Beyond Blue Spruce: Uncommon Conifers for Michigan Landscapes • Year-Round Interest – Evergreen –Bark –Cones • Botanically Interesting Bert Cregg, Ph.D
Why conifers?
Beyond blue spruce: Uncommon conifers for Michigan landscapes • Year-round interest – Evergreen –Bark –Cones • Botanically interesting Bert Cregg, Ph.D. • Often low maintenance Michigan State University Department of Horticulture • Add unique form, texture, color to landscape Department of Forestry
Why conifers?
• Variety of design functions – Specimens – Contrast elements – Borders – Mass as background • Increased interest in dwarf and unusual forms • Specialty plantings – Rock gardens – Containers –RR Gardens
1 2 Size classes recognized by the American Conifer Society
Growth per Approx. size Category year at 10 years Miniature < 1” < 1’ Dwarf 1” to 6” 1’ to 6’ Intermediate 6” to 12” 6’ to 15’ Large >12” >15’ www.conifersociety.org
Miniature conifers Picea glauca ‘Pixie dust’
3 Picea abies ‘Bant’ Picea abies ‘Little Gem’
Picea abies ‘St. James’
Pinus strobus ‘Sea Urchin’ Pinus strobus ‘Minuta’
4 Pinus parvifolia ‘Hagoromo’
Pinus aristata Dwarf ‘Sherwood compact’ conifers
5 Pinus omorika ‘Nana’ Pinus glauca ‘Sander’s blue’
Chamaecyparis obtusa Pinus strobus ‘Nana lutea’ ‘Compacta’
6 Tsuga canadensis ‘Guldemond’s Dwarf’
Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Filifera aurea’ Intermediate conifers
7 Pinus cembra ‘Compacta’ Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Filifera aurea’
Pinus cembra ‘Silver sheen’ Abies concolor ‘Conica’
8 Picea abies Pinus koraiensis ‘Aurea magnifica’
Large conifers
Chamaecyparis nootkatensis
9 Abies concolor
Taxodium distichum
Picea omorika
10 Pinus strobus
Conifer Form Classes
Globose: globe-like or rounded in general outline.
Pinus mugo ‘Mops’
11 Pinus mugo ‘Aurea’
Picea glauca ‘Blue planet’
Pendulous: upright or mounding with varying degrees of weeping branches. Picea abies ‘Virgata’
12 Larix decidua ‘Julian’s weeper’
Picea glauca ‘Pendula’
Narrow upright: much taller than broad; •Fastigiate •Columnar Chamaecyparis •Narrowly pyramidal nootkatensis ‘Green arrow’ •Narrowly conical
13 Thuja occidentalis ‘Degroot’s spire’ Picea glauca ‘Pendula’
Broad upright: includes all other upright plants Picea orientalis which do not fit into categories 1-3. ‘Skylands’
14 Picea pungens 'Montgomery' Picea pungens ‘Lutea’
Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica Abies lasiocarpa ‘compacta’’ var. arizonica ‘compacta’
15 Prostrate: ground-hugging, carpeting plants without an inclination to grow upward
Juniperus horizontalis ‘Motherlode’
Picea abies ‘Procumbens’
16 Picea pungens ‘Glauca procumbens’ Spreading: wider than tall.
Picea abies ‘Pumila’ Abies normanniana ‘Golden spreader’
17 Tsuga canadensis Irregular: erratic growth pattern. ‘Brookline’
Picea glauca ‘Fort Ann’
18 Larix decidua ‘Varied directions’ Pinus banksiana ‘Uncle Fogy’
Picea abies ‘Inversa’
19 Culturally altered: pruned or trained into Grafting high on standard formal or imaginative shapes, such as high grafts or standards.
20 Double graft Hedging
Microbiota decussata & Chamaecyparis obtusa
21 Topiary
22 Espalier
23 Photo: Aaron Warsaw
Thank you!
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