Take your eye off of them for just a season and
specialist equipment might be needed.
I answered a classified ad on a local buy and sell website
this week. The ad was in the FREE
section, and the person was looking for someone with a chainsaw to take away
some trees. It was worded as ‘FREE
FIREWOOD’, which sounded good to me as we have a fire to keep going and my
mother in law has two wood burning stoves to feed throughout the winter, so the
more wood we can get the better. As the
garden was very local I took no time in getting there, with freebies it’s the
early bird...
I needn’t have rushed though as the wood in question was on
loads of multi stemmed conifers, still uncut and reaching 30-40 feet into the
air. I only have a small chainsaw and
don’t have a trailer let alone a towbar on the car, so felt totally inadequate
for the job. I like to keep things tidy
so even if I wasn’t getting paid I would still like to leave the place tidier
than when I found it, so would feel compelled to take away all of the greenery,
and there was plenty of it! I would have needed about twenty skips to clear the
soft branches that would be no good for burning, even before I got to the
trunks. I asked the woman how the garden
came to be so overgrown and she told me that she had planted all of the
conifers (about 30 of them) in her garden and took her eye off them for a few
years. This was the result. The lady
took me to a place where a hidden arbour was, totally covered by conifers, her
patio, again swamped by them. I can only guess the damage they have done to the
walls and driveway.
This might be a bit of an extreme but I do know of a lot of
people who are haunted by leylandii cutting every year, take your eye off them
for a season and you have a mammoth clearing task on your hands.
Garden retailers are not giving up though and still see the
conifer as a must have for pots and containers at least, even if we are not
prepared to let them lose in the garden.
Growing Conifers in
the garden
To boost conifer sales, retailers have been getting involved
in the National Conifer Week. The objective of this event, organised by the
British Conifer Group (BCG) and supported by the Horticultural Trades
Association (HTA), is to provide support for retailers to encourage their
customers to see the many benefits of growing conifers in the garden.
Nearly a third of us have a conifer in the garden according
to a recent survey. It’s be interesting
to see the amount of people who wished they never planted them in the garden in
the first place as some types can grow up to 3 feet each growing season.
New Varieties to the
market:
Even if conifers are advertised as being ‘dwarf’, keep a
close eye on them!
Chamaecyparis
lawsoniana ‘Pearly Swirls’,
Juniperus squamata ‘Hulsdonk Yellow’
and Juniperus squamata ‘Tropical Blue’.
These three offer vibrant colour to a garden in blues,
greens, golds, greys and bronzes to brighten up those autumn and winter months.
Here are a few old
favourites, ideal for the small garden
• Taxus baccata ‘Standishii’,
• Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana Gracilis’
• Picea glauca ‘J.W. Daisy’s White’
• Picea pungens ‘Globosa’
• Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Minima Aurea’.
Irish Stockist
Future Forests based in County Cork have a wide choice of
both potted and bare rooted conifers. Bare rooted conifers will be in stock
from November.
- 3'x3' Cryptomeria jap. 'Tilford Gold' . Dwarf bush, bronzed in winter
- 8'x3' Thuja occ 'Brabant'. Neat cone, bronze in winter
- 5'x3' Chamaecyparis laws. 'Yvonne'. Yellow /gold, cone shaped
- 2'x2' Chamaecyparis obtusa Nana Gracilis. Very dwarf, green shell shaped foliage
- 8'x6' Korean Fir (Abies koreana). Good shape and doesn't get too tall
Purple cones on even a young tree
- 5'x3' Juniper communis Common Juniper. Strong bush, prickly, berries for gin Native, likes lime
- 3'x3' Juniper squa. 'Holger'. New shoots tipped creamy yellow
If you can’t find what you are looking for locally then
Future Forests is also offering any 5 Junipers in 9cm for 15 euro.
New Book
The RHS has recently published a giant, two-volume
Encyclopedia of Conifers, co-authored by Derek Spicer, which covers all of the
world’s 615 conifer species plus 8,000 cultivars. An ideal book for the conifer
collector, the encyclopedia features over 5,000 fantastic photos and provides
an essential reference tool.
Be Warned
As part of the ‘Plan it, Plant it this Autumn' campaign,
conifers can offer a way to add something new and interesting to the garden at
has become a quieter time in the trade. Being hardy, easy to care for and
long-lasting, conifers are the ideal choice for the marginal gardener looking
for a low maintenance but high impact plant.
Be warned though, what looks cute and unobtrusive now could
reach 40’ in height and have a spread of more than 25 feet!
