sdlg. omorika and Elegantissima Picea abies

Abies x arnoldiana

engelmann Blue Angel, Elegantissima, & a couple Canaan firs

(2) Canaan firs left and Pinus jeffreyi right

Jeffreyi pine and densiflora Golden Ghost

sdlg. omorika and parviflora Cleary

parviflora Cleary

Taxodium Mickelson/Shawnee Brave

Acrocona front

Wow, Dax. Simply beautiful!

Beautiful tree's! Thanks for sharing. I wish I had as much space as you.

Wow, Dax. Things are coming along nicely. Happy that you stopped by.

You've come a long way. Thanks for the updates, they are always a welcome sight.

tj

Hi, Dax. Thank you for the update. You took a blank canvas and the picture is starting to come into focus. The plants look great!

BTW, how long does it take you to mow?

Thanks, Bob.

Anywhere from 3:45 minutes to 4 hours most of the time. The cleaner I keep the landscape (weed free around the trees) the quicker. I use a John Deere 52" zero turn.

Dax

Very nice specimens, you have give them plenty of room to grow as well. “In 100 years...”. How tall was the Picea glauca pendula when you planted it 10 years ago?

You might consider having the grass run up closer to the more established ones now instead of having them still sitting in big bare dirt circles.

Wow, nice! Looking like a professional arboretum... So many great plants, but the Picea glauca 'Pendula' is the star. Also impressed with how much your 'Blue Angel' has grown. I picked one of those up from Coenosium in Bob's last season before retiring, but mine has struggled... starting to look a little better, but not great. That Kakutus mugo is pretty neat too, never heard of that one. Still doing any conifer grafting these days?

-Shawn

Hi Pete, 5' in 2007 my tag states. It's about 14' I would guess now.

Hi Ron, I just do what I do.

Dax

No... I don't graft them anymore, Shawn. I did 700-800 deciduous this spring (pears, persimmons, pecans, hicans, hickories, plum and/or hybrids, peach, Persian walnuts, heartnuts, a few black walnuts.) And I field grafted, too. I don't care for bench grafting anymore. I'd rather field graft. The success with field grafting is much more significant for say: nut trees and everything else. Pears though you could do them "blind" and they knit.

I grafted these 375 pears and probably had 370 of them take.

These are persimmons. I planted seed two years ago in this raised bed and grafted on them this spring.

Dax

How old is your Picea Glauca Pendula? Your Elegantissima is also stellar. Is your Elegentissima yellow all year round or only in the spring?

very nice Dax thanks for droping in

ron

Stuart, it must have been 2004 or 2005. I bought it at 3' tall, locally.

The Elegantissima is the same color all year. I'll get a close-up later today.

Dax

Lookin spectacular Dax. Loving your Abies balsamea selection, 'Midnight Steel'.

The pecans you sent me are recovering from the yearly deer feasts but otherwise doing well. I have put taller fence around them so that they can finally grow without interruption. Thanks!

Awesome, Garen! I'm digging yer photo very much.

Dax

Here you go Stuart. This will give you a real color shot of Elegantissima.

And a few more of Elegantissima:

koraiensis Silveray

Pinus heldreichii

This is a second engelmann Blue Angel

parviflora Gimborn's Ideal

Acer triflorum in the forefront

These Hetz Wintergreen were 4-6" cuttings with a 4-6" root system when pl. in 2008 and the columnar conifer is Juniperus virginiana Taylor. All are 18' tallish.

From my neighbor's side

Dax

Thanks for sharing Dax! My neck just get hurt. :-).

Wish I had more space like yours...argggg!

J.N

Yes, that space is awesome :D. What's about 'Dax's Stunner", dear Dax? Has it thrived?

Andreas

Hi Andreas,

I grafted it maybe eight times and got 7 of 8 to take and grow for a few months but I've learned that conifer grafts here in the Mid-west of USA don't like being in pots because of our high heat and humidity. I ended up losing them all. Even the ones I put in the ground the second time around of grafting.

I still have the ortet witches' broom. I've sent wood to a few folks over the years and it's established in their gardens, but how many plants of it are established I do not know for certain.

I know I should have one in my own garden but I don't lose sleep over it ;-)

Dax

Dax , I forgot ... was at richs foxwillow weekend before last ...mentioned gardenweb

Susan asked about you .. if you still show up

and here you are...thanks

ron

I talked to them on the phone somewhat recently. Rich was nice enough to call. I told them about my new adventures with nut trees and pawpaws and persimmons and other edibles.

I'm sure Rich told Susan all about it. They were gracious to me over the years. The Pinus koraiensis Avocadra they gave to me still grows in what was my previous area of 1-acre for a conifer collection.

This Spring I donated over 40 conifers to 'The Stephens Lake Park Arboretum' in Columbia, MO.

Here's a nice write-up they posted:

And a few photos of the removal that began about 8 in the morning an finished just before 1 pm. 23 were dug with the spade and I dug 20-some myself that were easy to do or fairly easy.

omorika Gotelli Weeping

Gotelli Weeping

Abies fraseri x koreana

Quite the machine

rigida Winter Time

banksiana Compacta

banksiana Compacta

Metasequoia Silhouette

parviflora Blue Lou

cembra Stricta

cembra Stricta

Abies fraseri x koreana

mugo Alpenhexe (sorry Garen!) :-)

omorika Peve Tijn

omorika Peve Tijn

sylvestris Barrie Bergman

parviflora Goldylocks (scion from Dan ?maybe? 15-years ago at about 4")

And a few I hand dug:

glauca var. albertiana Blue Wonder

glauca Terry's Variegated

glauca var. albertiana Spring Surprise

Dax

I assume you were making room for nuts, and other edible trees?

Holy wow! What haul. I applaud your generosity Dax. Though now I feel a bit like a selfish bastard, indulging myself with plants. =)

That's correct, Matt.

Your donation was awesome, Dax. So even though you don’t have them, you can go visit them. I like it!

Very nice, indeed. You have always been generous, Dax.

Keep those updates comin'.

tj

It was a great deal for the Park's Dept. as well as for me. A local company dug the trees @ 50$ each (cheap) opening up land for me and giving quite a haul to their brand new and beautiful arboretum I toured last Fall.

Columbia MO. is a big college town and I'm certain there will be young folks and old who's life will be changed. Touring a conifer arboretum is what got me started. And not only is this arboretum a city park with people roller blading and walking and picnicking and skateboarding... there's a display label for all the plants. It's quite ingenious what they came up with.

Dax

Forget the conifers someone else is stealing the show!

Trying to get everyone the best bang for their buck.

Thanks, Will.

Dax

Dax, do you water your trees in the early years or are they on their own?

I was outside watering. I still use the same set-up which is a 10-gallon tank in a garden cart pulled behind my mower.

I mulched/mulch yearly plantings also. Then I stop mulching from there forward.

I also mark anything that needs water any given year with flagging tape.

Dax

Do you have a pic of this contraption?

I've been filling my wheelbarrow to get almost 40 gallons. I only have 10 or so trees that I can't reach with my hose. It took me a year to use this simple way of transporting a large amount of water lol

look forward to next year's update. They seem to be going quicker these days

Beautiful.How to you keep the circles under the trees so clear? I am having issues with this tall pasture grass growing up through mine.

Hi 123, I simply use generic roundup that I buy for 35 bucks usually for 2.5 gallons and I eyeball the circles I spray. I have to do it four times a summer I would guess. Usually that one bottle gets me thru.

In the past I used a 2-gallon pump sprayer which took a lot of time walking back and forth to refill with chemical. Now I have a 4-gallon backpack sprayer. It's great. Four gallons is pretty damn heavy though. I like three in the tank.

Here you go Will:

That garden cart came free with my Dad's mower. It's light duty but perfect for anything I do really. I've hauled big loads of logs for example. I put that 2 x 4 across the plastic cart with a couple screws on each side and that's it. It keeps the water tank from going forward or backward of course. Then I put the trays on the sides of the water tank to keep it from going side to side. Of course there's a rocker switch to turn the pump on the tank on and off and there's a wand that comes with the sprayer/tank to water with. Well I can't find mine so I put my finger on the end just like you would with a hose if you didn't have a sprayer attached. The tank comes with that long tubing/hose that must be 12'-15' long so I can easily do multiple trees parked in one spot. That's yer basic set-up right there.

You should take note that the sprayer wand must be removed each winter and brought indoors. If you don't do that it fails every spring and you're stuck with purchasing another wand for 25$. And after 2-3 years the pump will go. Well, don't buy a replacement from the company that you bought the tank from. Go to eBay and get an off brand. You'll save a ton of money.

Dax

Thank you for the info.

Nice! Hear ya on those wands. I went through two pumps and finally realized the gaskets where failing. They go in the basement for the winter now!

JD with a v-twin engine should do ya good for awhile

Say, I'm kind of remembering going to the hardware store to buy the tubing on that tank. Maybe/maybe not. But certainly what I have is very long and works great.

Mowers' awesome. I think I've owned it 6-years now. I keep it very clean like a brand new car. Always have.

Dax

Thought I'd bump this -- Dax has a wonderful conifer collection and a big lot for 'em. Some nice Caanan firs which hopefully mine will imitate, if I can keep them protected.

Even has a pitch pine selection!

I don't think you can have too many conifers. ;-)

I have always wondered what had become of Dax and hesitant to ask for no longer seeing him post here, do miss his immense contribution to the forum!

Dax and many others went to Farcecrook…er, Facebook, but he used to check in here from time to time. I tried to send him an email to an old address I had, but it failed.

tj

I asked about him on Planet Conifer. Many know him but no one had any contact.

This post was typical of Dax , engaging with others.

ron,,,,thanks beng

Thanks for the update on Dax, shame he didn't stick around here, the Houzz format is MUCH easier to follow and contribute to a fun ongoing thread or breathe life into one that's gone dormant.

I checked out Planet Conifer and found it cumbersome and frustrating. And TJ, I hear you. On the other hand, the traffic is heavy over there. I wish it was a little busier on GW (especially conifers!), but I'm thankful for all of you that contribute. It is what we make it.