Eastern White Pine Replacement

picked up a small skylands last fall - hope it can deal with some sun here and will try to keep it in the 6 - 8' height as it get's older.

Anyone know about growing Calocedrus decurrens on the east coast? I read that Longwood Gardens has a 78' specimen. That might work for me, I'd imagine they are fairly quick growing.

My Skylands was on eastern edge of a woodland, so it was shaded in afternoon.
Sunscald was never a problem in this setting.
That spruce looks great, Pseudo; thanks for posting it.
Sequoia, I tried calocedrus once many years ago without success.
Another conifer I love but have failed with is pseudolarix kaempferi.
I've killed at least half a dozen, so as a humanitarian gesture, I have quit trying.
And just to taunt me, there's a beautiful mature beauty at MoBot less than 10 miles from here. Makes it harder to blame climate...

Wee:

Maybe you need an Intervention.

There are some of us that have been known to come and "lay on hands" for those afflicted. We also have been known to bring adult beverages, and fine chocolate.

Just sayin' - couldn't hurt.

I could use it, I'm sure.
To add insult to injury, I gave away a pseudolarix seedling to a non-gardening friend who has a 'farm' in rural Mo just for occasional weekend getaways. She stuck it in the ground on the farm and promptly ignored it. It's now 5-6ft tall, doing fine.

Edited to add that I am always careful to keep on hand certain Kentucky-born beverages for that very purpose. And I'm not talking about the Kentucky wine industry.

This message was edited Feb 12, 2014 7:08 AM

Has anyone been to New Jersey State Botanical Garden at Skylands? This is where the original resides and wondering if it's still around. Sequoia, it can't be too far from you.

I bought a small Skylands Oriental Spruce a couple of years ago and planted it at end of driveway. I too had read about their intolerance to sun, so I sited in dappled shade among larger oaks. Unfortunately, it's a bit too shady and will likely be moving it. I'll be looking for a site with full morning sun and afternoon shade. I'm running out of those places...

I think all the shopping around of planting sites may be the, uh, root of some of the longevity issues herein described.

If you love it, let it grow. If it's meant to, it will come back to you.

I will get to travel to New Jersey twice this year (early June, and then late October) for Holly Society of America business meeting and Annual Meeting/conference. In what community is the NJSBC located?

And did you get proper car defrosting training from the Atlanta news team this morning? You could learn something from our southern brethren...and may a higher power be watching over their broadleaf evergreens through this incredible ice storm.

LOL...nice :)

I feel bad for those people down there. The ice storm we had recently left thousands without power but we only got about 1/4 inch. They will be getting up to 1"!! Bye-bye southern pines...

It's sad really to see the yet to be cleaned up white pine remains around here. I went to the yard dump over the weekend and there was a ridiculously huge pile of pine debris.

Do you have a link for the how-to defrost your car?

I saw it on cable this morning - can't remember if it was with the news channel or the weather channel, as I was flipping back and forth.

It was just vivid to listen to the agony of pushing an ice scraper through slushy windshield residue, after 5 minutes of the defroster running.

"You'll need a full 20 minutes of warming up in order to operate your vehicle."

!!!

Good advice, I'll have to remember that for tomorrow morning's trudge to work ;P

Yes, I always look to Georgians for advice in dealing with winter weather. Their response to the last major snow event was mighty impressive. BTW, I heard a report this afternoon that the flooding in England that has turned very serious. Resin, I hope it hasn't extended up to Northumberland

Yeah, it's been absolutely devastating down south, huge areas flooded, railways washed away by gargantuan waves, etc, etc. Wettest January since records began in 1776, and February has continued in the same vein. Also waves 23 metres (75 ft) high on the coast in Cornwall (the highest ever recorded), and winds 180 km/hr (over 110 mph).

Up here for me, just fairly normal wet'n'windy, wetter than average but nothing serious.

A few pics nicked off the news services - the rail line is the main line from London to the southwest (pic by Network Rail):

Resin

WOW! Cool pics Resin...thanks so much for sharing! So quaint...

and wet.

Wow...craziness

Yeah, that looks very destructive. We've had a lot of snow this winter and spring flooding is a definite possibilty, but nothing like that.

Sequoia, have you considered Umbrella Pine? I know rate of growth is important, and this one isn't fast, but it would be much more interesting than P. abies IMHO. I planted one at the old place in what I thought would've been a perfect site (here I go again), but it did not survive its first winter. It went into winter in great shape and I was optimistic it would come throught OK, but no such luck. I may give it another shot at some point, but I'm guessing they're not fully hardy in a true z4 climate. I have no idea how well they handle snow & ice, but what an interesting conifer to have in the landscape.