I am now 5 years into conifers and one thing Ive noticed is that there is a bit more satisfaction, the smaller you start growing the tree. In addition, I have witnessed more than once the saying “start smaller and it will eventually outgrow the larger tree”. This seems to be more true with faster growing conifers like white pines. In Columbus, where I live, one nursery (Oakland Nursery, great place, especially the original location on Oakland Park) the smallest conifers were $5 ( this year $6, no biggie, always wondered how they made much money on $5 conifers anyways). The cool thing is, they get a variety of conifers and also change them up from year to year. In the past (starting 5 years ago) Ive planted $5 Norway Spruce, Serbian Spruce, Eastern White Pine, Black Hills Spruce, P. Pungens, Dwarf Alberta Soruce (one of my biggest goals in all of coniferland is to get one large “perfect” specimen out of many and it appears Im down to one or two candidates out of probably 15, maybe more lol), Emerald Green Arborvitaes, Little Giant Arborvitaes, Various Juniper groundcovers and Yews, and 3 or so varieties of yellow arborvitae “shrubs” (love em just dont keep track of their names as well) and probably a few Im missing. The P. Abies Concolor were $8. Then this year surprise, surprise 3 varieties of P. Pungens - Royal Knight, Blue Totem, and Bakeri. I already have some Bakeri, so I only bought Royal Knight and Blue totem. Ive decided to grow them in pots and plant them in the fall. In addition, my friend won a Frasier Fir “plug” (at a bar) on Earthday and gave it to me so I am really looking forward to seeing this grow. Now I need to make sunny space in a wooded area for them. The blue totem are on the left and right, royal knight is in middle and in the second pic. I think I bought 4 of each. Please share recent pics of conifers you started small and let us know when you planted them. Also pics of your P. Pungens Royal Knight or Blue Totem would be nice to see. Thanks!

The frazier fir plug is shown with a couple more black hills spruce Im adding (2 more not shown, really like Black Hills Spruce)

Black Hills Spruce, just flushed out in Central Ohio.

And since “the blues” just flushed out and was looking sexy.

Cheers to a very coniferous season!