Dwarf conifers

[mark smyth]

I'm sure many of us grow dwarf conifers in beds, troughs and in pots. I thought it would be good for us to show our collections.

Abies koreana 'Blue Eskimo'
Abies lasiocarpa 'Compacta'
Picea 'Jana' - my regret is planting it next to the stone. It's now dead on that side.
Pinus mugo 'Tuffet'
Pinus sylvestris 'Riverside Gem'

[Roma]

Your conifers are looking a bit lonely there Mark.  Here are some of mine to keep them company. The Tsuga is one of my favourites.  It is quite slow growing and has not yet got too big, though I should rescue a couple of plants which will soon disappear.  There are 3 junipers in the first pic, planted close together.  They are now about 4 foot high and are beginning to look a bit scruffy.

Tsuga canadensis 'Jeddeloh'
Juniperus communis 'Compressa'
Pinus parviflora 'Kiyomatsu'

[ruweiss]

Let me add some pictures from some dwarf conifers. These valuable plants are a bit underrepresented
in many collections and also in the forum. The reason is probably the low growing rate of these plants.
So the most nurseries must raise quicker growing plants which is also understandable to stay against
the competition of the "Plant Factories"
Chamaecyparis obtusa "Minima" is a bit tender,therefore I cultivate it in the Alpine House.The growing
rate is very slow,this plant is about 15 years old.
Larix decidua "Krejczii" is a strange crested form,collected and propagated in Czech Republic.
Picea abies "Formanek" is also of Czech origin,it can also be grafted on a higher stock plant which results
in a beautiful weeping form.
Pinus leucodermis "Schmidtii" is in my experience the best pine for bigger troughs and rockeries.
Tsuga canadensis "Cole's Prostrate",a fine creeping form of the hemlock.
Tsuga canadensis "Minuta",a dwarf form about 12 years old.

[mark smyth]

Thanks Roma and Rudi.

I bought Picea abies "Formanek" last year but it's not looking happy

[Paddy Tobin]

Rudi,

I don't grow many of the dwarf conifers, or the large conifers either, but I was pleased to see you post a photograph of Pinus leucodermis 'Schmidtii' as I have a specimen in the garden which is now over thirty years old and still looks good. At one time the dwarf conifers were quite fashionable and many plants were sold as "dwarf" but quickly grew far beyond their stated eventual size. Pinus leucodermis 'Schmidtii' is one of those which fills the bill and continues to look well in the garden.

Paddy

[ruweiss]

Mark and Paddy,thanks for the kind replies.
Mark,you must be patient with P.a."Formanek",it needs a rather long time to get established,but you will be rewarded
with a relly good looking gem after some years.
P.l."Schmidtii" can be recommended as a life-long good looking friend for all rock gardeners,not cheap as a small plant
but now easier to obtain than in former years.

[johnw]

Rudi - A lovely 'Minuta' and not so easy to find here in the land of Tsuga canadensis!

'Coles' Prostrate' can get huge over here but it is very slow in the first 10+ years.

We also like T.c. 'Stewart's Pygmy'.

One true dwarf I got from Gordon Bentham in the 1970's is Picea abies 'Pachyphylla' which is extremely slow, mine is still under 12cm.  Humphrey Welch, I believe, says that the original from 1886 (or so) is in the RBGE and was under 1 meter when his book was written (sometime in the 1960's I think - mine is a reprint from about 1980 by Theophrastus). Very difficult to propagate as many buds are blind.  A funny little crooked habit but at least it's lives up to the name dwarf.

johnw

[maggiepie]

How lovely these little trees are, I particularly like the  Larix decidua Krejczii.( thank goodness for copy and paste)

[johnw]

Just took a look at Welch. Picea abies 'Pachyphylla' was at Glasnevin and not RBGE. Hornibrook mentions it in 1938. The Welch 1st edition was 1966 and Pachyphylla at that point was under a meter high by half as much across. It must have been published elsewhere that the original was from the 1880's.

johnw   - normal temps for this date - low -10, high -1c

[johnw]

Rudi - Here is a native Larix laricina witch's broom I call 'Miss Twiggy'.  For 20 years I passed a Larix along the roadside in Timber River on the Route 16 to the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island, between Aulac and Cape Tormentine.  High up in the tree was this broom but far out of reach of a pruning saw. The broom must have been 40 or more years old and was only 50 or more cms across.  Every time I passed the tree I hoped there would be a linesman nearby that could go up in a bucket to get cuttings.  Then one year I was passing and the lineman was about 3 km away. Little did I know they were sawing trees down that might fall on the power lines. When I passed the tree the next winter the tree was gone. On the way home I got out of the car and spied the skeleton of the tree and pieces of the broom poking out of the snow. It had been shattered in the crash but I bagged as many branches as I could find and sent them by bus to two nurseries. One nursery tried to graft it but the grafts failed, the other nursery got one take. It's a good blue, tiny needles and rather bushy.

johnw

[ruweiss]

John,thank you so much for showing us this fine witches broom.You must have been very lucky
to find and grow such a gem. Is this plant available in the nursery trade now?

[johnw]

Rudi - There seems to be a lot of witch's broom on our trees here especially on the spruce and larch.  Sometimes the brooms are caused by a parasitic mistletoe and these usually revert once propagated. The mistletoe is especially rpevalent on trees growing on our foggy coastal shores.

The nursery has not propagated the Larch unfortunately despite my requests.  Usually nurseries done such a favour are happy to get the plant around to others and into the trade.  Live and learn.

johnw 

[Maggi Young]

Not a conifer point but one suggested by this talk of the witches' brooms on conifers..... A birch tree next door to us, and one of our own birches.... a seedling from the first....have many such clumps or aberrant growth on them.  Half-hearted attempts have been made over the years to strike cuttings from them but no success.....perhaps we should try again this year....it would make a cute miniature pot subject/bonsai plant, if it worked 

[maggiepie]

John, can you explain witch's hats for me please.
If you cut one off a tree, what does it grow into?

[annew]

Witches brooms on Silver Birch are caused by a fungus.