The media they came in was very similar to 5:1:1. The two 1 gallon pots got "half" barerooted, I got probably half the media out while untangling circular roots and loosening the sides and bottom. Then they were placed in 4 gallons of gritty each and throughly watered. They have been in the shade since. Had a good rainstorm last night and come out this morning to see my silver seedling dropped maybe 30-40 white needles, 0 green needles dropped though. I'm assuming it's a stress response to shipping (took 5 days) then a semi-bare-root repot and the heat of the last few days. Could anyone ease my mind on this, I would hate for it to lose all it's white needles.

8 hours is considered FULL sun ... whether or not there is shade some part of the day .... learned that in my rose growing days .... the issue then becomes... the intensity of the sun ... dawn and dusk full sun is not equivalent to noon sun ... so 4 hours at dawn.. and 4 hours at dusk.. might be a problem for SOME plants ... which require intense levels of light ... i realize you may know most of this... but i use it to refresh my memory .. and to entertain any newbies who are lurking.. and i know you are out there ... we could then add FILTERED light to complicate the whole mess ... lol ... but technically.. that brings us back to intensity ... in the olden days .... 5 years ago .. lol .. you actually had pix peeps who carried photo meters to measure the light intensity ... except for the true photo expert.. that is probably a thing of the past with digital this and that .... with said tool ... you could probably actually define the light level in your SHADE .... and then try to find research indicating how many units of what level of light.. is satisfactory for your plants.. the greenhouse peeps probably have some of this science worked out ... this would be why there are shade clothes that vary from 25 to 60% shade ... depending what you are growing in the man made shade ... ken PS: all of which leaves will standing there scratching his head.. really no further ahead than he was prior to posting... thinking.. aw heck.. i am just going to plant the thing here.. and worry about it in a few years ... lol

Before the Great Recession of 2008 hit, Regan Nursery carried a very good collection of mature maples. They even had some good (and very pricey) specimens of conifers, but their collection of high value plants shrank noticeably when the recession hit hard and their collection still has not recovered to pre-recession levels. All this is also true of Berkeley Horticultural. Alden Lane in Livermore also had some nice conifers before the recession and again Alden Lane's conifers stock dropped like a rock since the recession. There are a few still decent places in the Bay Area to shop for dwarf conifers. One is East Bay Nursery in Berkeley and the other is Armstrong Garden Centers in Dublin. What I particularly like about East Bay Nursery is they will special order plants for you, but you will have to prepay the order. Most other nurseries don't even bother with taking special orders. If you are willing to expand your definition of the greater Bay Area, then Pond and Garden located in Cotati (which is located midway between Petaluma and Santa Rosa) is THE preeminent nursery to visit to shop for high quality dwarf conifers. Their selection of dwarf conifers is simply unmatched. Pond and Garden easily has four to five times the varieties of high quality conifers carried by East Bay nursery. Most of Pond and Garden's conifers come from Iseli. It's really worth the drive up to Cotati if you are as nuts about dwarf conifers as I am. As is true of all nurseries carrying conifers, they receive deliveries from the Oregon growers around October, so their selection would be best starting in late fall and lasting to about mid spring. For the rest of the year, their stock is consisting of mostly leftovers. The cycle starts again in October or so.

Thanks Ken! Yes I know the definition of dwarf vs miniature, intermediate, and large. Besides the Taxus and the Abies lasiocarpa they are all considered dwarf if I remember right. We just wanted something slow growing so it won't outgrow the space. Hm, is it just that variety of Taxus or do none of the Yews do well in your area? The ladies in my garden club seemed to think that would be the one that would be taking off the fastest. I can't believe how big your Vintage Gold is! The tag said in 10 years it would be 3' x 3'. I know depending on the conditions that can vary a lot but 7' is huge. Is yours in the shade? We would not have the space for that. One of the flower beds is 25' long and 6' wide. That is where I wanted to have the 'Frostie', 'Hussi', 'Starker's Dwarf', and 'Vintage Gold'. The other 25' long flower bed is curved with the conifers being on each of the wider ends. The end where I was planning on putting 'Jeddeloh' and 'White Pygmy' staggered is 7' wide. And the other end is 8 or 9' wide where I was hoping to put 'Glauca Compacta and ÂNana Aurescens also staggered so they could each get that wide. We wanted some height on that end since you see down the full 25' length as you approach the house. Does that sound like a big enough space? I forgot to mention that the area is very sheltered from the wind also. Is it true that you aren't supposed to amend the soil when you plant conifers? Our soil isn't bad but has a little too much clay. What about fertilizer or root growth products? I've never used them but I've also never planted such costly plants!