About Conifers and Landscape Evergreens

Blue Hill Country Garden Home Page About Conifers and Landscape Evergreens Evergreen Trees and Shrubs for sale

About Conifers and Evergreen Trees and Shrubs

Conifers, also known as landscape trees, evergreen trees and evergreen shrubs play both the backbone and lead character roles in our Maine Coast Garden. Landscape evergreens add year round interest, color and texture to any yard plantings. The growth and shape of evergreen trees and evergreen shrubs can be manipulated with pruning. There are many cultivars of evergreen conifer shrubs that can be pruned into round, square, oval or any other shape desired. Maine evergreen trees that produce large decorative cones: Pine cones are most well known. White Pine produces the long cylindrical cones that often will have a "sugar" coating on them. The "sugar" is tree sap somewhat hardened. Austrian Pine cones are large but more compact than white pine and very solid. Their shape is more triangular with a wide base. Muhgo and Red Pine have cones similar in look to the Austrian but theirs will be about half the size and weight. White and Black Spruce have small but still usable size cones. The real prize cones are found on the large Colorado spruces. Spruce cones are more papery feeling than Pine and lighter in color. They are similar in shape to white pine but more round at the tip and wider at the base. Evergreen cones will close up when wet. Allowed to dry most will reopen fully.	Having a garden of landscape evergreens gives you something to look at in the winter. While deciduous plants lose their foliage to winters cold the conifer evergreen trees and shrubs are still 'all there'. The color of evergreen tree foliage may change slightly during the course of fall and winter. many cedars get very dark while others cultivars lighten up. Example the conifer Thuya Arborvitae ' Techney ' turns so dark green it's almost black in winter. Thuya ' Nigra ' actually gets lighter in winter taking on greenish yellow hue. The always fascinating Mother Lode Juniper normally bright gold turns bronze with a pinkish purple golden glow. When the ground thaws and the evergreens begin to take up water again their colors turn vibrant. New spring growth on the conifer evergreen trees and evergreen shrubs can be quite interesting. The picture at left shows the new growth on a Montgomry blue spruce. The new growth on conifers is very soft and supple. A favorite, Picea abies balsami nana a dwarf evergreen fir is naturally always dark dark green, it's new spring growth is butter yellow. It is such a striking combination that one thinks for a moment the plant is flowering.
Evergreen trees and evergreen shrubs as hedge stock. Thuya Arborvitaes make a great Evergreen hedge that will block the wind, give shade and house the birds. Conifer hedges can be used also to hide undesirable views, create a dark green backdrop to show off a flower garden as in the conifer hedge background shown in these pictures, define a space, soften the look of a solid fence or wall, lessen noise and or increase privacy. Layering evergreen trees in hedge rows will give even more noise and privacy protection. Use taller evergreen trees in the back row. Mid sized evergreens in the center and dwarf and intermediate growing evergreen shrubs in the front. A formal look hedge can be achieved by using cedar or hemlock conifers and yearly trimmings to keep the growth tight and neat. Autumn colors of deciduous shrubs stand out when placed in front of a trimmed conifer hedge. Maine Evergreen Tree Natives Evergreen conifers native to Maine: Pinus {Pine} - Picea {Spruce} - Tsuga {Hemlock} - Thuya {Cedar} - Abies {Fir}. All of these evergreen trees are very large growing, In height sixty feet plus. Spruce, Pine and Fir grow quickly. A foot or more a year. Hemlock is a little slower and Cedar the slowest among this conifer evergreen tree group. Some evergreen trees aren't green at all ! Like the 'Colorado Blue Spruce' which is blue ! Landscape evergreen gardens require very little maintenance time when compared to Annuals, Perennials, or even a fruit or vegetable garden. Most notably evergreen trees and evergreen shrubs are planted once and they never need dividing. In most cases trimming is minimal if needed at all. Mulching garden beds saves water ! Mulch more weed less. If a good mulch is used weeding is also minimal.Several inches of wood mulch will go a long way in keeping the weeds at bay in your landscape. It will also retain much needed water and shade the plants roots. Conifer Forms Globose:Round Pendulous:Upright or Mounding with weeping branches. Narrow Upright: Much taller than broad. Includes Columnar & Pyramidals. Broad Upright: All other Uprights. Prostrate: No Upright leaders. Prostate plants grow laying down. Spreading: Wider than Tall. Irregular: Erratic growth, no formal shape. Culturally Altered: High Grafts, Standard Forms and plants pruned or trimmed into artsy shapes. Evergreen Trees and Shrubs for Sale	WHAT CONIFERS TO USE WHERE: Tall and narrow conifers like Pyramidal Arborvitaes and Hetz Junipers add height and drama to the landscape. Use these next to a tall, two or more stories, building. In the yard and garden use them as a dramatic accent when you want a sweeping up toward the sky effect. These conifers can also be effective in screening utility poles from view. Large evergreen trees like Native Spruce, Hemlock, Pine and Fir are best kept at a slight distance from buildings. Pruning such conifers while still young will cause them to become chubbier and thicker growing. Use them to block unsightly views, as windbreaks, large hedges and noise blockers. Large evergreen trees create an atmosphere of calm. Having a group of conifers in the yard is like having a group of friends always there waiting for your return. Broad growing evergreen trees such as Techney and Nigra Arborvitaes, mid size Junipers, Muhgo Pines and Capitata Yews are quite versatile. They can all be used as specimen plants alone or in groupings. They make fine hedge stock. All these conifers can be used as foundation plantings around fairly large buildings. Any except the Muhgo Pine would be a good choice to hide service meters or screen from view any number of distracting views. Intermediate are excellent used as foundation plantings. Most of the dwarf and Intermediate conifers are compact and dense growing. They fit well as accents in perennial gardens. Dwarf Alberta Spruce, Emerald Green Arborvitae and Holmstrup Arborvitae are often used in this way. There are several very compact growing Arborvitae and Chamacyparis that can be used as tiny specimen and hedges in and around the perennial garden. Hetz and Little Giant Cedar grow two and three feet tall. Their natural round shape and size adds a touch of whimsy to to flower and evergreen shrub gardens Growth proportions of Evergreen Trees: Miniature plants grow less than 3" a year. Dwarf plants grow 3-6" a year. Intermediate shrubs 6-12" Large fast growing Evergreens can grow 12" or more in a season. Pruning Evergreen Trees and Shrubs How to prune conifer evergreen trees and shrubs is important but WHEN to prune them may be even more so. The cycle of an evergreen tree is; dormant in winter, new growth in spring, sets next years buds in late spring and summer, hardens off in the fall. Spruce, Fir and Pine should only be trimmed in Spring when active new growth is in progress. You will trim off approximately half of the new growth before it is fully leafed out. These evergreen trees begin to set next years buds before this years are fully leafed out. Waiting any longer in the season to trim will mean cutting off next years the new growth the result will be unattractive very noticeable stumps in full view instead of the soft natural look of new growth. Arborvitae can be trimmed with care most any time of the year, since it puts on new growth all during warm weather. When sheared Arborvitae will show some browning where it has been cut. This is minimized by pruning early so new growth will quickly overtake the slight browning. Individual conifer specimens can be pruned carefully with hand snips and those will not show browning. Most Yews should be pruned after they are finished with the new growth for the season. Summer and fall trimming is fine for these evergreen trees.