Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Flowers and Foliage Now => Topic started by: mark smyth on December 25, 2008, 11:46:00 AM
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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'
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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'
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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.
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Thanks Roma and Rudi.
I bought Picea abies "Formanek" last year but it's not looking happy
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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
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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.
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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
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How lovely these little trees are, I particularly like the Larix decidua Krejczii.( thank goodness for copy and paste) ;)
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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
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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
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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?
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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
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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 :-\
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John, can you explain witch's hats for me please.
If you cut one off a tree, what does it grow into? ???
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Witches brooms on Silver Birch are caused by a fungus.
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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
Witches brooms on Silver Birch are caused by a fungus.
Hmmm... so are those brooms of conifers, which are NOT caused by mistletoe, caused by a fungus also?
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Thank you so much for this thread. I adore all the dwarf conifers shown here. Some of mine:
1.Chamaecyparis obtusa (bought it without a variety name, hope it's Minima)
2.Juniperus communis Compressa
3.Picea abies Little Gem
4.Picea mariana Pygmey (failed to find this variety of P.mariana in books)
5.Picea pungens Globe
6.Pinus parviflora glauca (not exactly a snall thing in future)
7.A conifer border
8.Pinus mugo Jacobsen
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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
Witches brooms on Silver Birch are caused by a fungus.
Hmmm... so are those brooms of conifers, which are NOT caused by mistletoe, caused by a fungus also?
Can be just aberrant cells, disease, physical damage, reversions... all sorts of things and you never really know how stable they are until you live with them long enough. The question is how long is long enough?
johnw
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Here's the best list of dwarf conifers I have ever seen and many I would love to own. No mail order to UK and minimum order elsewhere is 500 Euro. http://www.nurgapuukool.ee/enindex.php?id=31 (http://www.nurgapuukool.ee/enindex.php?id=31)
From the web site
We started to sell plants to the Europe (especially to the Baltic States and Scandinavia).
Orders are accepted throughout the year. Order deliveries are made between May and October.
A minimum value of order is 500 € (euros) plus delivery expenses. We also deliver plants on request. Please email for further details.
After getting your order we will send you a confirmation of availability of plants by e-mail. Please note some plants are in short supply and might be sold out at the beginning of summer season.
Orders must be paid in before goods are delivered. Payment in euros to our bank account.
Discounts will be offered for bulk orders, details available on request.
Maybe I can I persuade my local garden to buy from then instead of the crap 'dwarf' conifers they usually buy in. Maybe there are enough people in our group interested to buy in a trolley.
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Maggi - Consulted Welch and he seems to be saying these brooms are caused by bud mutations and can be viral. Mostly infertile females but a few are fertile.
Interesting is that the Alberta Spruce was found as fours seedling during a brief train delay in Lake Laggan by Jack and Rehder. If I remember correctly Gnom is identical but much smaller and was found as a witches broom on the Alberta. Pixie was a broom on Gnom and is even smaller. So witches broom on a witches broom. By now there have probably been brooms on Pixie!
Arne - Hamamelis 'Jelena' just starting to flower here at a friend's, a tad late. There's always hope for spring here.
johnw - +4c and overcast
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The best dwarf Pinetum I have ever seen belongs to David Holubec in the Czech Republic. He's Vojtech's son.
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Mark, have you tried http://www.kenwithnursery.co.uk/ It's just down the road from Rosemoor, needs a car to get there though.
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Must look now. Thanks David.
I would like to get a small birch witch's broom grafted a couple of cm up a ? stem. What's is a plant grafted on to?
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I'll ask my mother-in-law :P
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Mark - Why not try Betula michauxii instead of a graft, might even work as understock?
johnw
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I see it only grows to 2 feet