Thanks for your feedback Smivies. I should mention that we have very little freeze-thaw cycles. I do see a few species that do well here, but they’re all common ones (Picea abies Bird’s Nest, false cypress and Pinus mugo pumilio). I’m interested in more unusual ones. Here’s what I’d like to purchase:

Picea glauca ‘Daisy White’

Picea abies ‘Tompa’ or ‘Pusch’

a slow growing creeping juniper, blue or yellow

Abies koreana ‘Kohouts Icebreaker’

Which ones would be “not a chance”? Are there any others that I should be looking at?

Thanks!

Do I understand this correctly? You want a conifer that will be completely buried by snow for 3+ months?

as i understand .. he wants us to recommend conifers that will take the weight of 6 feet of snow ... doesnt it weigh itself down.. and by late winter.. there is an ice sheet at the bottom ????

i think it would be hit or miss ... as to how it all works out ...

i see a big difference between shoveled snow vs.. naturally fallen snow ...

if he means conifers that get 4 to 6 feet.. well thats a different isssue ... which is it???

ken

Hi, the snow will be 4-6 feet high. You could say my snow cover is very reliable. :). It’s also so dry that you can forget about snow ball fights. So almost no ice sheets to speak of, as once it gets cold, it stays really cold until it gently starts to melt off in Spring. And the conifers would most likely be buried for 4-5 months, as all my other ones currently are. The only difference is that this would be shoveled snow, as opposed to naturally fallen snow.

I think your best bet would be the Pinus mugo dwarfs. Very cold hardy and there are several to choose from.

snow is a great insulator ... the plants go dormant.. and stay dormant ... i dont really see it as an issue in that regard ...

its just the weight i think might end up a problem .. and i can not begin to speculate on that ...

ken

ps: you throw snow.. by shovel.. 6 feet up ... lol ...

Not only is the weight a factor, but all that snow will not melt at once and there would be a prolonged period of soaking wet soil.

BTW- Abies koreana ‘Kohouts Icebreaker’ is barely hardy to zone 4 (if that) so pass on that one.

tj

My in laws had a range of various groundcover junipers along the driveway that got snow from the snowblower blown on them for 30+ years. Many other plants were decimated by the snowblower snow, but the groundcover junipers were OK, though typically there was a small amount of damage that needed some trimming each spring. I think that they also had some Microbiota decussata/Siberian cypress (which isn’t a cypress and is quite hardy). Not any of it exciting or particularly unusual, but varied color and texture on a slope that wasn’t movable along the driveway.

Alternatively, choose deciduously shrubs like small spireas or Hydrangea arborescens which can be pruned down to the ground in late fall or spring and will sprout back unharmed.