You need to say where you are gardening, and what species of conifers you are talking about planting and growing.

"just short of proper transplanting, watering, soil/sun conditions"

That's just the thing, though- you can't assume proper transplanting and watering.

IMO 90% of all conifer failure goes back to the planting day and the watering done the first six months.

So in light of that I wouldn't say that some are more difficult to establish, but instead that some are more tolerant of poor husbandry than others.

Remember that some people live in locations really perfect for conifers while others of us live in less hospitable areas conifer-wise. How do we compare the two types of growing experiences? Is a variety hard to grow simply because I decided I want something not really suitable to my area?

And a lot depends on how well they were grown to begin with. Generally the pricier, more "difficult" varieties would only be offered by specialty vendors and so would be better grown than say 'Emerald Green' Thuja from Home Depot.

But yeah, add your location to your username so we don't have to keep asking, and then mention what varieties you are thinking about using and I'm sure someone will have more specific advice.

7At re: varieties of the conifers I've been looking at. Not much re: species, as I'm all over the map on this one. I'm just picture shopping....on various conifer vendors site, reading descriptors, then google images to see what a potential mature one would look like, and then either end up adding or not to my shopping cart.

Just threw me for a curveball when that one descriptor literally was like (buy and plant at your own risk. It's hard to establish)

East End Long Island NY. I'll have to re-google the e-sites again....heh, conifer shopping newbie. No clue what cultivars I'm looking for by name. Just browsing online site, pics, descriptors, then google images for -a mental pic- and then deciding from there.

I've got one order in already but planning more to the list. When I stumble across the descriptor with the specicies, I'll repost it.

Someone talk me out of this....

I am terrible with pots I have already...

I plant them, put a drip line and call it a day

Don't really feed them as much as I should and tend to sprinkle some time release in the spring as that is on my radar

I'm done with my conifer haul for now, and just plan to order 1 yellow and maybe 2 variegated.

There are lots more I wanna try and I already blew the rainy day funds on 3/5 G's cause I wanted the larger plant.

Dare I buy more conifers, which I don't have space to plant in dirt , pot them even though I'm a terrible potter and *save green* by buying some 2G's this year. So when I have a new site in mind, I will have some decent sized plants as well *hopefully*. I know dirt is best....so I guess I'm asking is it worthwhile to try to baby trees in pots...

Eh, maybe it might help me be a better potter gardener

--------

In retrospect, I do have beds where I can plop new ones in. It just won't fit with the look .....

Isn't it better to keep a plant in a -pot- so when you actually transplant it to it's real location, you have more root mass versus a plant that has dug up to be transplanted ?