Conifer Cultivars of North America from 1932 into the Next Millenium

  Robert L. Fincham Conifers in Horticulture

24^th August 1999

Introduction

  In November, 1931 Arthur D. Slavin reported to the RHS Conifer Conference upon the status of some conifers cultivated in the United States. This document is intended to inform the reader about the continuing development of cultivars in North America from 1932 until the present date and the possible direction of their development into the next millenium.

            According to Slavin, the best examples of cultivated conifers in the United States were found in collections with the most important conifer collections in North America being at only a few locations. The Hunnewell Estate in Wellesley, Massachusetts was the oldest, having been established in the mid-1800’s. The Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, begun about 1886 was the second oldest. Two other collections were in Rochester, New York. They were Highland Park, planted in 1896, and Durand Eastman Park, the larger of the two, begun in 1912.

            The plants described by Slavin include a mixture of species and cultivars of domestic and foreign origins. Many of the specimens were species and a preponderance of the cultivars were from the Juniperus, Taxus, and Thuja genera.

            Many changes have occurred in North America since Slavin’s report of 1931. The collections at the Hunnewell Estate and in Rochester have become overgrown, and many specimens have disappeared. The Arnold Arboretum collection has matured and improved along with an increase in prominence in the conifer world due to the efforts and research of Alfred J. Fordham and others.

            A conifer collection was established at Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania during the fifties and sixties only to be dismantled when a large part of it was shipped to the Chicago Botanic Garden for a new conifer garden at that insitution in the early 1980’s.

            The New York Botanic Garden was gifted with a major conifer collection in 1949 by Colonel Robert H. Montgomery, who had assembled the largest private conifer collection in America at that time. It was estimated to consist of over 850 varieties of conifers.

            The United States National Arboretum was the home of a modest conifer collection when it received in 1962 a collection of approximately 800 different conifer specimens from William T. Gotelli. The resulting Gotelli Dwarf Conifer Collection has exerted a major influence upon the status of conifers in American horticulture.

            Several other important conifer collections have also been established in the central area of America. The University of Wisconsin has a large collection of Thuja occidentalis at its arboretum that was developed by Dr. Edward Hasselkus over the past twenty years.  

            In Lisle, Illinois is the Morton Arboretum with a substantial collection of conifer specimens being evaluated for planting in the central region. The Secrest Arboretum, located in Wooster, Ohio, has recently been rejuvinating and diversifying a well established collection of Taxus and Thuja. The Dawes Arboretum in Newark, Ohio has been upgrading its pinetum as well.

            Several new collections of conifers in this part of North America have been established in recent years. The Harper Collection at Hidden Lake Gardens, Tipton, Michigan, the Heartland Collection at the Bickelhaupt Arboretum, Clinton, Iowa, and the Hermsen/Walters Collections at the Dubuque, Iowa Arboretum are three young collections that will mature during the next ten years.

            The mix of young and old collections in the central region of America provides excellent educational displays and stimulates people to take a greater interest in conifers that are new and unique to this area. They also allow performance evaluations for many conifers that were never grown in this part of the North America.

            The western portion of North America also has a number of fine conifer collections. The Noble Collection is part of the Strybing Arboretum in San Francisco, California. Seattle, Washington has a conifer collection at the University of Washington Arboretum, and Vancouver, British Columbia maintains a fine collection at the University of British Columbia Arboretum.

            Along with an increase in the number of conifer collections, the past sixty-seven years have also seen an increase in the number of nurseries offering conifers for sale on both the wholesale and retail levels.

            Eastern North America has seen the establishment of Hillside Nursery (now defunct), Vermeulen Nursery, and Verkade Nursery on the wholesale level with Watnong Nursery (now defunct) and numerous hobby nurseries greatly influencing the retail offerings of conifers.

            Western North America has become a very important conifer producing area for the whole continent. Wholesale nurseries in Oregon such as Iseli Nursery, Mitsch Nursery, Monrovia Nursery, Stanley and Sons, and Sherwood Nursery, and Flora Vista Nursery in Canada have been responsible for many new conifer introductions. My own Coenosium Gardens and Collector’s Nursery in Washington along with Porterhowse Farms in Oregon have proven to be important mail order retail nurseries for the introduction of new conifer cultivars as well.

Read about the years 1932-1949

Read about the years 1950-1969

Read about the years 1970-1990 and into the future

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