Anyone else order the ACS 2009 Collectors Conifers?

I ordered mine a few weeks ago and am especially excited about Pinus strobus 'Niagara Falls'!!! The two 2009 American Conifer Society Collectors Conifers of the Year are Pinus strobus 'Niagara Falls', which is listed as a "full sized selection" and Pinus heldreichii 'Smidtii' (dwarf). I plan on putting 'Niagara Falls' near my pond after it is completed next year and 'Smidtii' will go somewhere in front of the house, but I have not really decided.

Anyone else get some great late season conifer deals? When my favorite local garden center went to 50% off on everything at the end of October, I purchased a Picea glauca 'Blue Wonder' and Picea abies 'Sherwood Compact'. They look marvelous in the spots I selected for them. A few weeks before that, I picked up a very nice sized Picea abies 'Pumila' for a mere $20 - I asked why it was 1/3 the price of the others and the response was "it is lopsided and homely." BAH! I say it is neither and had the perfect spot all season just crying out for a little conifer.

Conifers are just great. In zone 5a, everything else has retired for the winter but the conifers all look great.

Elizabeth

P. strobus 'Niagara Falls' is new to me, but I'm guessing its a weeper along the lines of 'Angel Falls', which is quite beautiful and very spendy. The few I see offered are in the $3-400 range. I ran across a 'Smidtii' (they had one) at a little nursery this past spring that was quite large for a dwarf plant. They knew what they had and I just couldn't see dropping that kind of dough on one plant. But was I ever tempted. I'm sure the staff got a kick out of watching me go back about every ten minutes to take yet another long look at it. There's an interesting story behind the discovery and naming of this plant, but since you're a conifer freak I'm sure you're already familiar with it. It's on Adrian Bloom's top ten conifer list.

Hey, if the story isn't long please share. I'm a conifer newbie. At first it was Japanese Maples, which in my opinion are some of the pefect companions. I missed joining the ACS this year in time to get an advanced order form so I'm hunting down sources. Any help you can give there would be appreciated too. I do know about Rich's Foxwillow Pines.

The story isn't too long and upon further reflection may not be all that interesting. Oh well, here goes (from GARDENING WITH CONIFERS by Adrian Bloom): "It was found by Eugene Smidt in 1926 in the mountains near Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, not as a witches broom but as a hundred-year-old broadly conical bush 10ft (3m) high and wide. He took grafts for reproduction, and the original plant is still where he found it. He is honored for this marvelous find, so it is a pity that for many years the plants name was wrongly spelled!"

For clarification, it had previously been called 'Schmidtii'. I'm not sure how they determined it was a hundred-year-old plant, but if accurate it would have an annual growth rate of about 1" per year. Bloom's book was published in 2002, so there's a pretty good chance the original plant is still alive. It would be interesting to know how big it is today, more than 80 years after it was discovered.

It's extremely interesting if your Eugene Smidt! I appreciate the time you took to post this. I have the Bloom book. Looks like it's time for me to review.

It sure would be interesting to see the plant today - I bet it only grew another 2-3 more feet since discovery. Growth rates can be so tricky for the first 10 years on a conifer - I have a deep rooted fear that my favorites might revert and have to keep telling myself "IT IS OKAY" - I'm one of those Type A's that becomes frustrated when I cannot control something. Of course, growth rate is definitely something I have very little control over : )

I had one of those going back and forth moments this summer at my local garden center - they had a two and a half foot perfect bun - some sort mini that I don't even remember now. It was perfect in every way, except price - $399.00. I just couldn't see spending that and later in the summer the plant was still there, only not doing well at all, it had lost about half its needles. I was glad then that I didn't bring it home. Even though it would have been covered by a one year warranty (that the store is excellent about honoring), I would hate to watch something so rare slowly die in my yard.

Speaking of deaths...I have a post to make on the water gardens board...sigh...

Elizabeth

"Even though it would have been covered by a one year warranty (that the store is excellent about honoring), I would hate to watch something so rare slowly die in my yard."

Mmm, I like to think that plants will do better on my watch than at a nursery, even one with dedicated staff. Just getting it in the ground can make all the difference in the world. I think you should've bought it. :)

Enabler! I completely agree that the plants would likely have done better in my own yard, in the ground, but once a conifer is on the decline there is not much you can do for it.

I purchased another late-season deal! Hubby and I were en route to a potluck at a fellow DG'ers house and stopped at a plant nursery in Cedar Rapids, to purchase two Christmas tree ornaments for the ornament exchange. Well, of course as soon as we park I squeal with delight - buried under two inches of snow is a Pinus strobus 'Blue Shag.' It is a decent sized specimen, just under two feet high and wide. Just gorgeous! While I'm rutting around in the show (and hubby is freezing because he didn't bring his jacket out of the car because he thought we would be going right into the store) and I'm wringing my hands over whether or not to spend $80 on a tree that will just sit in the garage all winter the weekend before I needed to do Christmas shopping for OTHER people, a clerk came out of the store and said, "Can I help you?" I ask her, "Well, I really like this little guy and was wondering if you had any specials still on live plants." She smiled and said, "Oh, sure, our 50% off sale ended a few weeks ago but you can have that at 50% off." I must have just been BEAMING because the clerk laughed and asked, "Will that be all today?" I told her that I needed to actually go in the store, to buy ornaments, and she picked up the conifer and brought it in for me. She found a nice little box to put under it (I had a sheet in my truck that I carry everywhere to line the back with for these spur of the moment finds) and I was just so excited. While we enjoyed a great potluck, the snow melted off the conifer and I saw how great it really looks by the time we brought it home. I tucked it into the unheated garage and am excited to see what it does in spring!

I knew I had Pinus strobus 'Blue Shag' on my short list, when I got home I saw that it was actually in the top five!

Elizabeth

Snapple, I've ordered dwarf conifers from a number of on-line sources.
Unfortunately, some of my favorites went out of business (Porterhouse Farms, Collector's Nursery, Aesthetic Gardens, Roslyn Nursery, Kasch Nursery, the old Heronswood, etc).
But there are still good sources available, incl Coenosium Gardens, Greer Gardens, Girards Nursery, Arrowhead Alpines, and of course Forest Farm. I used to have good luck w/ Dilworth Nursery also, but I haven't ordered from them in a while, so I'm not positive still doing mail order or not.
I'm sure there are others, but these are a few good sources off the top of my head.
I hope some of these are new sources for you.

I had a negative experience ordering from Arrowhead earlier this year. Over half of my order from them perished. Two plants were infested with moth larvae and the rest just failed to thrive. Of the six that survived, four are doing very well, one is doing decently, and one is hanging on.

I agree that Arrowhead is probably the least reliable of the sources I mentioned.
But their catalog has extensive offerings that sometimes can't be found anywhere else.
So I still look forward to their catalog and I place an order every year.
Most of their stuff is fine, but I agree there are a few duds.
But I'm a sucker for the weird. I can't help it...
Maybe therapy would help?

I know what you mean, Weerobin! Two of my survivors, two different kinds of parvifloras, are gorgeous. They were each advertised just as "older" when I placed my order. I almost feel the value on those two makes up for the loss of so many others that died. Enough so that I gave the company merely "neutral" instead of "negative" when I rated them.

Despite a number of plant losses from Arrowhead Alpines, I still have a very cute, healthy variegated dwarf chinese elm (I mean tiny!), a weird congested dwarf tilia, a couple lovely woodland peonies which I hadn't found anywhere else, etc, etc.
You roll the dice - win some, lose some. It's a sickness, I'm sure. But a very fun sickness.

I know this is a late addition, but to Weerobin, I wanted to let you know that it appears that Porterhowse Nursery is back in business after a mourning period. I was on their website the other day and it appears to be in order and up and running.

Hi, amisheliot. I also ran across their refurbished site.
I've had excellent experience with Porterhowse in the past.
I'm looking forward to trying them out again.

As an even later addition, my ACS conifers arrived Wednesday! They are gorgeous : )