also poor about watering, so even if discount stock received from growers needing to empty fields or having other problems (including entering agreements with mega-chains that force them to sell at too low a price) hasn't been crippled by the approach taken to digging and shipping them there they may then dry out and die while waiting to go home with somebody.

Foliage shown looks like that of 'Smaragd' and there are countless examples in my area with the same narrow, pointed crown outline. (But a body just has to look at photos of this cultivar on the web to see how the shape varies. Due probably to a combination of site conditions and position on stock plants where cuttings originated). Also in my area is a public planting that was determined using an instrument to be over 17 ft. tall in 2005 - that's 13 years ago. I have seen numbers of other generally similar columnar arborvitae here that were probably quite a bit taller but have not gone up to them to see if they had the characteristic 'Smaragd' foliage. One planting I noticed a few years ago in a country town was hugely taller, would have had to have been from a distribution significantly predating 'Smaragd' becoming highly prevalent on the local market in the 1980s. (This timing of commercial presentation also means that most - if not all - seen here are not anywhere near mature in age and size, for a long-lived evergreen conifer). I didn't take the time that day to drive over and look at it up close, haven't been back since. Trees asked about should be compared in person with known, labeled 'Smaragd' elsewhere in the same region to see how they stack up. Clipping a representative foliage spray and holding it next to 'Smaragd' at a local garden or nursery may be all that is needed to see if yours are the same.

My guess is over 3 years I got about 6"-8" of height per year. That might speed up as the tress should now be well rooted. Apart from the narrow habit meaning that when a platoon of 'Smaragd' is deployed a lot of them have to be bought and planted it is actually a slow-growing choice. Otherwise, what dwarfs the tops of field grown trees and shrubs during transplanting is the involved cutting back of roots. Unless stock purchased is in quite poor condition when installed or stunted afterward by final planting site characteristics the normal (previous or nearly so) rate of top growth should be resumed following the first autumn after planting. Because 60% of the annual increase in length of existing roots of cold climate adapted woody plants occurs in autumn. With generation of new roots from cut root ends occurring when top growth starts in spring. So that with determinate growing items like pines for instance, where it is easy to see each year's increment of top growth a typical scenario with a recent planting is a long stem section dating from when the specimen was still growing in the fields of the production operation from which it came. Where particular methods were employed to push stock to size up as fast as possible, enabling more crops (and hence more income) to be gotten from each acre. Followed by a much shorter increment marking when digging for sale occurred. And then if enough time has elapsed since replanting an immediate return to significantly longer shoots being evident the very next growing season afterward. And not three years later, as is often stated.