identifying our conifers

[trishs]

We have quite a lot of different conifers throughout our garden, all which we have planted ourselves.  Some I know the names of but others have got forgotten over the years and the labels are long gone or buried.  I do however have a notebook listing what varieties we had in the late 70s and 80s.  I know at least one of the miniatures died in its pot one very hot summer (red spider) but I'm finding it difficult to match old names to existing plants.  I was wondering if I posted pictures here someone might be able to help?  This first picture shows a plant we bought that even the nursery could not identify at the time of purchase.  I was a poor yellowy sickly thing in the reduced section at Blooms but look at it now, the tree immediately behind the Prunus Serrula, adjacent to Picea Breweriana.



And here it was one summer at its most entertaining.

[Palustris]

Is this site any use to you?
http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/conifers

[ideasguy]

That Picea Breweriana is a fine specimen Trish!

I have an excellent book on Conifers.
Try your local library and look for a book called simply Conifers, by D.M. van Gelderen and J.R.P. van Hoey Smith.
If they don't have it, ask them to try other libraries for you.
Its an excellent resource.

Just had a quick look up.
I think your conifer is a Picea. It would require close inspection (by an expert ) for a positive ID.
Those drooping cones are a good "clue".
They look quite "red" in your photo. From memory, was that their true colour?
Here's some "close fits".
Picea pungens 'Hoto'
Picea jezoensis
Picea jezoensis var. hondoensis
Picea likiangensis

Have fun!

[trishs]

Is this site any use to you?
http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/conifers

Thanks for the link, I think it's the same one I once found when I briefly googled but then didn't have sufficient brain power to follow through!  I couldn't figure out how to make use of the site

[trishs]

That Picea Breweriana is a fine specimen Trish!

I have an excellent book on Conifers.
Try your local library and look for a book called simply Conifers, by D.M. van Gelderen and J.R.P. van Hoey Smith.
If they don't have it, ask them to try other libraries for you.
Its an excellent resource.

Just had a quick look up.
I think your conifer is a Picea. It would require close inspection (by an expert ) for a positive ID.
Those drooping cones are a good "clue".
They look quite "red" in your photo. From memory, was that their true colour?
Here's some "close fits".
Picea pungens 'Hoto'
Picea jezoensis
Picea jezoensis var. hondoensis
Picea likiangensis

Have fun!

Thanks George   I once got quite close to deciding what it was but then foolishly never made a note of the name.  I think I may have mentioned it in livejournal post a few years back, at the time when all the pretty cones appeared.  It's all a bit too demanding for my poor old brain atm so I was hoping for cleverer folk than me to spot anything obvious.  I think I'm going to start another post in this section and put up all the pictures and try and name them.  It might be of interest to anyone else who has conifers and even if not it'll help me get an overview of what we have got  and the ones I don't know the names of.

[ideasguy]

Yes, go ahead and post the photos Trish.

[trishs]

OK, so 'Name the Conifer' continues

Until I've completed the info for this thread I'm unsure as to the exact number we currently have, so I am listing and numbering them from the house 'outward' ie down the garden.  I've just found out that photobucket allows adding text on top of a picture so I am able to number the plants in my pictures (if my brain keeps working anyway!).  All the pictures were taken on the same day a couple of weeks ago, but I've since realised that we missed a couple of plants/trees so will catch up with them once the snow has gone.

Conifers #1 and #2 are both sink dwellers, and have been in situ for a frightening length of time.  We moved our set of sinks with us when we last moved house back in '86, and they were with us then.  #1 is one which I would like to identify;  it could well have it's label still buried somewhere in the soil but I am loathe to poke about on the offchance.  #2 is, or was once, a fine specimen of Juniperus Communis Compressa.  It is showing it's age now and has suffered from having light to one side only.  Each winter we have to be sure to knock the snow of it to help stop it splaying apart.  Plant #3 is not available in picture form atm as I for some reason didn't bother to photograph it!  It too is a Juniperus Communis Compressa but not from such good stock and therefore a slightly larger coarser plant, which also suffers from the same problems as #2.

[trishs]

Conifer #4 almost died a (good) few years back, it doesn't seem all that long ago yet it 's probably far more than I imagine.  Time gets more and more like that the older I get   Anyway... this plant , as I recall, suffered badly one long hot summer ( when was that!) and part of it got all brown and crispy and dead.  I took the secateurs to it and amputated it's dead area.  I didn't really expect it to recover and never really noticed how it did but it has come back into a nice rounded plant.  Only now, taking a proper look at the picture, am I suddenly aware that the 'rejuvenated' section is coarser and greener than the original.  It looks as though it would benefit from a bit of judicial clipping to keep it in line.  I am uncertain as to the name of this conifer.  I have a list of plants purchased many years ago and it could well be one of them.  I will list these plants in a future post to see if any names seem to fit this or any of the other plants I'm trying to identify.

[ideasguy]

No 4 may well be Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Summer Snow'.
I have this plant and its one of my favourite conifers. I clip it every year Trish to keep it at a height no bigger than 3ft x 3ft.
It responds very well to being manicured!

[trishs]

No 4 may well be Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Summer Snow'.
I have this plant and its one of my favourite conifers. I clip it every year Trish to keep it at a height no bigger than 3ft x 3ft.
It responds very well to being manicured!

Thanks George.  That isn't on my list of plants purchased, but I do have these three other lawsonianas in my notebook:

Pygmea Argentea - which I think it must have been bought as, despite the colour not being textbook!.  Apart from the 'first aid hacking' this has never been cut and dates from 1979.
http://www.kenwithconifernursery.co.uk/dwarf-conifers-d/chamaecyparis-lawsoniana-i-pygmaea-argentea-i-b-d-b

Green Globe
and Ellwoods Pillar, neither of which name seems to fit the bill