This one started it all (the conifer addiction that is). Readily available at almost any nursery. Picea abies 'Pendula'. Planted in front of patio as a semi-privacy screen.

Picea orientalis 'Aureospicata', the large bed below is all new in 2016.

Picea omorika 'Kamenz'

Picea omorika 'Expansa'.

Gotta run, but many more photos to come.

Nice one. Your plot is perfect for a garden.

You've done some fine work in a short period of time. Thanks for the pix.

...and where are you located?

tj

Bros, what a great site, and what nice work you're making of it! I'm particularly fond of pic 4 showing the view down into that ravine. Also loving the staircase and the work softening it. I'd love to see more...

Thanks for the comments.

I'm in northern Illinois.

Here's more...

Early spring as hostas are emerging. Tsuga canadensis 'Sargentii' and Acer shirasawanum 'Autumn Moon' on right.

Another view of that bed:

From bottom to top: Acer palmatum 'Ruyusen', Picea x 'Troemner', and Picea abies 'Frohburg'.

Tsuga canadensis 'Burkett's Dwarf', Picea abies 'Farnsburg', Pinus cembra 'Algonquin Pillar', Pinus banksiana 'Uncle Fogy'

Pinus longaeva 'Formal Form' on the left and one of my 'mini nurseries' in front of that.

Left to right: Picea abies 'Pendula', Pinus banksiana 'Schoodic', Pinus pumila 'Dwarf Blue', Pinus strobus 'Horsford Dwarf':

Picea abies 'Pendula' and Larix laricina 'Deborah Waxman'. The larch is on the early spring to-do list to move, grew faster than anticipated and is crowding the weeping norway spruce.

Picea abies 'Frohberg' spilling down the hillside, Picea glauca 'Pendula' on left, Pinus parviflora 'Kinpo' center. The Heucheras are obviously planted too close, but I like how they contrast. They'll have to move eventually.

Same area looking down. Picea orientalis 'Aureospicata', Pinus aristata species across the lawn.

Picea glauca 'Pendula' (growing prostrate), and Picea abies 'Formanek'

And last one for now, more later.

very nice job , bro,,,among others I really like the orientalis

Thanks for posting

ron (Glendale hts )

activate messaging on your houzz page

Thanks Ron.

Pinus sylvestris 'Albyn Prostrata'

Pinus banksiana 'Al Johnson'

Pinus pumila 'Blue Dwarf'

Same plant, candles hardened off

Pinus parviflora 'Fukazumi'

Pinus parviflora 'Catherine Elizabeth'

Tsuga diversifolia 'Loowit'

Larix kaempferi 'Wolterdingen'

Picea abies 'Acrocona'

Picea orientalis 'Firefly'

Beautiful garden! Nice Work!

Pinus sylvestris "Helen Bergman'

Same plant later in season

Acer palmatum 'Viridis'

Pinus mugo 'Jakobsen'

Picea abies 'Pusch'

Picea glauca 'Ketch Harbor' (center), Pinus resinosa 'Morel' (left)

Pinus strobus 'Horsford Dwarf'

Picea bicolor 'Prostrata'

Picea omorika 'Treblitzsch'

Picea abies 'Weeping Blue'

Picea orientalis 'Shadow's Broom'. I don't have a picture of the candles hardened off, but it is is probably the nicest deep green color I have.

Picea pungens 'Kluis'

Picea abies 'Lanham's Beehive'

Lanham's Beehive again later in the season, Picea engelmannii 'Compacta' behind it.

Picea orientalis 'Skylands'

Picea glauca 'Yukon Blue'

Pinus strobus 'Niagara Falls'.

Pinus cembra 'Westerstede'

Abies koreana "Silberlocke'

Picea abies 'Farnsburg'

Pinus strobus 'Pendula'

Tsuga canadensis 'Sargentii'

Picea abies 'Pendula', Larix laricina 'Deborah Waxman' during it's second candle push. This one will be getting moved this spring.

Transplanting a Tsuga canadensis 'Pendula' in order to replace this delapidated retaining wall. It helps to have the right equipment!

Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Sungold'

Pinus strobus 'Vercurve, Thuja plicata 'Whipcord', Picea bicolor 'Howell's Dwarf'

Picea omorika 'Kamenz'

Picea pungens 'Schloss Herrenstein'

Most recent bed completed this past fall. Less and less grass each year.

Conifer-looking plant. Fernleaf peony. If you were wondering, yes, it is very soft to the touch!

Most the rest of these are non-coniferous.

Liquidambar styraciflua 'Slender Silhouette'.

Aesculus parviflora

Echinacea, one of the few perennial areas left in the gardens.

A cool rock garden plant I think, Sempervivum arachnoideum 'Cobweb'

Last of the 2016 pictures. Here are a few of the tree peonies that are scattered throughout.

This one I already moved this past fall, crowding my Sciadopitys and Niagara Falls.

The last thing I was going to post was my Mail Order experience. I had never mail ordered prior to 2016. Got a little carried away (lol). Here is a quick summary:

Klehm's Songsparrow Nursery:

Nice quality plants, not the cheapest, limited selection but some unique offerings.

Stanley and Sons:

Good selection if you don't mind starting small (mostly 4" pots, quite a few 1-gal). Fantastic pricing but minimum order required

First order of 1 gals

30 4" pots

Second order of 1 gals

Forest Farm:

Good selection, had a few wrong items in the order, but it was taken care of.

Western Evergreen:

Great selection, reasonable prices, excellent quality. Very pleased with the root systems/potting media.

Conifer Kingdom:

Remarkable selection, reasonable prices. Gotta be careful to not get carried away here lol (no picture)

What a lovely garden! The rock work complements both the plants and the overall site, and I like the combination of conifers, broad-leafed woody plants, and perennials. I also appreciate you taking the time to label the photos and the clear photos of individual conifers. And then just as I was thinking that I would need to investigate sources, you presented not only a list of the sources, but also photos of the plants that arrived from each. Thanks for taking the time!

Ooh wee! Just had my socks nocked off! Absolutely gorgeous, especially that location with the stone steps. I dream of having something like that.

That 'Schloss Herrenstein' is really cool. I'm jealous of your aristata, and well, everything else. I'm going to have to get one of those fern leaf peonies now lol.

Thanks so much for taking the time to post and for the inspiration.

Super, just 1 think, Picea bicolor 'Howell's Dwarf' are Picea jezoensis 'Howell's Dwarf' . Compare the foliage with your Picea bicolor 'Prostrata'.

Thanks again for the comments. I'm happy to share.

Thanks for the correction clement. I'll change that in my records. I'm working on tags for everything, fortunately I haven't gotten to that one yet.

'Schloss Herrenstein' I purchased in the Spring as a fairly large B&B. As such, I was worried about it surviving. Looks like it's gonna make it though. Here's next years buds ready to go

You've got the ACS bad

you also have many of the plants I have or want

good stuff , ron

Im glad i got to see this thread...Your place looks amazing. My hats off to you and your brother.....What zone are you in?

Al

Yeah, the ACS hit pretty hard this year especially. Gonna have to cut way back next year. We do have a couple minor expansions planned for the upcoming season though, lol.

I'm in zone 5b. I'll incorporate that into my username when the site let's me change it again.

Fantastic work and job well executed! Your rolling and contoured landscape beautifully displays your plantings!

What a garden!

But you are a drug addict. No good. :-).

Thanks for sharing all great plants that you have there.

John N.

Few questions if you don't mind:

What's the approx. size and age of your "firefly"?

Do you and your brother ever argue over design plans?

Is your garden on your homeowners policy?

Thanks for the comments!

The 'Firefly' was planted in early April of this year from a #6 container.

Some might say argue, others might say bouncing ideas around lol. We usually agree on things.

The garden is not in the homeowner's policy. We're gonna be in trouble if a tornado comes through.

Fantastic work and great selection. Everything looks amazing!

Hi coniferbros - just curious if you have any pics from 2017? I'm just seeing this thread for the first time but it is awesome. Kudos on all of the hard work!

Thanks Matt. I've been taking random pics all spring, I'll try to get some posted soon.

I actually feel kind of bad making the request, but figured that it could be ignored if coniferbros didn't have time or want to. I've probably come back to this thread 3-4 times over the past couple days and stared at some of the pictures. I feel like I am in year 1 of confierbros journey, whereas he/she is at year 7 now? Anyway, have a good day. - Matt

Likewise Garen, I love your garden.

Matt, don't feel bad...I'm happy to share.

I'll get more pics posted when I get more time to go through my files and pick what's worthy. But here's one for now.

Pinus longaeva 'Formal Form' in a March snow. One of my first conifers. On it's 7th year now, keeping a fantastic form.

Stay tuned, more to come.

-Ryan

Impressive, and I thought I had a lot up take care of. Very nice presentation and placement of your plant, I enjoyed the post

Excellent plants and design. I really like the setting of the stones and gravels.

Thanks for sharing the pics with us.

Keep posting :-)

John N.

Great collection, nicely presented, and all in just over 6 years! I'm impressed!

Nice conifer garden. But no juniperus in your collection?

Thanks Heruga. Good observation, I am not much of a Juniperus fan for the most part.

New batch of pictures almost ready to go, I'll update soon.

I see. I realize that your conifer collection mostly consists of conifers in the pinaceae family. Except for the few thujas and sciadopitys but still a beautiful garden. Btw, when you do the landscape designing, do you factor in the mature size of the plants and then plant or are you the type to enjoy whats there now and in a couple years?

We certainly consider growth rates when designing beds. However, I use the term designing loosely. It isn't laid out on paper or anything (probably should be). We're guilty of buying and finding a place later. Most of the larger plants should be able to stay put indefinitely or at least a long while. That said, there are many plants that won't fit forever. I've got some pics coming where we've moved two large specimens this Spring. Also note, we plant small grafts in the landscape where they clearly won't fit forever. This simply allows us to grow them to a larger size and move them without having to take care of containers.

bro , make sure you make separate post

ron

Ryan,

Spectacular gardens! Simply incredible!

If you just started to mail order conifers in 2016, what nursery are you close to that has that kind of selection of conifers on-hand? Rich's Foxwillow Pines, perhaps?

Thanks,

Mike

Will do Ron!

Thank you very much Mike. Several of my local nurseries order from Iseli and others. Hornbaker Gardens in Princeton, IL is one of my favorites (not local but a short drive). I have purchased some from Rich's Foxwillow Pines. We have also bought a lot from a wholesale nursery that grows unique conifers.