Thanks for that very nice tour.

tj

Yeah, thanks maackia. Must be a good feeling seeing the progress over the years.

That Picea glauca ’Pendula’ looks at least 15 ft. tall?

I love the look/color of the Pinus Koraiensis Silveray and the form of the Pinus sylvestris ’Moseri’.

They're all very nice but I can still have my favorites.

Almost makes me wish I had bought the empty lot next door when it was still cheap. ;-)

Awesome!

Super nice!  They all look happy!

Just about every one of them has experienced some sort of deer impact, but overall I think they’re doing reasonably well. Some are smaller than the 10-year estimate, and some are bigger, but overall the estimates are fairly accurate.

Conifers are well suited to the rigors of this area, and It’s hard for me to imagine not having a few in the garden. .

I love the weeping white spruce. I have two little little ones. Yours is great

I love the Pinus sylvestris 'Moseri' !

It looks like a cute monster character in a children's TV program, it only has to move about and talk :-)

^Yeah, kinda that 'Teddy Bear' look.

In the right spot, that one could add a full, tropical look.

The walk & talk is kind of a stretch though. ;-)

Impressive conifers.

im stunned that you have been holding out on us.. all these years .... whats that all about ...

the Abies lasiocarpa ’Compacta’ is incredible.. i have one right out my front door ... well.. 10 feet away... ive always wondered why isnt a more common foundation plant ... why bigbox never got a hold of it ...

thx.. post more when ever you have time .... do you have a couple long vistas???? .. could you get on your roof for some pix... lol ..

ken

The 'Moseri' is very slow growing and does have a "Cousin It" look about it. I gave it more room than it probably will need, but I normally error the other way. It will be interesting to see if it maintains the super slow growth over the next several years.

Weeping White Spruce is bullet proof and seems to thrive on the worst mother nature can throw at it. I'm starting to see it planted all over town, including frequent use for commercial plantings. I would say it's overused at this point, but that's subjective. Overuse only applies to plants grown outside my garden. ;)

Abosolutely gorgeous trees you have there, maackia…….. I love the tsuga canadensis sargentii as I am fond of weepers and also like the Moseri…….. I think it could sing and dance a bit……… 🌳🎼🕺🏼😂

debra

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments. It often seems my garden is one step forward and two steps back, but it's good therapy.

Ken, about the long vistas, that's something I've never really quite grasped. These pics were taken almost exactly two years ago by some friends who are much better photographers than I (me?).

The 'Moseri' specimen on the ACS site is not nearly as cute, I am envious :-)

Beautiful garden! Never seen a ‘Vercurve’ before; that specimen looks great.

I like the different types of soft, 5-needled pines you have. I only have one -- there are already big, forest P strobus right across my lot-line. Soft and flexible southwestern white pine branch down low.

White pines are one of my favorites.

I have two. One in part of my screen/windbreak, the other is more free standing.

Here it is the year I dug it from the woods, growing in the shade and planted it in my new yard. The picture is from October, but I probably transplanted it to the yard in spring or early summer 2016. About a foot tall at the time.

Here it is today: Pinus strobus has a silvery blue color. The bright sun kind of washed the photo out.

Beng, I have become a huge fan of P. cembra and koraiensis. Neither meets the stature of strobus, but I might be biased. :)

This one didn't have a tag (many in the Rocky Gap MD state park have tags), but I assume is Himalayan white pine. Rather stunning.

Stunning trees everyone!

debra

It's been so dry the last 3 years, I'll have wait to do a 10 yr progress report on mine. The deciduous trees here have grown but a fraction of what I expected.

Bill, that's why we should see it! How does a sustained dry period impact the ten-year projection for trees? Is ten years even the period we should be using for trees? I'd be very interested to know where you think the trees should be if not for the dry conditions. BTW, what has the weather been like in NC MN of late? :)

I have no idea if 10 years is an official standard other than many sellers tend to use how big their trees will be at 10 years in the descriptions. We'll just go with the flow. :-)

Of course, everyone's soil and climate differ and subsoil water holding capacity, precipitation timing and other factor determine what a 'good year' is compared to a 'not so good year'.

IME: If springtime is on the dry side, when trees are wanting to push 'new growth', the new growth may end up being only a couple to a few inches on the branch tips, then stop or nearly so, if no rain continues.

OTOH: When moisture is sufficient in the spring and early summer, the new growth can continue for weeks until it's 1-1/2 ft. or greater before it hardens off in the late Summer.

That's what I've noticed in this sandy loam soil with 15-20 ft. of almost pure sand underneath. And once the subsoil dries out, things really can slow down without days of soaking rains to replenish all that dry sand underneath.

The smaller/newer trees are never a problem. Hose watering seems sufficient and incredible grow has been the result along with these hotter temperatures that seem to accompany dry conditions.

The larger trees, with extended root systems, survive but don't always thrive like they would in wetter conditions.

Our 30-year average, annual precipitation, according to this older map, is most times less than ideal, than if you go further east and south (I'm in the lightest green, slightly west of central MN).

Not that we don't have 'good years', it's just lately the timing and amounts of rain haven't been great.

Thanks, Bill, I have US precip maps, but I like that one -- easy to see at a glance. You are bordering on the Great plains. Rain here had been a bit low after May, but have almost 8 inches in last 3 weeks. Historical annual avg precip at my spot is ~38", but my rain-gauge shows an annual avg of 42.6" since 2004, so rainfall here has increased a bit.

We had a few inches of rain back in August, which many times is unheard of for that time of year. That's not all that bad if we get more in the way of good spring rains, which didn't happen this season or last.

And another note about annual precipitation, if we get half or most of the 28" in the wintertime as snow, much of that moisture can run off during years of big warmups and fast snow melts on frozen ground.

And many times, that inch or so during the hot part of the summer is gone in a few days with weeks of no rain in between.

Yesterday, I dug to plant a rose bush in a part of the yard that's not watered. One foot down, I hit what I would compare to digging into a cinder block. It was that hard & dry.

Out at my son's place, where I dug the rose bush, they got in on a couple of extra substantial rains over the last three weeks, that we missed here in town. The soil was dripping wet a foot down and a plenty moist root ball came with it.

Boy, now you got me doing my song and dance when it's dry conditions here. :-)