Hey, you must be a little north of me!

Blue, there are a billion choices. How about a blue globe conifer, they guys on here can offer a dozen choices. The one of the red japanese maples and a Metasequoia Ogon for the yellow. Ogon grows FAST for me but might just hold that 1r foot wide circle you have drawn.

Nice area pic btw

what the goal height wise ... do you mean youre removing the 3 juniper.. if that is what they are ... how about a pic or two of the whole yard.... to see how this bed sits in it

ken

Toronado, I'm out in the sticks of Lincoln County about an hour north of St. Louis and about an hour south of Hannibal. I call it zone 5 to be safe when I'm spending big money lol but like to push my limits.

Ken, yes I'll be moving the sea green junipers and the few other small plants I threw in there. I'll add photos against my better judgement because there's trash drug out from everywhere right now and everything is a huge mess, plus we had a storm last night so just ignore the mess!! I took a two year hiatus from doing anything after losing my dad and step dad less than a year apart. Now I'm pulling my hair out trying to get things in order so I can start expanding more.

Height wise I really don't have any boundaries. The house faces south so the sun travels from left to right across my yard. The island bed is full sun.

The first bed you currently see when coming down my driveway (from the east or left side of house) to the yard

Coming into the yard from the driveway, the path splits at the top of the little hill and deadends currently to the left but will be added onto once a parking area goes in. Going right the path continues around the entire yard.

Continuing right on the path towards the front door is where the first glimpse of the island bed will be seen. It's just past the porch where the path splits again. The Alberta's and ornamental cherry trees were already in place when I bought the property. I'm currently deciding what ornamental trees to plant on the opposite side of the path from the current beds to cover the loss of the cherries when they decline.

Standing at the sidewalk up to the house is where the next split in the pathway happens. There is a small path to a potting table and the water access for the front of the house or you can continue on around the island bed toward the walkout basement in the side yard and also to the pool.

The island bed sits directly opposite the bed by the potting table. The path circles the entire bed.

The pool deck entrance sits directly behind the island bed when looking at it from the yard or main path by the front door. This view is from following the path by going right around the island bed.

Continuing on around the path past the pool entrance there is access to a large area where I just finished planting a screening bed. A very large patio will be going in at the bottom of the hill. On the left side of the picture stairs will go in to access the top of the 8' high by 150' long retaining wall we are currently redoing. (The grasses are sitting in the path dug up for a new home)

Continuing on around the path takes you back to the split going to the front door or back down to the driveway.

Standing on the yard side of the island bed looking across toward the pool entrance.

Then headed back down the pathway toward the driveway

It's all a disgusting mess at the moment but hopefully you can see the vision that was started. The yard originally sloped from about 15' away from the sidewalk straight up a big wooded unusable hill. The entire property was actually unusable, just a small area cleaned out of a wooded chunk of acreage where they built the house and a driveway. I still have a long way to go with clearing and leveling areas and of course the hardscapes. A major setback was a drainage issue on the retaining wall. Once our weather cooperates and I'm not competing with planting season on the farm that will go back up with an awesome area to start on!!!

I love that little guy Alley Cat. I've actually toyed with the notion of throwing a 6' tall Fat Albert in there then just cutting it down for a Christmas tree once it outgrew its spot and digging out the roots then starting over.

I do have this guy that needs to find a home. A local nursery went out of business this year because the owner died awhile back and no-one in the family knew much about plants so weren't having much luck trying to keep It open. It was tagged "weeping blue spruce" . I paid $55 for it! Conservatively speaking its about 8' tall from the top of the pot to where it starts to weep.

I'm fearful of losing it if I put it in the island bed. I've seen them growing well in the bigger cities but I'm more on the edge of the zone being rural.

I actually have tons of plants in pots from the sale and then again from the auction. Nothing super spectacular but they were super cheap. Most tagged completely wrong lol. I plan to use most on top of the retaining wall or the beds that will run in front of it down in the yard.

Tracy, the tree labeled "Weeping Blue Spruce" is a Cedrus Atlantica (Atlas Cedar).

I thought I put a lol after the name "weeping blue spruce" Stuart!! Thank you for helping!! It was one of the few mismarked plants I actually knew positively what it was.

I have quite a few just marked "juniper"

1)

2)

3)

4)

Twenty+ years ago I worked in a garden center and was pretty up on my plants, the ones we carried anyway lol. Life seems to have covered up a lot of that knowledge lol.

#4 I'm pretty positive is sea green

#3 and #2 I'm assuming are old gold and blue phitzer (I'm basing this on knowing the owner and his love of older plants)

#1 maybe an Irish

I bought most of these in lots for a buck or two per pot. The price was right no matter what they are when you have ginormous areas like I do to fill!!

Hi Tracy, I'm glad I could help :). #1 looks like a Gold Cone Juniper, it's a nice plant. I'm not sure what type of Junipers #2, #3, and #4 are.

Hey hey, you have a nice place in a nice neck of the woods. One of my brother in laws just moved out of Millwood (a dot on the map by Silex north of Troy), to Troy and my uncle in law stays off K or KK up there.

Not an exotic conifer haven but a decent place, check out Forest Keeling nursery off hwy 79 in...Elsberry or Louisianna or whatever up there. I've taken my Lincoln MarkVIII there a few times and they've been nice enough to sell me a tree or two I could fit in it with a kid and car seat for reasonable money.

I am in St Louis county on an acre up the hill from the confluence of North America's largest rivers. Crepe myrtles are perennials for me where folks in the denser suburbs get them to come back most years. Your area does seem one step cooler at night. No big Southern magnolias that I can think of where folks in suburban Florissant or South St Louis in particular seem to get some two story tall ones.

Toronado, I'm sitting here laughing while reading. I lived on KK as a little kid, moved to Silex in my teen years then back to Troy lol. Worked down the road from Forest Keeling (in Elsberry) in my youth as well at a nursery that was called Hillside Gardens I know all these areas well!!! Your family that lived in Millwood most likely knows someone in my family lol. Small world!!

I've been creating a microclimate with the lay of my land through creating an actual yard and with the insane amount of hardscapes. Funny you mention magnolia, the ultimate goal is to have a couple Bracken's Brown Beauty's in the yard. My retaining wall is 8' high then there's a 4' berm on top where I'm putting in a white spruce screen, my property already lies a little lower than everything around it so I'm hoping this creates the protection they'll need!! I know where there's one growing about 30 miles northeast of me so fairly sure I can accomplish this if I really baby them a few years and get them established.

The beds I've created this far are mostly sentimental plants. Plants I've gathered from friends and family and where I worked way back when to create living histories. I can visualize the plants that will go in front of the retaining wall in beds around a large fire pit area. I can visualize the beds around the pool patio area. This island bed I just can't figure out lol. I love conifers so started searching this section pretty heavily and why I asked here.

Toronado... I spoke with the buyer at Hillerman Nursery in Washington, Mo, this morning. They get two shipments a year from Iseli, she will price and order any amount, even just one, of any item they have in stock to include in those shipments!!!! Super nice lady and a huge conifer fan, she said they have a few oddities on their lot because she tries to order a few different items each time. She was happy to talk to someone interested in conifers!!!

Found these today at Stark Bro's in Louisiana, Missouri. It's a start!!!

Weeping White Spruce

Whipcord Western Red Cedar

Gold Drift Spruce

Bruns Weeping Serbian Spruce

Standard Blue Star Juniper

Hi Tracy, that's a beautiful selection of plants! That's definitely a great start :)

Nice haul!

We just finished up the lighting so thought I'd show you how it turned out!! Thanks for all the tips and advice!! It's very dramatic at night with color changing lights!!

The lighting is gorgeous!

Nice. I'm glad you filled the bed with some great weepers. The lights make it look like a meeting of extraterrestrial beings. Love it. =)