Tip of the Week — 9/15/08

Posted in Gardening Tips on September 15 2008, by Sonia Uyterhoeven

Crazy for Conifers
Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education at The New York Botanical Garden.
Conifers provide stately backdrops throughout the year for the garden. In the fall they are particularly spectacular as backdrops for the fireworks of fall colors. While many of them are imposing specimens, there are many fine dwarf conifers that are ideal for perennial borders and more confined spaces.

One of the most stunning examples of a dwarf conifer is the dwarf blue Colorado spruce, Picea pungens ‘R.H. Montgomery’. This is a slow-growing, compact specimen with beautiful glaucous blue needles.

If you would like a golden accent in your garden, try Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Filifera Aurea Nana’. This Dwarf Sawara-cypress will develop into a  three-foot mound.

If green is your color, the Hinoki False Cypress, Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana Gracilis’, is a popular choice. It starts its life as a mound and then develops into a nice upright shape, reaching from three to five feet tall after 10 years. This little conifer can take full sun to part shade.