the one on the right.. go out there.. and measure last years growth .. ino.. one or the other has to be moved ....

estimate your patch.. telling us is bigger than it looks isnt good enough ...

wish i knew.. offhand.. the 10 year size of your named plants ...

ken

Hm not sure why it posted the same 3 pictures, and for some reason it won't let me edit the original post.

Ken from that angle they do look quite close. They are 9' apart which is good for 10 to 20 years depending on the habit of the 'skylands' - in the mean time the 'Firefly' will stay an easily transplantable size. 10-12' would have been better but I wanted the look quicker admittedly.

If I had to guess I'd say the plot is 40'x40', maybe 35'. I'll measure tomorrow.

This is my own person preference but I would add a vote for Bush's Lace. Maybe it depends on the tree itselft but I've seen a 12 ft Bush's Lace only 3-4 ft wide. Same with Skylands, There's a 30 ft tall Skylands around the corner from me that extremely narrow and I've seen shorter Skylands that are wider.

Also Bush's Lace can take some shade.

Amazing... you want someone to design and figure out plant placement for you on a conifer forum. You will get a thousand different ways to proceed and come away thoroughly confused. Why do you want to take away the gratification of doing it your self? If you had enough common sense to buy all these unique cultivars that says something positive about yourself. Put your design on paper. Pick out your area and draw it to scale...1/4-1/2 inch per foot. Plant placement for some is critical. Room to grow and sun consideration for the yellows can make for success or failure. Be prepared to loose a few. Sometimes they just die for no apparent reason. Five hours of sun might not be enough for you Picea species. They will do OK but with some thinning of foliage and the unexposed sun sides showing weakness in growth. Six-eight hours is what they need for a robust plant. Plant those in the new area you are opening up. Put your thinking cap on and go for it and be prepared for the long haul because you can't quit planting once taken by these beautiful conifers. I started 18 years ago with one plant. I finally maxed out my area this year. Good luck on your new adventure. Very rewarding if done right and don't get in a hurry.

Oriental Spruces can handle shade so I would vote for that variety. I have a Picea Oriental Nigra Compacta in about 3-4 hours of full sun and it's doing great. I also have a Picea Orientalis Aureospicata in part shade and it's very happy. Bush's Lace can get away with only 4-5 hours of full sun and still have a nice blue color.

dcsteg- I'm really just fishing for some stand out/fantastic ideas, I'm going to be sketching this out on a 4'x3' whiteboard all winter during my downtime - don't assume! Besides how detailed could one get in their suggestion of something so potentially complex on a forum. I'm simply crowd sourcing for ideas and suggestions to possibly work off of. I'm a doctorate of biochemistry; I'm going to go through a box of dry erase markers designing this.

Typo in original post that I can't edit-

koreana, deodara

Read through this thread. In addition to a number of design concerns to keep in mind, there are some great photos of conifer gardens for inspiration. And this oneis worth looking at closely as well :-)

If I could suggest anything for you to focus on is to mix things up a bit - you need some other, non-coniferous plants to accent, contrast and compliment the conifers and to keep things interesting.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, for the record still can't edit main thread so heres the other two photos.

Oh and Stuart I just so happen to have not 1 but 2 'Silver Seedlings', I'm going to have to come up with a cool way to use them. I was thinking I'd use them on the outside edges that fall in more shade. It's also VERY tempting to plant one in heavy shade and one in minimal shade to see the variance within the phenotype.

You can see various 'Skylands' in various light conditions HERE.

Also, if you search this forum for things like Picea orientalis Gallery or Picea omorika Gallery or other species, there still should be enough pix to give you some ideas.

tj

My Picea Orientalis Aureospicata is also doing well in a largely shaded setting. I was surprised to see this, but see I am not the only one who has observed this. It has been in the ground 3+ years.

Because of their size and growth rate all the orientalis will be making it into the garden. They will be on the outer edges that won't get the full 7 hours.

Well I just check on my trees, the deer destroyed all the orientalis, eating the leaders and a good amount of folaige. A 7 year old skylands ruined. 7 year old firefly ruined. 5 year old early gold ruined. 2 silver seedlings both ruined. I think I'm out of the hobby already guys, this is just too depressing. I amass a nice starter collection over the course of a year and the deer destroy it in one night. So sad, I really love these trees and this hobby. God damn I'm pissed.

Unless you can fence off, or provide some other protection, you will never be able to grow conifers with deer in your area. They particularly love to snack on orientalis. I am sorry for your loss. One winter with 2 ft. of snow on the level. Nothing to eat for the rabbits. They got under my fence line and up-limbed a lot of my weepers. The toll was heavy but I spent 2 days in sub-freezing temps and snow adding a 2 ft. screen to my chain link. Problem solved. Shown in lower half of fence photo.

Chris, I'm really sorry to hear what happened :(. I wouldn't give up though, at least you know now for the future that having a protected barrier around some plants would be important.

Hang in there, I feel your pain.

My property has over two dozen douglas firs and norway spruces ranging from 7 feet to over 30, as well as as 3 'montgomery' blue spruces. They've never touched one of them in the 11 years since I planted them. It's like the deer specifically wanted orientalis... Hell they don't even touch my 'Thorsen's Weeping' Tsuga heterophylla I've had for 3 years. Unfortunately my collection was half orientalis...

The deer in my area are heavy but they dont touch conifers, hence my lack of preparedness... I would have burlaped the skylands and everything else was small enough for mesh. What a stupid thing... I don't think I'm willing to continue in this hobby if I'm going to have to fight these deer every step of the way.

That sucks. I had rabbits cause some serious damage on multiple occasions. I kept thinking my dog would prevent the rabbit from coming in the yard....Not so. They love Japanese maples. I overwinter seedlings in my garage,but if weather is nice I'll put them outside. The f##! rabbit came right up the driveway and ate the seedlings I had grown since seed...(3 years)

When you have plants you don't care about, it seems like nothing bothers them...But then you get these incredible, rare plants, and it seems like everything is plotting against you...Animals, drought, insane cold, tree branches falling on your small plants, ect..

I caged about 30 plants this year...What a pain...But I'm hooked on collecting, so no other choice.

What confuses me to no end is why they ate so much of the skylands; there are about 6 large ones in my neighborhood that have never been touched. Two doors down theres a 12 footer that has obviously never been touched by deer, and none of them have received any deer protection.

Chris,

I'm sorry that this has happened. I don't want to offend, I'm not meaning it that way - but I worried about you from your original post on your Skylands. You were so hooked on its 'perfect' form, and then so upset when you dinged it up a bit. It's almost like you were setting yourself up for a major disappointment. You were obviously heavily invested, emotionally, in the tree. I can't imagine what you must be feeling now. I hope you will continue with your evident love of the natural world, and learn to handle the disappointments that come with.

Yeah no doubt I was excited about the find (it was healthy and cheap), and due to the success they have in my area on properties that don't even realize it's a prized tree, I figured with all the attention and care I would give it it would be more than fine. No way to see this coming; the deer simply don't touch any skylands in the area.

My love for the natural world will always live on in my practice of biochemistry.

If I were to battle these deer for years, I would grow heavily invested in the trees emotionally. One slip up and they'd get ravaged just like they did now, and I'm not willing to put up a fence. THAT would be hard to get over...

When deer attack (Ive lost about 7-8 trees in 4 years, there is a deer crossing sign in front of my house- a month ago a nice buck got nailed by a car, ended up next to the sign and within 24 hours someone had cut off the antlers), I generally let things play out, just as in nature. In 15 years (or less) they may look totally normal (especially with a little help). The majority of my trees have character when I buy them (various reasons, but mostly Im a cheaparse) - just as a tree that survives a "brutal" deer attack will (Ken's "the stranger the better club?"). Do not underestimate Ma Nature, she will general surprise you in a positive way. Im not as concerned about having "perfect" or "perfectly symmetrical", etc tree as I am about growing a large and healthy specimen. I understand if you dont feel this way, just saying the trees may come thru this fine in the long run. Im looking forward to this "tri trunk" Vanderwolf Pyramidal Pine(was 6') that got snapped to the ground by a deer two years ago. How about some pics of the damage?

dcsteg(5 Shawnee, KS.) -

Hi,

Could you ID all the beautiful plants in your photo, please? Foreground and background and how old. I'm searching for a few small, maybe dwarf, conifers as well as one big one. What you have going on looks awesome.

Lane Clark, the tree in the middle in the front of the fence is Picea Pungens 'The Blues', the tall green tree to the left looks like Picea Glauca 'Pendula'. The rounded green tree that has leaves further back in the photo looks like a variety of Ginkgo Biloba.

Front...Juniperus conferta 'Blue Pacific' 12 years old. Right...Juniperus horizontalis 'Mother Lode'. 10-12 years. Center in front of the fence. Picea pungens 'The Blues'. Behind the fence to left of gate. Picea pungens 'Procumbens on a standard. 8 years old. Normally a prostrate grower. Behind the fence in corner. Picea glauca 'Pendula'. 18-20 years old. The ginkgo is Ginkgo biloba 'Chi Chi'. 10 years old. The other two plants in the mix are deciduous fill ins.