Hi Sandi:

You're choosing some beautiful trees! The fragrance of pine trees sets the mood of the North, especially around lakes.

Hey, I hadn't heard of us "Cheeseheads" referred to as "Coneheads" but I like it.
Snowmobilers (like those around here are referred to as "Sledheads"). Right Constance?

Denise ::)

It's not only the beauty and smell of them that's great, but also hearing the wind blow thru them. We have a lot of trees on our farm in mid Wisconsin and it's just great sitting outside when the wind is blowing. I don't know what kind they are, but they're mostly the long needled kind. Nice and soft to the touch.

Kat

Then there is that time in the spring where new growth appears. Dew drops and that wonderful spring color!

Diane

DH and I moved out from Western Washington to be closer to family in the Twin Cities, stayed there for a while, hated it, moved here because the many conifers reminded us of our former home(the Evergreen state).

Katusha, if your trees are virtually limbless lower down with reddish bark and very long needles, they are Red Pine, a/k/a Norway Pine. Also, they tend to attract flying squirrels. Watch for them at your birdfeeder at night. Their huge black eyes are awesome, and they gather so much light that if your feeder is say, on your deck, and the lights are on behind you, it's possible to get with a couple feet of them and observe--they can't see you unless you move!

Denise, you're right--'Sledheads', also 'Bubbleheads' :)

This is a fun thread!

Constance.

I've got WAAAAYYY too many spruces on my lot...big ones. But my fav is an Abies koreana 'Silberlocke' loved it the minute I saw it this summer and had to have one.

Dave
Franklin

Constance, they have limbs all the way down. I think they may be white pines. They are very bendable. Gotta story here. Back when I was a young teen, my brother, cousin and I play 'hide 'n seek' in the pines. Ok, so we weren't young kids, but we had a ball. Anyways, my brother had to find us. Well he climbed one of the pines to look around. Since these pines were bendable and he wasn't a little kid, when he got near the top it started to bend over. All of a sudden I hear this 'aaaahhhh' and a loud thump. Found my brother and he was flat on the ground. Luckily nothing was broke, but we laughed so hard! Also, the ground there is so sandy it helped break his fall. My dad and his friends planted these pines in the early 50's. They have really added a lot of beauty there. We have others kinds on the farm, but these are my favorite. Good wind breakers too.

Kat

Ah. Well, Red and White Pines do have lower branches until they get big. Red is the only long needled pine I can think of around here. When you say long, are you talking 4-5"? White Pine grows the same way; no lower branches when it gets tall. Needles half the length of the Red, and the bark is dark, not red at all. They're all very flexible when they're young, and they love sandy soils.

I love your story, LOL!

Constance.

And White pine needle-clusters are finer and soft to the touch.

I know the ones on the farm have very soft needles. We've had white pine Christmas trees in the past and they look very much alike. I'll have to take a good look at them when we go up again. We won't be going up until June. I'm going to be talking to my older brother this Sunday, I'll ask him if he knows what kind they are. I was just looking at some pics of the farm and I forgot how huge they are now.

Kat

Hi,
Love this thread. I'm a conehead and it is the main gardening intrest that I share with the DH. He got a bundle of 30 when we moved here 3 years ago and moved a bunch of others from the woods and he waters them diligently. They are "to block the road, grain bins and lights that our neighbors insist on leaving on." There is a grove of white pines that the previous owner put in about 30-40 years ago. Of course he planted them too close. At first I thought I wanted to properly thin them, but when we started working in there we first cut away the lower branches of the inner ones and left the branches on the outer ones. Now it's like a room in there; quiet, cool, great smelling and the kids love playing in there. Kritters love it too. There is also a group of spruces that is about 15 years old out near the road. Up until now we were using them for Christmas trees, but this year they were just too big. We bought one from the boyscouts. In a few years some of our babies will be big enough. I'm sure some of them will need to be "used" because with all the ones that he got they had to be put somewhere, but many will shade the garden when they get too big or are too close to the garden and too close to the neighbors feald. I'm sure he won't be too pleased with that. There are also hemlock groves on our property and black spruce in the marshes. I think I'd like to cut one of those for Christmas some year. So sparce and open and non traditional. I like that. I bet you'd have to water it diligently though. White pines have bundles of 5 needles that are longer and fine. Red pines needles are shorter and thicker in bundles of 2. The other common one in WI is Jack. Its needles are even shorter in bundles of 2. Tell if from the red pine because it's bark is not nearly as red and the red pine has open cones and Jack's are closed. Our neighbors across the field. The house where the cone head who owned our house before we did lived before he lived here, has pines that are well over 100 years old. It would take 3 people to get your arms around them. I wish I could beam some over. All I ask is pleas don't plant your cones in rows. They are soo much better when they look natural. Better quit typeing now. I'm well past my 10 min.
Catrina

I talked to my older brother this past weekend and he said the pines I'm talking about are a mixture of red and white pines. They've been thinning them out the past 15 years. They're going to do it again this year. They are some beautiful trees.

Kat

I'm a bit tardy finding the Wisconsin forum, but better late than never. Welcome to Wisconsin sandyhill. We lose a lot more people to NC than migrate from there. I'm not a bona fide Conehead, but I've been bit by the conifer bug and can't seem to shake it. I've been blessed with a large rural property just outside Eau Claire, and we have numerous mature White & Red Pines on the place. During the past couple of years I've started to collect some garden conifers and will be expanding the collection this spring/summer. Primarily Pines thus far (sandy soil here in west central WI perfect for these), but I'm going to try my hand with Abies. The foliage and cones on these are exquisite.

Bob