Month: June 2008

A rainbow of color

Published on by edremsrola2 Comments

The other day I was in an enthusiastic conversation with one of my gardening friends. This gal absolutely loves her flowers as much as I love my conifers. We like to kid each other about the superiority of our selected favorites and why they are superior to the others. In our last debate I was bragging about the twelve months of color available in the conifer garden as opposed to her short season flowers.

Abies koreana 'Green Carpet' purple cone
Abies koreana ‘Green Carpet’ cone.

I was making some headway with her as she did admit that without conifers, her own garden would look barren from late fall through early spring. Just then she launched a challenge to me; one she was confident that she would win without much of a contest. She challenged me to come up with a list of conifers that would include the seven colors of the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Golden Mop’

My friend looked at me with the smile of confidence that she had won. I must have turned a little red in the face as my eyes rolled to the sky and I began to visualize all the colorful conifers in my garden and others I’ve seen elsewhere. She started to chuckle just a little bit and told me there was no way I’d be able to do it.

“Obviously you aren’t restricting me to foliage color, right? The vast majority of color in your garden comes from the flowers, not the foliage.” I clarified.

“Fine, fine” she said, “I still don’t think you can do it!”

Here is the list I rattled off much to her surprise:

Red:
Picea abies ‘Rubra Spicata’ for its bright red new foliar growth.

Orange:
Thuja occidentalis ‘Golden Tuffet’ is really more orange than gold, especially in the winter.

Yellow:
Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Golden Mop’ is one of the brightest yellows you can find.

Green:
Tsuga heterophylla ‘Thorsen’s Weeping’ for its rich green color and dense form.

Indigo:
Pinus leucodermis ‘Indigo Eyes’ has the most amazing indigo cones

Blue:
Picea pungens ‘Hoopsii’ is possibly the brightest blue conifer available.

Violet:
Abies koreana ‘Green Carpet’ for its purple cones and great low spreading habit.

So, what was my reward for winning the contest? She punched me in the arm and made me pay for the coffee!

Ed-
Conifer Lover

The amazingly colorful spruce

Published on by edremsrola2 Comments

Some time ago I wrote about my difficulty choosing a single favorite conifer or even a favorite group of conifers. My favorites can change quickly depending on what conifer I am standing next to at the time. I must admit though, that this time of year, when the spruce are all pushing their fresh, colorful new growth, I am leaning toward them as being my favorites.

Picea is a large genus with quite a number of species, many of which are some of the hardiest you’ll find. My friends in the Midwest are always looking for exciting new plants to add to their gardens and I think most often they look to Picea to fulfill their needs. Even here in the mild Pacific Northwest, those same hardy spruce trees are among my absolute favorites. There is a lot to love about spruce.

I’ve also mentioned in the past some of the outstanding blue cultivars available from miniature forms to full sized trees. The blue foliaged forms are simply stunning this time of year when their foliage is young and fresh and the waxy coating that creates the blue tones is fresh and has not begun to weather off.

Picea orientalis 'Aureospicata'

Blue is not the only color available though. Of course there are many shades of green from the bright grassy greens of Picea abies ‘Witches Brood’ to the rich dark green of P. orientalis ‘Minima Wells’. Then there are the silvery blue-greens of P. sitchensis ‘Papoose’ or P. omorika ‘Pimoko’ and the yellows of P. orientalis ‘Skylands’, and ‘Aureospicata’. One of the most eye-catching colors is when the dark green P. abies ‘Rubra Spicata’ pushes it’s new growth which emerges a bright red that slowly shifts to a darker blood red and eventually to green.

Picea abies 'Rubra Spicata'

Springtime is a great time of year in the conifer garden largely due to the fantastic display of color provided by the spruce. I hope you have an opportunity to plant some conifers this year and be sure to select some of the colorful and satisfying spruce when you do.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Thanks to Iseli Nursery for the photo links

Ugly duckling to beautiful swan

Published on by edremsrola2 Comments

Some conifers I absolutely fall in love with upon my first encounter with them. Others, I may have an appreciation for, but they just don’t do anything for me – at first. Picea abies ‘Acrocona’ is one of those trees that I have been truly enjoying in my garden for the past few years; now that it has put on some size and is maturing nicely.Colorful cones add great interest.

‘Acrocona’ is a very unique Norway Spruce. It has prolific cone production at a very young age that initially interested me in the plant. Unfortunately, that same characteristic is what makes the young plant a little bit of an aesthetic challenge since it can cause unusual and erratic looking growth. What makes ‘Acrocona’ genuinely unusual is the way it develops its new cones each year. Some cones begin to form early in spring on last year’s branches. This would be considered “normal” for Norway Spruce. What’s unusual is that ‘Acrocona’ also develops cones on the terminal ends of the current seasons new growth;  not on all the new growth, but frequently on what would be the central leader of the tree and its surrounding upper branches.

Tiny cone develops at the tip of new growth.

The cones, wherever they are produced are a brilliant reddish pink color that really stands out against the dark green of the older foliage. The period that new cones are developed begins in early spring and continues for quite some time as new growth emerges with new cones developing at the tips.Swelling young cone.

My ‘Acrocona’ has been putting on a show of cones for several weeks now with the oldest ones beginning to lose their red color and tiny new cones just now emerging at the ends of new growth. As ‘Acrocona’ matures, it forms a very nice broad pyramidal shape with branches that are somewhat weeping and bounce in a slight breeze due to the heavy cones on their ends. During spring, the combination of reddish new cones and the new flush of bright green foliage make a beautiful show for several weeks. As the foliage hardens to Maturing specimen in autumn - 15 feet tall at 30 years.dark green and the cones dry to a light brown, the tree becomes a stately specimen in the summer garden.

Truly a great find that may begin as a bit of an “ugly duckling,” this tree matures beautifully and deserves a place in every garden.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

Thanks to Iseli Nursery for the photo links!