Choosing a pine

We have just built a log home WAY out in the woods. Now I am working on the landscaping and planting and have already made a few mistakes. One was that I planted a crape myrtle right in front of the house and it just doesn't look right. Don't get me wrong, I love crape myrtle . . . but a log home cries out for a pine, or at least this one does (I'm sure the crape myrtle will be just as happy in another location.) Perhaps it's because I was raised in Minnesota.

We are Middle Tennessee, mixed zones 6 and 7. The particular site I am working on is between a front window and the front walk, about 12' by 20'. I was hoping to start out with about a 2 to 3 foot tree and look for one that is medium to slow growth, and perhaps a total height of 30 feet or so (I probably won't be around by then). The soil tends to be clay but I am working on amending it and composting. I want to plant ground covers underneath, like tiarella and asarum. There is enough sunlight to render pretty good fruit on roma tomatoes and blooms on a gardenia, but it is not all-day sun.

Any suggestions? So far I've looked at pinus flexilis (limber pine) but there are so many and I am uncertain. I just want a regular conical or pyramidal pine that looks like a pine and smells like a pine, nothing fancy or contorted.

Advice will be very much appreciated. Thank you for your time.

How about Table Mountain Pine from the Appalachians? It has a more irregular gnarled-looking crown, but I'd have thought that's right for the situation.

Ones to avoid are Scots Pine and Japanese Black Pine, due to disease issues in your area (they are very susceptible to pine wilt nematode)

Resin

White Pines are very wispy and have long, soft needles. They grow pretty fast once established. There's also the stately Abies Concolor (white fir) which also has soft to the touch needles and makes a great speciman. They are relatively slow growing. The new growth in early summer gives the tree a bicolored look. It really makes a statement.

Photo of my Abies Concolor.

Thank you for the suggestions, Resin and pastime. I looked them both up and have a couple of questions. Resin, under temperate conditions, with little wind, do you think the Table Mountain pine would have the typical "Christmas tree" shape? I have to admit, I'm going for a traditional look here.

Pastime, does the Abies Concolor have the wonderful fragrance like the noble fir has?

It's really exciting to do the choosing - lot more fun than the part where you keep trying to make the hole in the ground large enough to plant well! Thanks for the ideas.

The Abies smells like citrus, like an orange.

I believe that you would be very happy with Pinus Cembra.

Dave

Thank you, davesnursery - I looked at information on Pinus Cembra and it is indeed very beautiful and worth studying further.

Rebecca, I just bought a b & b Christmas tree, a Canaan fir, which is from West Virginia. I've been doing a lot of research on the web and though most of it has to do with Christmas tree farms, apparently this tree does very well in clay soil that might be too wet for otherChristmas trees. So - not a pine tree, but a very nice looking tree that might be worth a look. Also known as West Virginia balsam.

Analemma - good to hear from you today. After studying the matter for several weeks, I, too, decided on a fir, though a slightly different one. Michael Dirr recommends the Momi fir for southern soils so I eventually ordered one from ForestFarm, and it arrived in good shape.

But now I have another question: it's an early winter here, with temperatures into the low thirties most nights (that may seem warm for Cleveland but it's cold for Tennessee!) Do you think I should go ahead and plant the fir during a moderate period, or try to over-winter it inside and wait for spring? Are you planting yours?

Oh, definitely plant! I bought a little white pine just because they were balled and burlapped for 25 dollars, so I'm going to plant that one now (well, this week). The fir will be the Christmas tree, and from what I'm reading, it shouldn't be indoors for more than a week or ten days. My plan is to bring it to the front porch and decorate it with lights and a few non-fragile ornaments, and then bring it inside (maybe wrap a sheet around it to get it through the door undamaged) and keep it for a week, then back out to plant it. You're supposed to dig the hole in advance, in case the ground freezes, then plant it and water like crazy for a few weeks. We'll compare notes in April!

We have had great success with transplanting trees during the winter - even in January during a thaw. I'd have to say that I believe winter is even better than spring for planting trees, in my experience.

Great plan. Your Christmas tree sounds lovely. Good luck to us!