Or do you, like me, suspect that nurseries of note have their own concoctions that they guard as closely as Col. Sander's spices?

Maybe post processing the saturation in the photo?
Mike

Shade-grown would be my guess, combined with optimal soil conditions - loose, well-drained and aerated, moist but not soggy, slightly acidic, and with the right balance of nutrients and plenty of mycorrhiza.

Resin

Thanks Resin. Shade would certainly be a simple way to darken a conifer in a nursery environment. Everyone says never fertilise conifers but surely there is something missing that I can add. I liked the sound of the US product Holly Tone but it's not available here.

http://www.espoma.com/product/holly-tone/

Mike, there is no saturation to that picture, that is the colour it was.

Check Kohout's own picture of Abies nord. 'Dobrichovice'. That bluish cast and deep green.

Dobrichovice

Compare with the classic specimen shown here by Edwin. A good healthy green, but not blue.

http://www.edwinsmitsconifers.com/fotos/AbinorDobrichovic.jpg

That is a very nice deep color.
My neighbor adds iron to his pasture to get a deeper green color. I wonder if it would work on conifers to get a deeper blue color?
Mike

Could certainly be worth a try. I'll give it a go.

Thanks Mike.

One year he used small iron balls about the size of BBs and the dark green lasted several years. The iron balls were used in shot peening aluminum propeller hubs for C-130s.

It also depends on the soil type. They say that clay is the worst for plants trying to get iron. That organic material is key to the aquisition. My clay is not going to ever be improved as recommended so I'll try a foliar feed.

Wow, unless you're pulling my leg then that is a novel way to get the job done.

Dave ,I got a product from Menards , called encap fast acting iron, for a maple

you must have something like that available from home stores

ron

Non of the good US stuff is available here in the UK but I'll search out an iron feed. For now I'm just using ericaceous slow release micro balls on several wan looking specimens to see if they colour up. Deep colour will have to be a longer project.

when I was an apprentice , the owner made us save chips when we were machineing cast iron,,,said it was for his evergreens

cast iron gets all powdery

ron

Ooooh, Ronster that is a good pick up of info.

Reckon I might start grinding things down.

its tricky when you start throwing around a word like shade ... it really means so little ...

so in case others with less experience are reading.. lets try to firm this up ...

shade created in a nursery ... with shade cloth .... is engineered for perfect light ... ranging anywhere up to 55% shade ...

but they houses are in full sun ... for all hours of sunshine ...

the point being.. if you plant in some nebulous shade in your garden ... you could easily be going beyond whatever is the engineered shade ... and end up with a plant that does not grow to expectation .. it wont die ... it just might not thrive ...

it would be interesting to the conversation.. if we could find out.. what shade cloth the grower used ... if we wanted to go further with the conversation ...

the shade cloth also keep the needles cooler, maintaining the glaucous coating of wax ... and reduces the impact of heavy rain .... both of which can wear off the wax ...

finally ... perhaps.. they water by irrigation ... and dont actually wet the plants down like ma nature would ... individual emitters for each pot ...

ken

Thanks Ken but to throw some more things into the discussion mix.

1. The interior needles (as in the needles that are three years old and were the flush when bought are STILL that steel blue. Last years push was muted and is a pallid yellow. This years push is stronger and a better colour but still too early to see if it will darken.

2. My 'Meunsterland' two seaons ago kept it's new flush a very yellow green so the plant was bi coloured and now all flushes have become a uniform fairly dark green including this years.

3. My 'Broom H' nord. is motoring but has become a vibrant green exactly the same colour as Bluespruce's and Will Firefighter's. It was steel blue when I bought it, like a twin to the 'Dobrichovice'.

So this isn't really about shade as Will Firefighter has quite a lot and also a lot of cloudy days.

it still points to something Kohout's or whoever the supplier was did to take these nords down to an extreme colour. Nord's in nature are not ever steel blue, they are mid to dark green.