Month: December 2007

All aboard!

Published on by edremsrola3 Comments

I remember as a young boy growing up with the Sears® Wish Book as my most read publication for pretty much the entire month of December. I would pour over the pages looking and dreaming and strategizing how I would talk my parents into just the right gifts.

These days, I still have a wish list, but my catalogs of choice have changed from toys to garden plants! Of course I’m always interested in conifers, but almost any dwarf or miniature plant has a chance of getting on my list. I also have a wish project. I am hoping to take a small section of my garden and turn it into a miniature garden railway. That way, I can satisfy the wishes of my inner-boy as well as the conifer loving old man!

Creating a great railway garden will take a lot of research and planning. One inspirational publication I’ve found is Garden Railways Magazine. I’m inspired by the folks that create the most realistic scale railways you could imagine. Many of these gardens utilize dwarf conifers to create the natural looking forests and other trees to fit the right scale for their trains.

Cryptomeria japonica 'Tansu'

One conifer that I think will work great in my railway garden is Cryptomeria japonica ‘Tansu.’ Rated at Zone 6, it won’t do for every garden, but here in the PNW, it will thrive. When young, it can be pruned and trained into a very natural looking forest tree with its small scale-like leaves in perfect proportion with a miniature railway. Left to grow naturally, ‘Tansu’ has a very compact, irregular growth habit, forming a rounded globe shape to a very broad pryramid with age. With its neat and tidy habit, it can be useful in a broad spectrum of garden styles.

Whether your desire is a garden railway, container plants as part of a patio garden or a great specimen for a rock garden, ‘Tansu’ is a premium choice that you need to put on your wish list too!

Best wishes

Ed-
Conifer lover

Thanks again to my friends at Iseli Nursery for the photo links!

Have you hugged a conifer today?

Published on by edremsrola2 Comments

I love to talk about conifers with friends and neighbors (or anyone that will stand still long enough). As I engage them in conversation, I frequently discover that they know very little about my favorite plants.

“You mean those prickly juniper things,” They’ll say.

Or while pointing to a Tsuga mertensiana one said,  “I just love my mountain pine over there.” (Not a pine at all, rather a hemlock.)

On the inside I’m shaking my head and on the outside I’m smiling patiently. Others will flat out tell me they don’t like conifers because they grow too big or are just too sharp and “stickery.”  If I have the opportunity to take them through my garden, I’m able to enlighten them about the amazing world of conifers and the exciting variation of size, color, form and texture found there.

Chamaecyparis pisifera 'True Blue'

One great conifer that I love to show people (and have them touch) is Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘True Blue’ because it has so many great characteristics. First, it is a beautiful silvery blue color – most people are drawn to it all on their own for its great color. Second, it is an intermediate grower, so it won’t get huge over time and it responds well to annual shearing to keep it neat and compact if you like. Third, it is incredibly soft to the touch!

I have two in my garden, one I lightly shear to encourage a formal cone shaped plant, and the other I have pruned into a teddy bear topiary. I love to tell people to give the teddy bear a hug. Some will look at me strangely while others will hug it with no hesitation. Kids, of course, run right over and hug it again and again! The foliage is so soft and fuzzy that people are truly amazed when they touch it.

“This is a conifer?” They’ll ask. “Sure,” I respond with a big smile.

It really is quite a lot of fun to help people discover their inner “tree-hugger” and to see them become enthusiastic about adding conifers to their own gardens.

Ed-
Conifer lover

Thanks to my friends at Iseli Nursery for the photo link.

Love at first sight

Published on by edremsrolaLeave a comment

Picea glauca 'Pendula'The first time I saw this conifer I was absolutely in love. Seriously. This is one of those fantastic trees that deserves a place in every garden and rates among the most hardy conifers around too! Heavy snow load? Ice storm? No problem!

Picea glauca ‘Pendula’ is a stunning, majestic beauty. The foliage is a dark grey-green giving this conifer a good solid appearance. This thing grows straight as an arrow and shoots up toward the sky while all its branches curve down, layer upon layer, creating a wonderfully tall and narrow spire. Many weeping conifers have very flexible branches that dangle loosely, hanging and drooping toward the ground, but P.g. ‘Pendula’s branches seem programed to turn and head for the ground in a very purposed manner. Its form reminds me of my favorite local waterfall, Multnomah Falls in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. This is one of those trees that as much as I try to describe it, I don’t think I’ll ever do it justice. Even when photographed, it never seems as impressive to me as standing next to one well placed in a garden!

I’d love have the space to plant a long row of these around the border of my property to create a tall living castle wall!

Until next time,

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Thanks again to Iseli for the photo links.

My Hostas fell asleep

Published on by edremsrola3 Comments

I tease my wife about her love for annuals and color spots in the garden and how one day, I will replace them all with conifers! In all honesty though, there are some really great plants that complement my conifers very well. And hey, I love color as much as the next guy, but I love a low-maintenance garden even more. Those pesky annuals and perennials can be so much work. There is one perennial in particular that is just a perfect partner for my conifers though, and that is Hosta. There are literally hundreds of different cultivars available (just like conifers) and they come in a wide assortment of plant size, leaf shape and size, color and variegations (again, just like conifers). But, unlike conifers, my Hostas fall asleep every winter and disappear from my garden until spring.

Tsuga canadensis 'Moon Frost'

Tsuga canadensis ‘Moon Frost’ is a fantastic conifer to plant amongst the hostas in my garden. Its variegated green and white foliage is complementary with the greens and whites and yellows and blues of my hosta (and other conifers). It also grows in the same shady areas providing a welcome glow to what can otherwise be a dreary place – especially in winter when the Hosta have all fallen fast asleep. And on top of it all, it is virtually maintenance free!

‘Moon Frost’ quickly became one of my favorite conifers several years ago, and it is still very high on my list of “must have” garden plants!

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Many thanks to the good folks at Iseli Nursery for the photo links!

When nature plays a joke

Published on by edremsrola2 Comments

The western red cedar (Thuja plicata) is a fairly well known forest conifer – especially here in the PNW. This 150-200 foot tall tree is harvested for its richly scented wood often used in closets and chests. It also provides great lumber for home siding and fencing due to its natural resistance to rot. Beautiful as it is, it’s not very useful in today’s urban gardens. Fortunately for gardeners, there are some great cultivars of T. plicata that have been selected by plantsmen over the years. One of those is truly an oddity and when I see it I wonder about the mix up of genetic code needed to create something so unlike its parent.

Thuja plicata 'Whipcord'
A suprise seedling, 'Whipcord' is a great plant for the conifer garden.

 Thuja plicata ‘Whipcord’ is quite an oddity with its dark green, thin, coarse, cord-like foliage and broad, mounding form. And even though it is not very much at all like its parent plant, this seedling found in a seedbed by the folks at Drakes Crossing Nursery, has characteristics similar to Chamacyparis pisifera var. filifera and its associated cultivars. Not only that, but there have been similar looking discoveries selected of Thuja occidentalis and T. orientalis (pladycladus).  I guess the joke’s on us!

Regardless of all the biology behind ‘Whipcord’, sometimes when nature plays a joke, we all get to benefit in the new selections of great conifers to include in our gardens!

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Thanks to the Iseli folks for the photo links!