Metasequoia glyptostroboides (10) at 4-years age from, seed.

Metasequoia glyptostroboides 4-years from seed

Abies nordmanniana

Thuja standishii x plicata 'Green Giant'

Thuja standishii x plicata 'Green Giant'

Thuja standishii x plicata 'Green Giant'

Thuja standishii x plicata 'Green Giant'

Thuja standishii x plicata 'Green Giant'

Picea omorika

Quercus robur 'Salicifolia'

Nice tour, Dax. Thanks for the update. That Abies x phanerolepis looks like a winner.

tj

Looks like everything is really doing a lot of growing for you now. Looks good.
Cher

Hey Dax, your Picea Glauca 'Pendula' appears to have come back strong!

Does that 'Siberian' arb really have a blue hue or is that just the pic?

Yes, I can see the character of you landscape beginning to change.

All your hard work and patience beginning to show.

In another 5 years you can hang your shingle out that says:

Welcome
Dax Herbst Arboretum
The rare and unusual
displayed for your enjoyment

Dave

Great pics. Thanks for sharing.

J

Awesome guys, thanks! ...that's awesome Dave. Cheers.

Will, that arb is actually that color. Here it is in full sun:

Thuja occidentalis 'Siberian'

Thuja occidentalis 'Siberian'

Thuja occidentalis 'Siberian'

Thuja occidentalis 'Siberian' cropped from above photo:

and, Rhus chinensis (Chinese sumac)

Dax

Dax bro, your plants are in 'take-off' stage to be sure. You've got 25 years of growth space and in this huge environment, your larger plants will really shine. It's going to be great to continue to watch it fill in. I'm quite envious of your many different and rare abies cultviars and species, you have both the unique plants and the space to let them go. It'll be a pleasure to visit someday.

-Will

Yeah Dax, your Arboretum will get nicer by the day :0)
How are your other 'Hetz Wintergteen' seedlings doing, I'm special curious to the one with the special bark and the very narrow one, do you have also some pics of these for us?
Every time a see the Picea omorika 'Gotelli Weeping', I put a question mark to this one.
Whats weeping about it, IMHO it does have the habbit of the species, I've seen a lot of look a likes at Christmas trees plantations...

Will, I honor all your comments and too feel the need to graft some of your goodies!!!

Thanks Edwin :0) - Let me tell you about Gotelli Weeping - Whether it weeps correctly or not -- it's my duty to explain to you that this tree is :o) 'special' for its less than 3 meter width when it is 10 and more meters tall.

I hope this explains this matter for you well :0)

Dax

Edwin,

This is the narrow one you liked most (Thuja occ. seedling #109) It is cultivar worthy. 5 years of growth: 39"/99cm tall. This year's growth 12"/30.5cm

#103 2"-3" per year at the moment (dwf)

#104

#105

#106

#107

#108

#110

#111

again, #111

#112

Dax

It's a privilege being able to watch your arboretum develop! Thanks.

Dax, thanks for these extra pics.
The Seedling #109 is a very special one, did you propagate it last winter and when do you give it a proper name?
Seedling #105 is also a nice one.

About your 'Gotelli Weeping' discription (less than 3 meter width when it is 10 and more meters tall)
This isn't special, speciments in the Serbian mountains are about 1 metre width when they're over 10 metres high...

I propagated quite a few of them. 105 I agree is very good. It's foliage is soft and thick and has a different look as well as it isn't entirely green.

109 has no name yet. I'll have to think of a good name.

Gotelli Weeping is a real colorful tree and is better than the 'Pendula'/forma Pendula. When it's younger it's quite narrow-exceptional. Coenosium Gardens shows it at full age and at a youthful age.

Dax

Here is a link that might be useful: Weeping Serbian Spruces

#100

#113

#114

#115

#116

#117

#118

#119

#125

#121

#126

#122

#130

Thuja occidentalis 'Frizz' aka #131

#124

#134

Thuja occidentalis 'Siberian': described as Army green; I'd call it aqua-army green.

Dax

I have to get me some of those!

What I propagated I'm giving to my friend who grows Thuja's. This coming winter I'll cut again and start growing these to sell, whaas.

Dax

Nice, perhaps a trade may be in-line.

I need to get rid of this stuff...

Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku' - 6' tall (~7 gallons)
Acer triflorum - 6" (seedling) x 2
Aesculus glabra 'Fallred' - 12" (seedling)
Aesculus turbinata - 18" (seedling)
Aesculus turbinata pubescens - 18" (seedling)
Cornus kousa 'Samzam' - 5' tall (~7 gallons)
Cladrastis kentukea - 18" tall (seedling)
Ginkgo 'Autumn Gold' - 8' tall (1.25" caliper) x 2
Halesia carolina - 12" tall (seedling)
Maackia amurensis - 12" tall (seedling) x 2
Maackia chinenis - 10" tall (seedling) x 2
Taxodium distichum - 2' tall (~5 gallons)
Picea pungens 'Gebelle's Golden Spring'

Dax, thanks for your additional pics, but I still didn't see the one with the special bark yet.
I hope it's still alive and that it's special characteristic isn't gone...

Hi Edwin, the bark is now dark brown & shows none of the braided character... sorry about that but it took me until now to figure out which one it is. It's #108.

There's nothing at all special anymore with this one.

Sorry man!!!

Dax

Army green is usually described as O.D. green.
Olive Drab.
Mike

Hello folks,

My introduction of Thuja occidentalis seedling of Hetz Wintergreen #109 is now named: 'Pickles Spear'

My college nickname was "Pickles."

Dax

Dax, don't feel sorry for this, it's not your fault that this plant reverted back to normal.
Maybe if you make some cuttings of this one they will show the speciality again, I think it's worth trying! :0)

Gotcha boss!

Dax

That #109 looks good.

I can picture reading it now. Edwin correcting the myriad of people who write:
'Pickle Spear' or
'Pickle's Spear' or
'Pickles' Spear' lol

So Dax, did that nickname come from eating habits? Drinking habits? Anatomy? Or should I ask? lol

tj

Tommy, you've a clear vision about me :0)
If that person's name was Pickles, the cultivarname must be written as 'Pickles' Spear'

On the other hand, Mr. Barabits from Hungary also named a lot of cultivars with his second name included.
For instance Cryptomeria japonica 'Barabits Gold'.
Theoretical seen it must bin written as 'Barabits' Gold' but this never happened...

tj, the answer is E) all of the above.

Edwin, I leave it as is. I don't want an apostrophe. If I must change it, then I will. I will leave it to you to tell me if I am ok to keep it be. The word Pickles is plural on its' own so I noticed to keep it like that with luck.

Dax

Whatever you wish for Dax, it's your plant so it's also your cultivarname which you're going to give it.
'Pickles Spear' is fine with me :0)

I can't wait to tell visitors the story behind the name of Pickles Spear ;0)

Dax

Taxodium distichum 'Mickelson'

Taxodium distichum 'Mickelson' (2)

Taxodium distichum 'Mickelson' (4)

Taxodium distichum 'Mickelson'

Taxodium distichum 'Mickelson'

Taxodium distichum 'Mickelson'

Abies x phanerolepis

Picea pungens

Abies x phanerolepis

Abies x phanerolepis

Abies koreana

Pinus densiflora 'Golden Ghost'

Dax

@Dax:

'Michelson' seems to be more compact as the normal, maybe slower growing? Is this right?

Nice unusual plant the 'Golden Ghost'. When it's foggy it must really looks like a ghost.

Wolfgang

Wolfgang,

Mickelson is the same as "Shawnee Brave" but I do not give credit to those that profit to make money on Trademarked Name Changes (that patent/tax me to grow them - God knows there is enough "taxing" going on and I believe in free market capitalism), so I stick with the original 1st name if it allows me to graft/grow them, such is this case.

It is found in Illinois and is much more slender than the species but also is a quick grower.

Dax

Dax,

I find it hard to tell apart between Bald/Montezuma cypress trees for the most part. I see a lot of nice looking bald cypress in my region like Mickelson. What's interesting this year is drought tolerance... Some are showing very strong drought tolerance while others... not so much.

My college where I graduated from has Mickelson but it is growing in bad spot close to other trees. Not much room. The director of arboretum there has gone crazy with taxodium (all of species and hybrids) trees all over the campus including Midlothian cypress ones grown from seeds that I sent them. I'm going there in the fall to check them out and maybe collect seeds. My weepy BC has hit a rough spot. Turns out that the mix got too dry and was hard to re-wet. I tried to fix it by planting it in the ground but it continued to suffer a bit. It's still alive but not sure about scions? They really haven't grown much. I think it has been in that roottrapper bag a little too long but who knows?

Lou

That 'Golden Ghost' is awesome! Mine is quite leggy, yet taller than yours. How much pasture do you have by the way?

Would be interesting to tour that place in a few years.

{{gwi:788390}}

Lou, we're going to have to try, anyway. Even if I'm grafting little tips of shoots (I need to find green & sometimes its' found at the tips). You'll just have to water it a lot until grafting time and send me enough material or keep trying until we find some green to work with. Thanks for the update & be sure to post photos of all those Taxodium from the University if you go.

Will, five years and then my place will be tour ready. Things are only in the ground four years and many are far too small, yet. I'm looking forward to a Conifer Society Tour but I think 15-20 years is best. Maybe 10. I have 6 acres of which probably 5 and 3/4 is wide open to plant.

I've been beaten up guys - I saw so many wonderful dwarf's dead yesterday, the kind of situation where they were alive the last time I saw them and completely dead within a week's time frame. I lost a lot of parviflora and I think I'm going to lose my Pinus strobus 'Sensei' which is a miniature growing 1/2 to 3/4" a year. I had one successful graft that perished during the drought in my shadehouse. I'm not happy about this at all.

Dax

Dax, sorry to hear. Are you attributing the losses to the young age of the plants and the heat?

I have another Picea omorika on the way out. That will be the 3rd one!

Dax,

You need to make that 10 years on the ACS tour so I can come.

I just lost Pinus s. 'Sea Urchin' yesterday. Thursday it was dull green and yesterday morning that dreaded brown. I knew it was coming. There is something about color change in conifers that spells trouble.

I also removed Picea m. 'Ericoides', Thuja o.'Degroot Spire' and Picea o.'Peve Tijn'. Several others on the bubble. Nothing to be happy about here either. This is one year that I am going to put aside and move on very quickly.

Dave

This has given me time to decipher which areas of my property cannot sustain drought. 3/4" of rain (1 time) is all I've seen in over 6 weeks. I was able to keep the small grafts alive - most. But I lost many 6-10 year old grafts.

All I can do is shake my head.

Dave, we'll just keep the faith.

Dax

Hi Dax,

please could you tell me how to put the multiple pictures in this page. I can put only one picture but I see that you could put more pictures in one message. Please, help me and describe me how I should do it. I would like to put a lot of pictures from my garden. Thank you very much.

Hi Frantisek,

Here I type (yes you see) and you type here too (yes). While we type we add photos here, (here where you type & I type).

So, Frantisek your photos are at a website, maybe Picasa, maybe Photobucket, maybe another.

You go to "Picasa" and you (see a photo, yes) you look for photo code. "HTML code"

HTML code you copy from "Picasa" and then paste here (where I am typing and you are typing).

You use "HTML" code for (1) photo then photo (2) then photo (3) then as many more as you like Frantisek, yes you see.

Find HTML at Picasa then copy/paste to GardenWeb (HERE).

Photo shows to you Frantisek. If you see photo, then everyone sees photo(s).

OK, need more help, email to me and I will help.

Dax

That was strange...

Dax, how is the fall color on your Taxodium distichum 'Mickelson'? Curious if they are all quite consistent.

All your specimans looks quite nice. I'm thinking about replacing a bum Ginkgo with this tree.

They are consistent indeed. The best locations on my property (I have 7) are the places that aren't dry clay, however. These spots hold the leaves at least a week longer.

Frantisek doesn't speak any English so his very young daughter helps in case you're still wondering. And Google Translate comes up with some pretty weird stuff for him!

Dax

I love the Pinus densiflora 'Golden Ghost' absolutely gorgeous! =) Thank you for the tour!

When will we see another Dax? I just love the photo tours since I cannot actually take a physical tour.

~Tina