Gardening with Conifers
224
Gardening with Conifers
224Paperback(Second Edition)
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Overview
— Booklist
Fifteen years after this review, we present a revised and expanded edition of this highly acclaimed reference. Among the changes is the addition of a foreword by Michael A. Dirr, author of such classics as Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. New content and updates are found in "Why Conifers?", "The Magic of Conifers", "A Closer Look at Conifers" and in the detailed practical section, "Growing Conifers in Your Garden".
This edition features the author's comprehensively revised Directory of 600 conifers, so current that it includes Wollemia nobilis, a two million-year-old species only recently found and genetically identified, and available at a select few nurseries. Other new features are "Conifers that Grow on You" and "The Mauergarten Story", which chronicles the author's design of the garden at one of Germany's premiere nurseries.
Comprehensive in scope and lavishly illustrated, the book includes a directory of more than 600 conifers and expert advice on:
- Size and growth rates, Canada/USA hardiness ratings
- Site and soil preferences
- Planting, maintenance and propagation
- Pruning, pests and diseases
- Dwarf conifers and ground covers
- Conifers in containers, moving conifers, and more.
Gardening with Conifers is a thorough and beautiful guide to coniferous trees and shrubs of the world available to North American gardeners. Stunning color photographs show conifers young and old in a variety of environments, from small gardens to many-acred gardens. It reveals the magic that conifers bring to a garden and how they create structure and balance for year-round visual interest and color.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781770859081 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Firefly Books, Limited |
| Publication date: | 04/18/2017 |
| Edition description: | Second Edition |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Sales rank: | 662,660 |
| Product dimensions: | 9.00(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.80(d) |
About the Author
Richard Bloom is an award-winning photographer whose garden images appear regularly in House and Garden, RHS The Gardening Magazine, Fine Gardening and other such publications.
Table of Contents
The Magic of Conifers
- Conifers as garden plants
- The origins of garden conifers
- How conifers grow
- The naming of conifers
- Flowers and cones
- Foliage
- Buds and shoots
- The unusual
- Bark
- Form
- Growth rates
- Soil conditions
- Sun, shade and color
- Windbreaks and shelter
- Structure
- Hedges
- Using conifers with other plants
- Conifers on their own
- Conifers through the seasons
- Conifers for the smallest garden
- Growing conifers in pots and containers
- Japanese gardens and bonsai
- Conifers as ground covers
- Conifers for topiary,
living sculptures and unusual features
- Directory of more than 600 conifers for the garden
- Planting containers
- Moving containers
- Pruning
- Propagation
- General maintenance
- Pests and diseases
- Gardens and specialist suppliers
- Further reading
- Index
- Credits and acknowledgements
Introduction
The Magic of Conifers
'Why should I use conifers in my garden?' is a question that anyone picking up this book might ask. The answer, I hope, will be found in the following pictures, advice and information -- conifers can add essential ingredients to a garden not easily or fully replicated by any other plants. I have spent over thirty years creating a garden with, literally, hundreds of conifers that provide interest and color the whole year round. I fully appreciate their value as well as their problems; unfortunately, it is often the latter that are highlighted by members of the gardening media who feel that conifers have little or no place in the modern garden. Gardeners in other parts of the world find it difficult to believe the paranoia that has become attached in Britain to the Leyland Cypress (x Cupressocyparis leylandii); this entirely innocent, fast-growing evergreen has caused costly legal disputes between neighbors simply because people plant it in the wrong places or omit to trim it.
This is not a book about Leylandii, nor is it about the negative sides of conifers, which are no more prevalent than those of any other group of plants (and will of course be covered in the text). Any fast-growing tree -- including eucalyptus, poplar or willow -- should always be chosen and placed with care. The point to make with this marvelous and varied group of mostly evergreen plants is the same as with other trees and shrubs, even perennials: consider before you buy, plan before you plant, and always take heed of growth rates and likely suitability for purpose.
Far from being dull, to the observant this group of plants can be both awe-inspiring andmagical. Conifers come in all shapes and sizes -- miniatures may grow less than 3ft (90cm) in a hundred years, while others might reach 130ft (40m) or more in the same period. Conifers include the oldest living plant in the world, the ancient Bristlecone Pine, Pinus longaeva, whose 4,500-year-old wind-shattered specimens cling to life over 10,000ft (3,000m) up in the White Mountains of California, as well the tallest, the Coast Redwood, also in California, measuring almost 400ft (120m). If we are lucky, we can marvel at these in nature. It would not, of course, be advisable to plant a Coast Redwood in a smaller garden but, strangely enough, Pinus longaeva grows quite successfully at much less elevated positions, even in my garden at Bressingham in Norfolk, UK.
Conifers can be deciduous or evergreen. Among the former, the larches (Larix), the Swamp Cypresses (Taxodium) and the amazing Maidenhair Tree (Ginkgo) have wonderful autumn colors as their leaves turn and fall. In winter, the first two, together with the deciduous Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia), exhibit traceries of branches and twigs against the sky, enhanced by frost and water droplets. The evergreens can display a wonderful range of colors. It is magical to see an evergreen like Pinus mugo 'Wintergold' transform its green summer needles to a glowing yellow or gold in autumn -- such a cheery change can warm the heart during long winter days.
There is great interest, too, in the variety of conifer shapes -- weeping trees can take on an ethereal appearance on a misty day; frosted or snow-laden branches can sparkle in low winter sun, their burden later melting in glistening droplets. Winter, when so much else in the garden is dormant, is when conifers really come into their own. But in late spring, when the sheathed winter buds swell and burst open on spruces (Picea) and firs (Abies), smothering them in fresh new leaves, the effect is magical. That in turn can be outdone by the startling red flowers seen on many conifers as the cones begin to develop. The cones themselves can be smaller than a pea or nearly as large as a football; in their young stage, the cones of the Korean Fir (Abies koreana) are a rich, deep blue.
The leaves of conifers are by no means uniformly dull, green needles, as many gardeners might believe. The hues of new growth include a brilliant powder-blue, bright grass-green, orange, yellow, cream, even red and crimson. Some conifers, such as junipers, bear both prickly young and quite different coarser mature leaves at the same time; others, such as firs, spruces and pines, have bright silver-blue undersides to their leaves which are gloriously revealed when they turn to face the light.
A further wonderful asset, often overlooked, is the aromatic fragrance given by many conifers, while some junipers have quite a pungent scent.
The awe-inspiring giants of the forest -- the ancient, almost prehistoric Ginkgo, the Metasequoia and the Chilean Monkey Puzzle tree -- can all be grown today in gardens. For smaller gardens, however, a further type has added to the range -- witch's brooms. These originate as congested growths on much larger trees, and have always been associated with witchcraft. Today, collectors all over the world search forests to find interesting forms that they can propagate and offer us for our gardens.