Tag: cryptomeria japonica

A promise of gold

Published on by edremsrola2 Comments

In my corner of the Pacific Northwest, 2014 will be remembered as one of the exceptionally great weather years. I simply do not remember a better stretch of pleasant, mild, warm and sunny days. Even during the heat of our summer hot days, we rarely saw the thermometer rise above the mid-90s with most days peaking in the mid to low-80s – just perfect!

Now as we slide into the end of October, the rain has been with us for several days in a row with no real end in sight. I think for many of us native born Oregonians, this is a welcome change. As tired as we may become of the rain after five or six months of it on a daily basis, most of us do tend to welcome its return after a hot and dry summer.

Cryptomeria japonica ‘Golden Promise’ is a stunning, bright yellow, globe-shaped dwarf conifer ideal for the temperate garden.

This year our fall foliage color has been delayed when compared with years in recent memory. My photographer friend keeps an accurate photo record of the gardens at Iseli Nursery, by cataloging his photos by date. It is fairly easy for him to look back over the past decade and a half and report just when the deciduous trees began their autumn color changes, when they peaked and which trees were among the last to finally drop their leaves. For example, he has photos from early October of 2013 showing many Japanese Maples in the Jean Iseli Memorial Garden in a blaze of orange and red, while this year those very same trees have just started to show their seasonal color over the past week or so – non being near their peak of color as compared with previous years.

I am sure that weather conditions, precipitation amounts, daily temperature range and early or late frost all play a role in how and when a tree may display its autumn color. Fortunately, seasonal color in the garden is not limited to deciduous trees and shrubs.

One of the greatest advantages of using conifers in the garden is that they have the potential to provide fantastic color all year long, and some of them even change color through the seasons. One of the most colorful and most exciting conifers in my garden is a dwarf Japanese Cedar called ‘Golden Promise’. Cryptomeria japonica ‘Golden Promise’ is one of the brightest yellow conifers from spring through summer and only begins to darken a bit as it takes on a slight golden-bronze hue with the onset of colder weather in autumn or winter.

Slightly bronzed foliage from the cold winter temperatures begins to awaken as reddish-orange new foliage emerges in spring. Soon, the outer, sun-exposed foliage with brighten to fresh, lemon-yellow as older, shaded interior foliage provides a green contrast.

Once the temperature begins to rise again in spring, new growth will emerge with a hint of bronze to the tips which quickly brightens to lemon-yellow, creating one of the brightest color spots in the garden. The slow growing plant has a very tidy globe shape and never needs shearing to maintain its attractive form. Tiny, succulent needles give the bright golden globe a coarse texture.

For a promise of gold in your garden that you may rely upon year after year, ‘Golden Promise’ is rated at Zone 6 cold hardiness and is perfect for all kinds of container gardens, rock gardens, or any small space where a beautifully bright blast of color will be seen and enjoyed.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

I want a brand new conifer for Christmas

Published on by edremsrola13 Comments

Anyone remember the novelty Christmas hit single from 1953 titled, I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas? It has remained one of my very favorites since the first time I heard it. It just doesn’t quite seem like the Christmas holiday season without hearing this song at least once.

I was trying out one of those new online services that let you listen to tons of music on your computer – for free. My wife requested an evening of Christmas music, so I did a search and created a playlist. Sure enough, I found Gayla Peevey’s old recording. As we were enjoying our evening, working on our hand-crafted gifts, my mind began to wander as Gayla’s voice filled the room – what if I changed the lyrics just a little bit to better fit my Christmas wish – here is the result:

I want a brand new conifer for Christmas
Only a brand new conifer will do
Don’t want a bulb, no stinky Amorphophallus titanum
I want a brand new conifer to plant in my arboretum

I want a brand new conifer for Christmas
I don’t think Santa Claus will mind, do you?
He won’t have to use our dirty chimney flue
Just bring it through the front door, that’s the easy thing to do

I can see me now on Christmas morning, creeping down the stairs
Oh what joy and what surprise when I open up my eyes
To see a brand new conifer potted there

I want a brand new conifer for Christmas
Only a brand new conifer will do
No Rhododendrons, no silly little crocuseses
I only like colorful coniferususes
And colorful coniferuses like me too!

May you all have a holiday filled with the people you love.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

The cute little sister

Published on by edremsrola8 Comments

One advantage to enduring the months of cloudy skies and rain in the Pacific Northwest is the ability to grow a vast assortment of plants, including many conifers that simply will not survive the harsher winter cold and blistering summer heat found elsewhere around the country. For example, many of my friends cannot even consider growing Cryptomeria japonica or any of its amazing cultivars.

The first cultivar of Cryptomeria that I was introduced to, way-back-when, was ‘Elegans’. This intermediate growing tree was quite a beautiful sight to behold – long, soft billowy foliage that softly swayed in the breeze like layers of feathers. When I met this tree while working for a landscaper, it was early spring and it still retained some of its winter copper/plum color. Within weeks it would return to the bronze-green of its warmer season color, lasting until the cold winter temperatures would return.

Cryptomeria japonica 'Elegans Nana'
Cryptomeria japonica ‘Elegans Nana’ is a delightful dwarf sculpture for any of today’s gardens.

Although ‘Elegans’ truly is an elegant specimen, it may get too big for today’s smaller gardens. Fortunately, she has a little sister that is quite a beauty herself. Cryptomeria japonica ‘Elegans Nana’ is a wonderful dwarf form of the Plume Japanese Cedar. Growing 2-4 inches per year in my garden, she definitely won’t overgrow even the smallest garden anytime soon. I love her irregular, almost sculpted looking, mounding form. With foliage that is typical of Cryptomeria with succulent, awl-like needles, growing in dense clumps, mounding and layering upon itself, every plant is its own unique creation. Like its big sister, ‘Elegans Nana’ will provide an interesting purplish/reddish/orange color through the cold winter months. In my garden this year, that winter color lingered well into the later months of spring.

Cryptomeria japonica 'Elegans Nana'
A close-up view of Cryptomeria japonica ‘Elegans Nana’

Purchased as a young plant, ‘Elegans Nana’ is a great candidate for the container garden on the patio or urban balcony. My friends in those colder winter climates might even consider growing many of the dwarf and miniature Cryptomeria in containers if they are able to move them into a protected garage or other structure, remembering that they are rated at Zone 6.

Unique, compact sculptural form, tantalizing soft foliage, color that changes with the seasons, and just being plain cute, I can’t imagine why everyone wouldn’t love to have an ‘Elegans Nana’ in their conifer collection.

Ed-
Conifer Lover

The girl with the Black Dragon tolerance

Published on by edremsrolaLeave a comment

You know your visit is going to be interesting when the conversation goes something like this:

“See, Ed. This is exactly what I am talking about. This… Crypt… Crypt-o – I mean, who named this thing, an undertaker?”

“That’s Cryptomeria japonica ‘Black Dragon’ – I thought you would rather like that one.”

“Well, the last name is cool… but…”

“Oh c’mon, just admit you like it – I won’t verbally tell a soul.” And with that, she knew she was in trouble.

With her wry smile, she looked at me briefly and then back at the plant, “I suppose you’re going to blog about me again aren’t you?”

“Well, you do inspire discussion about why I love conifers.”

It had been a while since The Flower Girl had paid me a visit. She was disheartened with our long and wet spring, the incredibly short summer and the quick return to a wet autumn. All the rain and cool temperatures this year prevented her usually glorious flower garden from performing its best. She had mildew and fungus and blight, oh my!

Cryptomeria japonica 'Black Dragon'
Cryptomeria japonica ‘Black Dragon’

Her sunflowers were half their normal height, the zinnias and marigolds were sparse and thin as were the other flowers that normally thrive in hot and dry summers. She found that she needed to dead-head the flowers more frequently because the cool wet weather would quickly turn them into dark brown mush.

I listened to her frustrations as we walked around my garden and the light sprinkles fell from the sky. I looked to the west, and noticed the sky was incredibly dark – I had a feeling that, momentarily, we would be in for a big shower. As we rounded the path that returned us past the ‘Black Dragon’ and back toward the house, she did admit that she found the plant to be somewhat tolerable (which I have come to understand translates into her actually liking the plant).

“Of course you do.” I thought to myself with a slight smile.

‘Black Dragon’ is a great conifer that has quite a lot of natural appeal and yet it is unusual enough to keep my interest too. As a young plant, it can grow somewhat vigorously with a rather narrow form. With some maturity, it seems to slow its upward extension and puts more of its energy into filling in and becomes a little broader at the base (kind of like me). As ‘Black Dragon’ ages, it will acquire a very nice semi-broad pyramidal form with a combination of slightly open branching and dense clusters of its soft, awl-like, dark green foliage. Hardy in Zone 5 and warmer, this one won’t survive the colder regions (although I have seen on online reference which states that one is growing in Keota, Iowa). In the hot and humid south, some conifers experience a “melt-down”, but not ‘Black Dragon’. Possibly its more open habit allows for better air flow.

As we settled into the comfortable chairs near the woodstove, my wife had already brewed the tea, and we chatted about how well the conifers had performed during our unusually cool and wet season. We talked about the change of seasons, the soon-to-come brilliant display of autumn foliage color and the excitement that a new season of gardening will bring.

Ed
Conifer Lover

I love my Twinkle Toes

Published on by edremsrola4 Comments

Since the local weather forecasters are all predicting that we will warm into the lower 80s today, I thought I’d better get to my favorite garden center early while it was still cool. (And by cool, I mean that we were totally covered with clouds and there was a very fine but steady mist falling.)

I arrived at the GC with really nothing in mind to purchase, I suppose I just wanted to hang out with the plant folks there, see what was new and exciting, and maybe even find something on sale. What I ended up with has really got me excited! I found something so new, so rare that I don’t know how I was able to find it. First though, let me run through some of the other goodies I found. Yes, I know, I already have some of these in my garden, but… well, I think you know; I’m a hopeless conifer addict (that’s a good thing, right?)

I found the cutest little Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Butter Ball’. I had always thought that ‘Butter Ball’ would remain in its ball shape – the two little guys I’ve had for a couple years have stayed that way. But this one is larger to begin with – even larger than the two I have now – and it appears more like a soft serve ice cream cone with a bit of a pointed top. So I called my friends over at Iseli, and sure enough, as they mature and get a little size to them (which, being miniatures, I’m talking less than 18 inches in any direction) they do begin to become somewhat broadly conical in shape. This little fella is on its way now and is quite the cutie!

Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Gemstone'

I also found a beautiful Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Gemstone’. Now this one I know is supposed to be a miniature upright grower, and it is off to a great start. Its tiny dark green foliage and compact, irregular  form make it a gorgeous companion to the ‘Butter Ball’ – I’ll be planting them near one another in the rock garden.

Finally, (I am so excited I can hardly type) I found a brand new plant called, Cryptomeria japonica ‘Twinkle Toes’. This is one that Iseli has been evaluating for a number of years under the name of C.j. [Tansu Yellow Sport] because it was discovered as a mutated branch growing on a larger ‘Tansu’. With very tight and congested foliage, this golden irregular upright is somewhat of a conically shaped plant and will be a real treasure in my garden. I had seen this plant during its evaluation years at Iseli, but I didn’t know that they had named it and had begun to release a few for sale. I’m glad my favorite local garden center was willing to experiment with something so rare and unusual. Apparently one of the employees was trying to wager a bet with the others that I would snatch this thing up the moment I saw it – she was right!

Cryptomeria japonica 'Twinkle Toes'
‘Twinkle Toes’ makes my toes curl with excitment!

Good thing my birthday is coming up, I’m sure I can convince my wife that these great new plants will negate any responsibility she may feel to purchase me a present. Otherwise I may have to give up my autumn garden budget since the spring and summer plants purchases have already slightly surpassed their allocated funds. It’s all worth it though – I love conifers!

Ed-
Conifer Lover