Soliciting suggestions for large unusual conifers

Hello all,

Quite unexpectedly, my father-in-law decided that he wanted to purchase a large tract of land on which to build a cabin. My husband found the perfect, and I mean PERFECT parcel of 70 acres with a river on one border, but the majority of the land is about 100 feet in elevation higher. There are about 22 acres of pasture and a 10-ish acre area that was farmed at some point in history but will probably be the homesite and vegetable garden area. In summary, I will now have as much room as I ever wanted to plant whatever I want : )

I've never really thought much about the faster growing large conifers, and would appreciate suggestions. I'm especially interested in blues, yellows, and unusual growing habits. We're closing on the property in February so I won't be planting anything until spring and my budget will be small in 2011 but I would love to start a list of big 'uns!

Thanks,
Elizabeth

all i can say is your lucky -have fun!

Thanks!!! Here is the road leading up to the old farmstead area. I'm looking into grant programs that assist in restoring historic eligible barns, and I think this one is a winner. It is in pretty great shape, a few collapsed beams inside, but the original timbers were made of real trees and the barn is just massive. The soil will be great for growing stuff I've had trouble with where I live now. Soil up there is much rockier and appears to be better draining.

There's no conifer faster growing than dawn redwood.
They grow unbelievably fast here - I'm not sure about your more northerly location.
The 'Ogon' cultivar is a golden hewed version which is very nice.
Bald cypress / pond cypress are also possibilities.
Atlas cedar is another hardy choice.
I like weeping norway, serbian or oriental spruce, all of which should be hardy fo you;
but some people don't like the growth pattern.

Atlas Cedar won't make it in zone 5.

What's the soil like? Dry / sandy, or moist, clay, etc.?

Resin

Actually, that is far enough north from me to be zone 4. Soil is well draining and sandy for the most part. Rainfall in Iowa in summer is normally bountiful, so I would not call the climate dry. Summer high temperatures usually don't go beyond the 90's Fahrenheit but the humidity is high. We usually have a good snow cover from early December until mid-March, sometimes even later than that. Winter temperatures average the single digits and teens, night can get much colder. I have no idea what kind of wind the sites I'm thinking of will get. I'm going to leave the large 22 acre pasture as-is because I want to have sheep in the future. This is high land, the top elevation is close to 1,000 feet and it is one of the highest properties in the area, so high winds could be very likely.

What a wonderful opportunity for you. If at all possible, I would visit an arboretum that has a collection of conifers. It'd be worth the trip to see first-hand the selection and what strikes your fancy. In general, the white pines have the fastest growth and there are lots of unusual cultivars, some of which get large. Korean pines and Himalayan pines are both strikingly beautiful and fast-growing too. There are lots of unusual cultivars of Norway Spruce, which again are fairly fast-growing.

A few places you could visit to get some ideas and which are located relatively near you would be Rich's Foxwillow Trees (northwest of Chicago... retail and wholesale nursery with a good collection), the Morton Arboretum (west of Chicago), and the Missouri Botanical Gardens (St. Louis). A little farther, but definitely my first pick of the most outstanding rare and unusual conifers in the Midwest, is Hidden Lake Gardens in southeastern Michigan (photo). Nearby Hidden Lake is Gee Farm, with lots of unusual conifers available from one gallon to specimen and a very nice arboretum. Then, of course, the best of the best is the collection at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

There are more that others can recommend, even fantastic Victorian age cemeteries such as Spring Grove north of Cincinnati, Ohio and one in Louisville, Kentucky. Hopefully, you'll get more suggestions.

You can Google any of these places for more info. Well worth the road trip!

This message was edited Dec 16, 2010 12:32 PM

Might I suggest that, at least for me, all unusual looking conifers is visual overload. While oddities are very interesting, nothing is as soothing and beautiful as the natural forms of species. But, to each their own, and it's your opportunity, not mine.

Tamaracks and other larches will be faster growing and hardier than any dawn redwood in that climate. They grow fine in upland environs, too. Pines, in general, love sand. You should be successful with any that are hardy to the zone. Bristlecone pine might be the one exception.

Taylor's Sunburst Limber pine, with its bright yellow new growth does very well, as does Chief Joseph, with its yellow winter (I think) color. Korean pines grow fast and will eventually produce cones with very large edible seeds. (Be sure to beat the squirrels to them.) Macedonian pines (Pinus peuce) are a noble white pine relative.

Pinus strobus 'Torulosa', with its twisted, curly needles, makes a most interesting pine needle duff, like curly dog hair, not to mention the interest on the tree itself.

I would be woefully remiss if I didn't mention the Lacebark pine (Pinus bungeana) with its wonderful, exfoliating, and colorful bark.

Rather than the ubiquitous Colorado (blue) spruce forms that are so susceptible to cytospera canker with age in our climate, try Meyer spruce (Picea meyeri) or Chinese Dragon spruce (Picea asperata). If you are able to find it, the Quinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia) is very promising in my yard, and very blue.

The Serbian spruce makes a fine narrow pyramid, and Picea omorika 'Pendula' or 'Pendula Bruns' are quite dramatic.

Goodness, I could go on and on.

Rick

Thanks Rick! I have 'Taylor's Sunburst', Picea omorika 'Pendula Bruns' and a few others you mentioned in my yard already. I had planned to buy another 'Taylor's Sunburst' for the farm for sure. I don't plan on having all crazy shapes and forms, just a few. With 70 acres, the vast majority will remain natural. I plan on adding a few more deciduous trees, mainly oaks, as well as the conifers. Right now there is one large rolling pasture of about 22 acres, my husband wants to use about half an acre for wine grapes, and I would like to restore about 5 acres to native prairie. The rest we will keep for grazing sheep and haying. The unusual large conifers will be planted closer to where the home site will be, a smaller flat area that was probably also pasture of about 5 acres.

There is a local nursery that has a fairly good selection of conifers. Around Mother's Day and Father's Day they have "Buy one tree get the other 1/2 off" specials. They never extend the special to small slow growing conifers, which they count as "shrubs". Hubby and I plan on buying a few large conifers and fruit trees (his passion, he wants to plant an orchard) each year to add to the property. I also really like Song Sparrow and they have a few larger growing selections each year.

Here is a picture of the edge of woods which surround the large pasture.

Picea omorika is my absolute favorite conifer. We have even started putting some in our Christmas tree lots.

We have 63 acres here. With that kind of acreage you can't touch a lot of it, just due to the sheer size. Have you walked the boundaries yet? It's a lot of fun to realize how large your property really is.

How about growing some trees for cut wood production? Or even Christmas tree production.

Save money for large equipment, LOL. Nothing better.

I think hubby and I walked most of the boundaries, but the lazy real estate agent was "out of the office" both of the weekends we wanted to view the property - once by ourselves and once with my father-in-law. The first time we walked forever and I don't think we covered 70% of the property. The second time we walked it, with my FIL, we walked a different area so I think between those two walks we covered 90% of it, LOL! The property will be surveyed before closing in February, so we'll know exact boundaries then.

Our plans are to leave all the woods in place and add our touches to the areas that were previously farmed, the rest stays natural. About five acres at the bottom is floodplain so we won't do anything there. Somewhere down in the floodplain is the foundation of an old dance hall and speakeasy, we didn't start to look for that yet. Here is a great view of the large pasture taken from the high ridge. My plans for that is to raise organic sheep for fiber and meat on about 10 acres, then the rest will be hayed and a few acres will be returned to native prairie.

ic i would grab that conifers book by adrian bloom and recreate as the zone allows - substitute zone friendly - and add in many more japanese maples - jealous here

We have an area between our house and the road that looks identical to that. I'll have to get a picture in spring. So funny how similar they look. The wild turkeys love it there. Our neighbor hays it.

Merry Christmas everyone! My father in law gave me a $250 gift certificate to Song Sparrow, that will get a few conifers and magnolias for the new property :)

very nice!

If you'd like to really plant on the cheap, you oughta check out the IA state nursery seedling program. I have a friend who I helped plant around 6,000 tree seedlings on his 23 former cropland, here in Missouri with the MO. seedlings.
http://www.iowadnr.gov/forestry/orderform.html

The barn is fabulous!

Lucky you. Friends here restored the barn, complete with indoor pool, and live in it.

Have fun!

Linny

Hubby and I went snowshoeing yesterday at the farm! I'm having second thoughts about restoring the barn, it appears another rafter fell in since we first saw the property a few months ago. Until we close on the property and have the barn inspected, we won't know if it can be saved.

However, I got some great ideas about where to plant this year. I placed a big order from Song Sparrow, 7 magnolias and 11 conifers. As much as that sounds, it will probably barely make a dent :)

I think I will plant my purchases along this tree line, in the small pasture that will likely be the homesite.

Here is a panoramic of the small pasture, looking outwards to the rest of the property. I think this is where I'm going to focus my efforts in 2011.

Shortleaf, thank you for the link to the IA DNR page! Those are really amazing prices and the nursery is just under two hours from my house, should be a fun trip to pick them up. My hubby really wanted to plant elderberries this year, and the IA DNR has those available.

Along the same line, you might want to check out this site too:
http://www.itascagreenhouse.com/page1.html

Your welcome. If IA. is anything like MO. they assist with building you're forest.
From what I read IA. does assist with that. That should say 23 acres up there.
I don't know about IA. but MO. looks at it like conservation, MO. makes it worth residents while to convert a farm to a forest.
I saw you are looking for unusual conifers, the IA. seedlings aren't really unusual, but they are cheap! The IA. seedling .pdf catalog site has photos and more details I see. -
http://www.iowadnr.gov/forestry/files/10catalog.pdf
If IA.'s is like MO.'s the shipping is dirt cheap on a lot and theres no taxes.

Shortleaf, Ames is about two hours drive so I can take my truck to pick up the seedlings. My husband wants to plant an orchard and small fruits, the IA program also has elderberries and he was very excited to see that! In addition to unusual conifers (I ordered 13 this year from Song Sparrow), I want to plant hardwoods and species conifers. So, the Iowa program is great for that! The only areas that I want to plant with unusual things is the area around the future home site.

Thats neat. Thats really an admirable thing to do, hope the plan works out for you guys.
It sounds very similar to a friend here and what he and his wife started doing around 04'.
Its been a few years since I talked to him but he was planning on building a nice brick home on the 20+ acres of former cropland. I believe he also had planned to plant nicer, expensive trees around the home and have like a big "yard".
He rented a tree-planter (I think from the MO. Dep't of Conservation) to go behind his (old, but very good) Ford 9n tractor. With him driving the tractor and me planting thousands of seedlings on the planter, from that Missouri program.
I ought to look him up, its been since 04' when we first did that, he might have the house built or being built and a growing forest. When he was mass planting he just made sure to plant in zig-zag rows, so as not to look like "planted rows", because heirs down the road might curse him and the rows!
I see, you could save on shipping possibly by going to pick it up. I don't know if IA. is the same, but I think MO. did the shipping different, I think $5.00 shipping on a whole bunch of seedlings.
Heres a photo from the "cropland to forest" we were doing. The friend went to IA. State Univ. up there. -


This message was edited Jan 15, 2011 11:48 AM