Conifers to love

I have a strange pine, which I swear is deciduous.
Of course, it's not supposed to be.
Every winter, it's needles turn completely brown as in the picture.

I have lost the tag, but by my recollection it is pinus longifolia,
which I gather is synonymous w/ pinus roxburghii.
It's not supposed to be hardy here - I think zone 7 or 8.
I got it because it has beautiful long needles.
Of course, every winter, they're dead drooping brown needles!

Then, just as you're about to give up on it, Voila!
It springs back to life.
I looks lush and full in the summer.
I presume it isn't good for the plant to go through this ordeal every winter,
so I suspect one of these days I really will lose it.

that's weird, maybe you got a bug

my dad had a similar problem, a maple, when I dug it up to see if there was a problem I saw that he planted it with burlap sack and the wire still enclosing the roots.

This message was edited Apr 24, 2010 9:31 AM

Amazing that it is surviving! Pinus roxburghii is normally considered zone 9, exceptionally zone 8. No surprise at all that the leaves are killed off in zone 6.

I'm wondering if it might actually be Pinus palustris; not easy to tell the two apart from dead foliage! Pinus palustris is hardier than Pinus roxburghii, but still marginal in zone 6.

Resin

It certainly may be palustris.
Whatever it is, it doesn't enjoy our winters.

Wow, that is exceptionally weird!

I'd rip it up and make a bonsai out of it

I'd love to try bonsai, but I don't think I have the nurturing qualities necessary.
Besides, it's already 8ft tall - seems a little much for a bonsai!
Here's this week's progress.
I looked up info on pinus palustris - I presume that's what I have.

I love how the new foliage on my pond cypress (taxodium ascendens) grows straight up all along the stem.
It was hard to get a decent picture, but you can get the idea on the post.

And check out the bright red cones in my pinus parviflora.

I've been watching this since it got started and just lurked. I love all your pics!

I have an addition to make today. Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Nana'. It will be going in the ground today.

Finally found my camera! Here's some of mine....

Taxus baccata 'Dovastoniana Aurea Pendula'

Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'Gold Rush'

Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'Miss Grace'

Metasequoia glyptostroboides 'waasland'. This one looks very promising

Picea orientalis ‘Aureospicata’ I think that's what this is???? Super neon action going on now....

Larix kaempferi 'Diana'

Sciadopitys verticillata 'Joe Kozy'. Yellowing but it's a pretty yellow!

The 'Blue Shag' is beautiful, maybe I'll get one of those one day. Here is a picture of my young Cypress tree. It is called 'Blue Ice' Cypress, and it is about one foot tall. (Photo on the right in the image) ... ...

A great selection as usual,, Dybbuk.
I'm trying to be resist the impulse to order one of each, since I've pretty much run out of sun.
So I'll try to just do some 'virtual' gardening by enjoying your posts.
Make sure to keep us up to date. They are beautiful plants! It will be interesting to see them mature.

Good Morning!

Im excited to find this thread. We are getting ready to move and at our new house there is a large area in the front yard I plant to convert to mounds with a dry creekbed type thing and do it in dwarf conifers. I work at a nursery so I will be able to order some really cool ones.
I am an experienced gardener but have only really admired the conifers as they passed through the nursery, never grew them much myself. Can anyone give me any advice as to the soil I should make the mounds out of? I will have to had yards of it brought in. I am guessing well drained, but should I add rock to it as well, should I make it slightly acidic?
Thanks!

When I saw the photos of the Metasequoia I had to get some of my Bald Cypress. I just love the feathery look and feels soft, too. They are training for bonsai

my baby, 6 yrs old?





I'm just learning with all this pines, junipers and cypress.
I'll be waiting to hear more on care.

This message was edited Apr 28, 2010 1:46 PM

Plantmum, I thought I would let a more bonafide coniferologist give you recommendations,
but it seems no one stepped up to the plate.
In my experience, dwarf conifers aren't fussy at all.
All they want is good drainage and most need pretty full sun.
Some tolerate a little shade, incl cham. obtusa, tsuga canadensis, and in my climate, abies.
I haven't acidified my midwestern soil and they do fine.
My main advice for laying out a new dwarf conifer garden is to plan for their future growth.
I have several awkward plantings where beautiful plants coming into their maturity are growing into each other -
but I don't have the courage to try to move them at this point.
Good luck on your project.
Maybe a better horticulturist will give you more specific advice on soil preparation.
Be sure to let us see the pictures.
I love watching a new planting evolve.

Wormfood, I want to see more of your bonsai specimens!
I have been too intimidated to try it myself.

Plantmum, I have zero experience planting in raised berms. So I cannot be much help either. I have only a few years of gardening experience myself and my highest learning curves have come from backtracking to figure out what went wrong when something dies.

I hear that, ic, I learn from the death of the plants. And being in Florida, it's usually the bugs. What plants can't tolerate which bug, mold, or fungus control. Keeping up with the ants. Trying to stay chemical free. I use alot of dish soap and white vinegar. I've just about given up on cactus and succulents. What is still alive is thriving - I'm sticking with that.
As for the bonsai, I'm learning to keep them alive and a few simple rules. Never cut more off than 25% at a time. Florida has 2 growing seasons from March until December. Even tropicals thrive in spring, rest during the hot summer and then spurt up again around september. When (what time of year for each plant) to trim is most important, bonsai4me has all the info I needed. Check this out...
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1055245/

I was looking to take pics of the bonsai, they're not much to look at right now. Mainly I have what grows here and I'm using them for practice.
I figure by this time next year I'll have some evergreens to look at. I may get some photos on the bonsai forum but every time I'm out there I'm snippin' and pickin'.

Oh ya, it took 2 years but finally figured out how to grow a Japanese Black Pine. I have 5 so far.
I'm very proud of my new babies.

That's a beautiful baby specimen you have there (the black pine). Did you grow that from a seed? Howdid you get the seed to sprout? Love having pines as bonsai.

That seedling looks fine so far, but the potting mix it is in is too wet - makes it very liable to damping-off disease. Best to grow pine seedlings in a well-drained sandy mix and keep them on the slightly dryish side.

Resin

Well I tried all that, went by all the instructions I could find. Lastly I just threw the dang seeds, what I had left, and there they are.
I'm really afraid to touch them. The one in the photo is in a bucket with pussy willow. I should drill a couple more holes.
And I shouldn't transplant until winter dormancy, right?

Well I think when you are in Florida one can get away with using less sandy soils in pots bcause the pots dry out fast during the sunny days anyway. If I get pine trees, I will usually mix together half sand and half moist soil like potting soil, or 'bush soil' bought from Target. Since you are in Florida, repotting him in winter or spring is good. After repotting or working on their roots put them in bright shade (not full sun) for about three days, then bring them back to the lighting that they are supposed to grow in.
Since the pine tree is so young and small, I would'nt mess with it's roots at all, if you repot it make sure to keep plenty of the soil that is around it's roots when you move it to another pot. When it gets older and if the roots really over-crowd the pot it is in, then you can trim it's roots, once every one or two years.
I had a tiny black pine, and I let the pot it was in dry out completely by accident for three whole days, and he died. (whoops).

That hurts.
I've been transplanting tiny junipers I'm finding around the yard. They have a deep tap root and I'm counting on the same with the pine. I might take the weakest (smallest) and see what happens with transplanting.

Here's a picture I took today of my Tanyosho pine (p. densiflora umbriculifera).
It's a japanese red pine.
Great exfoliating RED bark. I love it.
It took 15yrs or so to start showing the exfoliating bark, but I think it was worth it.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2608/
Is this it? I try to look up the trees and learn, I'm not sure this is your tree, Weerobin.
I'd like to see what it looks like.

That's a different cultivar. Same species, different cultivar.
I don't know how to make a link.
But if you enter 'Tanyosho' into the search box on PlantFiles, you'll get the right cultivar.