Douglas, Balsam, and Frasier Firs
No to all these unless they are dwarfs you work in later. Focus on cultivars of Abies koreana and Abies concolor.
For any fir you NEED well drained soil.

Pines (Jack, Red)
No to these. Focus on cultivars of P. strobus, P. cembra and P. koraiensis.

Spruce
Limit the use of Picea pungens. Utilze Picea abies (smaller forms), Picea orientalis, Picea glauca and Picea omorika. There are several other species to look at once you start going to dwarf forms.

No offense to the folks on the design forum but some of them are too wrapped up in "rules" of design. Do what works for you and take everything else with a grain of salt.

PM, neat project. For the dogwoods I believe our native Cornus Florida is now considered inferior to Cornus Kousa due to some disease issues. Personally I would plant one of each to compare!

Man, where to start.

where are you in z5???? its a vast, divergent area ....

it matters significantly when discussing conifers ...

if .. ANYWHERE ... you see the words 'fast growing' ... scratch that off the list IMMEDIATELY ... fast to grow.. fast to disease .. fast to breakage.. fast to die .. and fast to cost money to remove ...

ken

I'm locating in the southwest burbs of Chicago.

Check out the hybrids of C. florida and kousa like Cornus x 'Rutban'.

cancel EVERYTHING ..

until you visit this place outside chicago

report back after the trip

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

But only look! Prices are borderline rape.

Sorry Rich!