Go for something less common:
Abies alba 'Pendula'
Picea abies 'Weeping Blue' needs initial staking

Dax

is that entire piece of grass the project??

what is the swale???? the depression ...

do you require grass being left ...

how much of that lawn is impacted by snow shoveling.. or worse.. snow blowering ..

what else is in your dream scene??

ken

1. Get rid of the grass.

2. Add 15-20 yards of topsoil.

3. Work in 8-10 BFRs.

4. Arrange 50-60 1-2 man rocks.

Voila! Mini conifer paradise.

A good design for the small postage stamp lot. The focal point conifer will have to be narrow and some what pendulous considering you want to center it in the 6'7" area.

Your choice Picea glauca 'Pendula' would fill that need.

Picea omorika 'Pendula Bruns' also a good fit.

Picea glauca 'Pendula'

Picea abies 'Cupressina'

All are fairly common in your larger nurseries.

Picea abies 'Weeping Blue' more difficult to find in larger sizes. Mail order 1 gal. available but I am not sure you want to start that small.

There is a conifer collector that lives in Chicago. He posts here in the conifer forum occasionally.
Here is a recent link...copy & paste. Send him a email. He should be able to help you with advice and where to purchase conifers. If he offers to show you his garden don't pass it up. One of the best.

http://www.gardenweb.com/auth/nph-logincheck.cgi?action=public_profile&user=/dansgrdn

Dave

Rich's Foxwillow Pines has large stock (Woodstock, IL) as does Lake County Pines (Grayslake, IL).

Dax

3rd down should read Picea pungens 'Glauca Pendula'. It will need to be stake trained but worth the effort.

Dave

thanks all the great suggestions, I'll google search for images!
Yes that is the entire scope of the project, it's a small city lot. There is not much snow shovel impact, i normally dump in on the parkway side.
There will be some grass left, basically the curved line in the layout is the bed, though that will probably change a little depending on plants. I love the idea of a full on conifer paradise but want to make sure that the new scaping blends in with the surroundings, so it needs to fit in with the block as a whole.
Driving to work today I saw this tree. It's exactly the shape I was picturing, though a bit big. Any idea what kind of tree it is?

Also forgot to mention, the plot is north facing

For larger retail mail order stock (at a fair price), Iconic Gardens (WA) and Oriental Garden supply (NY) are quite nice. Lists would probably be updated in Jan or Feb, otherwise just call for what your after.

I'm also recommending one of these three plants...
Picea omorika 'Pendula Bruns'
Picea glauca 'Pendula'
Picea engelmannii 'Bush's Lace'

xdeaconx - seedling Picea pungens.

Give 'Bush's Lace serious consideration. The problems with 'Pendula Bruns' Picea omorika or Picea pungens 'Glauca Pendula' is the staking process. Neither will be completely upright. There's a very rare chance for 'Pendula Bruns' to go upright and that's only if the scionwood used for grafting came from a shoot that has the natural ability to grow straight. This is all luck and rare with 'Pendula Bruns'. Google the plant and you'll see how many 'twist and turn'.

Originally I didn't think you had room for 'Bush's Lace' but since the photo of the seedling Picea pungens fits your goal, 'Bush's Lace' is more than ideal.

Dax

Also, Picea pungens 'Shiloh Weeping' is the right size. That too I omitted thinking it may be too wide (as compared to Picea glauca 'Pendula').

Dax

i think the tree in your lower pic is a picea pungens.. aka blue spruce... it is not appropriate to your lot ... as it is a forest tree ...

check out the link.. study the various annual growth rates ...

should you wish to get carried away ... you can collect 20 to 30 MINI conifers for that space ... check out the pix below ...

ken

{{gwi:211253}}

{{gwi:211254}}

cat for scale.. lol
{{gwi:211255}}

{{gwi:242132}}

Here is a link that might be useful: link

I'm with Glaciers-End. Make a rock garden out of it!
Forget trying to blend it in with the rest of the neighborhood's mistakes. You can't please everybody.
You're approaching this project at the wrong end by going for a specimen plant first and then planning around it.
Here's how I would approach it.
First kill the grass, or dig it out around the edges and throw it into the middle just to one side. Cover it with a lot of good draining topsoil so you can mound it up as much as possible with a curved valley starting out at the sidewalk and ending up at the lower window. Don't go cheap, get plenty. Ten or twelve yards minimum. It's a small area and won't cost much. Get plenty of quarry rocks as big as you and a friend can handle. Conifers and rocks go together very well. At least two tons minimum. Two people can move large rocks way better than one. Coming from Florida, I know that working with rocks might not be your strong suit, but learn to place and group them so they look like they belong. Avoid random placement at all costs!
The corner where your walkway meets the sidewalk is a good place for a rock outcropping using the biggest rock first and work down from there. So is the other corner by your neighbor's. Putting the outcrops there, cuts down on shortcuts and the resultant damage. The valley should start somewhere near the middle of the sidewalk and go up and back to the house. No rocks in the valley, not even round ones in this case. The area is too small. To make a design statement, keep it simple, rather than busy.
Now you're ready to select your plants and where to place them. Start out with the tall ones and work down from there. Keeping true to scale is very important if you want it to work.
Landscape design up north, especially with conifers, is a lot different than tropical design down south in Florida.
Have fun!

Mike

Funny thing. We all do things differentially. I can't argue what Mike has accomplished. His garden speaks to his ability to do it right.

I always build my garden design around the focal point/specimen plant. It will be my corner stone anchor plant. I'll play plants off it till I get it right.

I like some grass left in the design as it softens the look and provides a pathway. To make that whole square just conifers and boulders would not flow good and look over done.

I think there is enough room for a redesign of the area adding 1 medium and 2 small islands, with pathways to complement the existing design you have on paper.

Another consideration is how long are you going to live there? Plan on selling in 10 years or less? If less I would go with your original plan and keep it simple. Not a lot of $$$ invested and easy to sell. Some people just don't dig plants.

Otherwise if staying long term go for a more interesting design. Give some real thought to balance, flow and color. The market place is full of 100's of interesting cultivars to plan you garden around.

Dave

wow, thanks for all the great feedback! and for the i.d. of the picea pungens in the lower set of pics. It is a beautiful specimen though I understand it's too big for my application. I admire its open form and graceful weep.

Dax what did you mean by this... "but since the photo of the seedling Picea pungens fits your goal."... Are you referring to the photos I posted?

Also how wide is Picea engelmannii 'Bush's Lace/Picea pungens 'Shiloh Weeping' compared to Picea glauca 'Pendula'?
I also did some preliminary research and what I've found says Shiloh Weeping won't begin showing weeping form until much later in it's maturity. Is that the case?

Ken beautiful landscaping. Ohh to have such space to work with. What is the upright specimen in the cat photo?

Thanks Mike and Dave for the ideas. I can understand where you are coming from Mike concerning the neighbors mistakes. But I'm a big proponent of creating harmony not just within my space but how it relates to spaces around it. And even though my block may have some glaring mistakes I think the pendulum can swing to far in the other direction as well. My garden may look beautiful within the space of my plot lines, but will be out of balance with the natural flow of the rest of the block.
I do agree that I should not let that stop me from creating what I want, but think I can achieve a beautifully balanced garden that is in harmony with my neighbors.

I like the idea of adding some rockscaping though, and introducing elevation changes. I'm going to tweek my layout, thanks for the food for thought.

deacon

after holiday bump

Ever think of something that will blend in with the neighbors by shape but stand out by color? Google picea orientalis skylands. I understand they are a bit sun fussy at first but man if I could stick one or one of something similar there.

Ken, what is similar but needs no sunscreen?