Thanks for you comments. I really appreciate it. It is really hard for me to visualize what the landscaping will look like in 10 years. I usually buy perennials that I like, and then find a place to put them, moving them if needed. The spruces were mature trees, and last winter we noticed all three losing needles in huge sections. I was hoping it was seasonal, but they continued losing needles until one side was almost bare, and then the front started losing needles from the bottom up. I assumed that it was either the drought we had the previous year, or perhaps just old age. I didn't notice any obvious bugs or disease. I would love to put in some rhodies, but I don't think they'd like the hot sun all afternoon. I will have to look and see if there are some which kinda like the sun. I'll look into the shrub roses as well, although I'm not sure what they'd look like in the winter. I'll also look into andromedas as well. I'm thinking, if I have enough room, maybe I need to have 2 rows of shrubs, one sun loving facing the road and evergreen, and then one shade loving facing the house. Annie

I hadn't been up to Lancaster Co. in a while so I plotted a visit to the Amish dairy where I buy raw milk to make yogurt. Not something I do frequently at all, but a fun winter project. Drove around quite a bit just because it was a nice sunny day. Carefully eyed all the conifers to ask myself, am I being unfair about CBS. Conclusion, absolutely not. Here is what I call some absolutely typical ones. These are lined up pointing almost due south, so shading out isn't an excuse; in fact the reason the one on the right light looks a bit better is likely due to getting some shade from the white pine. The look of the one on the right is about the best you can hope for for a "big" specimen. The one on the left, split leader, very thin foliage...more typical. Here is how I rank all typically seen large conifers, on what is considered some of the richest agricultural soil on the east coast: 1) Norway spruce - by far the best. 2) White pine, fuller green ecotype 3) Douglas Fir (not many of them, but there are a few here and there) 4) "field cedar" aka Juniperus virginiana. Tend to look better when wild though, than grown in a garden. 5) White Pine, thin, glaucous ecotype 6) CBS various conifers are in the "not enough information" category, like Thuja 'Green Giant' and Cedrus atlantica. You seem they are being planted, but no truly large mature ones. Interesting that most of the 'Green Giant' already are showing some bronzing up there, while mine are still mostly green. Not sure what I am seeing about the white pines to be honest. (I am mature enough to admit when my knowledge of something is incomplete) There seem to be healthier, thicker white pines, like the one in the photo above. Then there are generally smaller ones with grayer, bluer needles. Superficially one might just say "well, perhaps they have a juvenile to mature foliar change" - although I had not heard of such a thing...but you do see blue ones that are quite big, and green ones that are smaller than those biggest blue ones. So there's quite a bit of overlap if it is a mere phenotypic change. If it is a genotype difference...my GUESS would be the green, plump ones are a more southerly collection...perhaps seed coming from right in PA, where as the blue, scraggly ones are produced by unthinking wholesalers with seed from Maine or something. Because - and again my recollections are incredibly vague - the thin bluer ones are more what I think of white pines up there looking like, while the greener, fuller form is what I think of southern white pines as looking like.

We live in the Mohawk Valley of Upstate NY. Our soil is clay. We have had two back-to-back, extremely cold winters in a row. We had a lot of temps in the negatives (like -15 and lower) and single digits this year. The average temperature this past winter in the month of February was 9 degrees (the temp never rose above freezing the whole month), and we had over 20 days below zero over the winter! Not to mention all the snow we received (which still hasn't melted). March felt like "normal" January weather with highs in the 20s and 30s, but today (April 2) it is supposed to finally get up past 50 to maybe even 60! I am on the fence about creating a hedge, but my wife doesn't want to put up a fence. We have a couple yews and hollies on our property that recently suffered winter burn. From what I have read online, they will likely recover. We are trying to figure out what would be the best cold hardy shrubs that we could use to create a hedge. We would appreciate any suggestions. Thank you.

Depending on your location Picea pungens may not be the option for a long and healthy screen due to the needle diseases they are subject to in humid climates. Replace with Picea omorika. My Picea abies screening is 18' on center. Picea omorika ranges from 13 to 15' on center.