NURSERY
NEWS, WINTER, 1998
The summer of 1998 was an exceptionally dry
one. We lost a number of newly planted conifers and azaleas. Replanting was done during
October/November. The major garden plantings were finished at the same time.
Our stock plants are
done as gardens rather than in plant rows. After all, I am a collector first, a nurseryman
second. We have a number of gardens that any collector would enjoy seeing. Along our patio
at the back of our house we have a rock garden that is approximately seventy feet long and
about ten feet wide up a steep slope. It is a pleasure to study the plants while sitting
on the patio. The conifers in this garden are all miniatures and dwarfs. We have multiple
specimens of the dwarf Korean firs 'Silberzwerg', 'Silber Mavers', Pinochio',
'Silberkugel', and 'Cis'. There is a nice selection of dwarf deodara cedars: 'Scott',
'Mountain Beauty', 'Limeglow', 'Mylor', 'Pygmaea', and 'Feelin Blue'. The dwarf spruces
include Picea abies 'Pusch' and 'Clanbrassiliana'. The pines include Pinus
leucodermis 'Smidt' and parviflora 'Goldylocks'. The rock garden also
includes a large selection of alpine plants and an upper border of colorful Pinus mugo
cultivars.
Our house sits on a terrace and has a small
front yard. A slope extends down about 200 feet to our property line at the edge of our
neighbor's wet-land wood lot. The slope wraps around our property for a distance in excess
of 300 feet. The total area is planted in dwarf to standard size conifers. There is a
small perennial garden and a dwarf boxwood area. We even have one area planted in beeches,
Japanese maples, and English oaks (a future woodland). There are approximately 1,500
conifers in the gardens.
Heather is used throughout the gardens with
some areas having heather as the main planting. The heathers being planted are all from
Scotland. A friend of ours is a heather collector and sends us the latest selections to
try in our gardens.
During the month of October, a rhododendron
garden was started. We plan to eventually have over 100 different rhododendron species
planted in the woodland on the south side of our property. This woodland covers about one
half acre and has a number of old Douglas fir trees and big leaved maples.
Weeds are a major problem since we have been
planting land that was cleared just two years ago. The property had mostly alder and young
Douglas fir trees on the part we cleared. So there was considerable undergrowth and we
will have to struggle to control the thistle, blackberries, fireweed, and Scotch broom.
We have also used grasses extensively
throughout the gardens and plan to add even more. One especially nice planting that is
taking shape is a bed of red blood grass surrounding three Acer grisium.
Another area is planted with a mass of black mondo grass and two Jacqmanii birch trees,
which have pure white bark, and one white variegated Chinese dogwood called 'Snowboy'.
