Prickly Beauties in the Garden

Conifers don't only grow in forests - you'll find some conifer on almost every garden too. The most commonly occurring conifers include spruces, pines and firs.

In ornamental gardens today, you won't just encounter original species - people look for smaller cultivars that can inhabit their garden for many decades. Trees are shaped in various ways, creating interesting compositions...

For rockeries and smaller areas, conifers grafted on stems are planted - so-called dwarf standards. Do you know them?

In this article you can read about: conifers in the garden,

Conifers in the Garden

The quantity and specific selection of conifers depends on many factors. The first of these is the size of the garden. For a smaller garden, it's suitable to choose conifers of lower growth, with small annual increments.

Dwarf standards are also usable. Even in a small space, you can create a very nice conifer composition. Smaller-growing conifers nicely complement walls, small ponds and freely laid stones.

Small-growing conifers include, for example: Balsam fir (lat. Abies balsamea) cultivar "Nana". This is a fir with a spherical and compact crown with annual increments of only about 5-6 cm. From spruces, there's for example black spruce (lat. Picea mariana) cultivar "Nana".

From pines, you can plant in a small garden mountain pine (lat. Pinus mugo) cultivar "Mops", which grows very slowly, has a dense crown and shortened branches. This cultivar reaches a size of only 0.5-1m in diameter.

There are many slow-growing conifer cultivars. The easiest orientation is selecting plants marked "Nana" or "Compacta". When buying conifers, carefully read the information about growth or ask the attending staff. In good garden centres, they'll surely be happy to advise you.

You can give your imagination the most freedom when initially planting a large garden. But even here, don't overdo it with the number of trees - after some time you might regret that mature trees have shaded the entire garden.

Almost anyone can manage to compositionally plant a few conifers correctly. With a larger planting, it's better to consult an expert. The most difficult part of the actual planting is correctly estimating the growth of individual plants. The most common mistake is planting conifers too close to each other.

Soil, Altitude and Air Quality Also Play a Role

When selecting conifers, the site and climatic conditions play an important role. Native species commonly growing in a given area are very hardy and thrive well in gardens too.

It's more difficult with cultivars and conifers originating from other climatic regions. Generally, firs are the most delicate, requiring rather deep, moist soils and relatively clean air for good growth. Some firs are also sensitive to severe frosts.

Due to its attractive appearance and "blue" cones, Korean fir (lat. Abies koreana) is very commonly grown in gardens, growing very compactly and slowly.

Spruces tend to be more cold-resistant than firs. They need moist sites, as on a dry site they could be uprooted due to their shallow root system.

Therefore, avoid planting spruces in windward and dry locations. Pines are the best at withstanding difficult conditions. Thanks to deep rooting, they tolerate even drier environments well. They are less susceptible to air quality, with most pines being able to grow quite well even in areas with polluted air.

Moreover, pines are very variable, so there's no problem finding a suitable plant for almost any garden. Other frequently grown woody plants are thujas, which are also very hardy.

Their main advantages are dust retention, noise reduction, and wind protection. Due to their hardiness and functions, thujas are very often used as hedges.

Growing Conifers

Growing conifers is not demanding, provided you've chosen a conifer suitable for the conditions in your garden. Conifers grown in pots can be planted almost throughout the entire season, with spring months being most suitable when it's not too hot yet and conifers have enough time to acclimatize and develop good roots before winter.

Plant conifers in a sufficiently deep hole; if the soil around the conifer isn't quite ideal, you can improve it by mixing it with horticultural substrate. At the bottom of the hole, you can place a tablet of special fertilizer for conifers, which will provide the plants with enough nutrients for the first months in the soil.

This method is used by professional gardeners too. After planting, don't forget to water conifers regularly, especially during dry periods.

You can wait with fertilizing because the tablets placed under the root ball decompose quite slowly. Fertilizing is closely related to soil composition (soil pH).

Over-acidified and waterlogged soils must first be drained using drainage systems and then supplemented with calcium using ground limestone or powdered hydrated lime.

Conversely, overly alkaline soils are acidified by adding peat or watering with a 0.2% ammonium sulfate solution. Conifers don't need excessive fertilizing because rapid growth is often rather undesirable.

Growers aim to maintain small plant growth by pinching shoots, and fertilizer would conversely promote growth. It's quite sufficient to fertilize conifers in spring to encourage growth and in autumn to support tissue maturation.

An underestimated part of growing conifers is watering. Although conifers don't need regular watering like vegetables and flowers, they shouldn't be forgotten during dry periods.

The soil tends to be very dry, gardeners don't realize this fact and it doesn't occur to them that conifers need to be watered even during winter when there's no frost. Conifers can dry out over winter due to lack of water, which is the main reason for conifer death during winter.

Shaping and Pruning Conifers

Pruning conifers is nowadays approached rather sporadically, more experienced growers know that conifers are most beautiful in their natural form, therefore they'd rather choose a woody plant with smaller growth than trying to maintain a small conifer with naturally tall growth through pinching shoots or pruning.

It would be rather like tilting at windmills and would unnecessarily weaken the woody plant.

Some conifers are more resilient and can be shaped without problems. Conifers suitable for shaping are yew, cypress, thuja or juniper. These conifers can be shaped into all sorts of forms, most commonly we encounter cones, pyramids, spirals, spheres, blocks in gardens...

More complex conifer shapes are created using forms shaped from wire mesh. Creating a complex conifer shape is time-consuming and must be started with young plants, which are trimmed into the desired shape, at a later age a template is placed on them according to which the conifer is shaped.

After several years, the conifer completely grows through the template and subsequently only shoots protruding beyond the template are trimmed. The wire mesh template remains in the conifer throughout its entire life.

Witch's brooms are suitable for small gardens

A witch's broom is not a conifer species, it is a deformation (a dense cluster of twigs with different needle shape and arrangement) that grows on trees as a result of disease or damage.

These deformations are then collected and grafted onto rootstocks. Witch's brooms retain their deformed, slow growth even after grafting, making them suitable for rock gardens and small gardens.

Witch's brooms require the same growing conditions as other conifers. Pay extra attention to the needles, which are more densely clustered and may harbor pests.

Written by LenkaZ