Evergreens

I’m telling ya, you’ll regret it if you don’t plant Serbian spruce.

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Use Norway spruce as a buffer mainly and then include in front of a few individual specimens of Norway and then mix in in front of that same buffer: Canaan fir, Korean fir, white pine, Red pine, Serbian spruce and if you really desire to, white spruce. White spruce doesn’t have much beauty. It’s very plain. Serbian has awesome branching and the needle undersides are what are seen which have a blue band across silver. And add your larch strategically for that bright yellow fall color and for its soft appearance when non-dormant.

Dax

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cold stream farm in M.I are pretty inexpensive. i have hemlock and hybrid tamarack ( larch). both are nice trees. hemlock is slow growing though but larch grows quick. larch needles turn a deep yellow and fall off mid nov. giving a second season of color. all that you mentioned grow wild here. a month ago i could have dug you some saplings from local areas around here. depending what state you’re in, hemlock is restricted to control the spread of the invasive wooly ageilid. if you can’t find any, pm me next spring ill dig you some. so far no infestations up here. i know where theres a old gravel pit under some 80ft. hemlocks that is covered w/ 6-12in seedlings. just have to pull them gently from the gravel and repot or transplant. thats how i got mine. :wink:

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Thanks, might put the hemlocks near the wetter spots on my property. They seem to do well near streams etc

We are building our home a few hundred yards back from a main road up on a hill. I want to surround that area with a lot of evergreens, for the windbreak/privacy factor, and because they look great, especially after a fresh snow.

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yes they do and they like a little shade. they grow balsam fir here for x mas trees. they have a bright shiny green needle w/ a light underside. they to like moisture and some shade. norway source, while not the prettiest grows like a weed here. logging companies plant it for timber because it produces a cuttable log quicker than the native black and white spruce. larch looks awesome planted w/ spuces in the background. they form huge stands here in areas so wet that even the spruces and firs can’t grow in. planted mine in a low spot in the yard where its always wet and it grows great there. the hybrid has bigger needles than our local ones so they really stand out when they color up.

Have you had any experience with Chinese Hemlock (Tsuga chinensis). My understanding is that it is resistant to woolly adelgid. It is one of the seeds that I’ll be growing out this year.

cold stream farm in M.I sells even single trees.

wanted to mention scotch pine also. has lovely blue/ green needles and the top branches turn a reddish color as it gets older. this one can grow in drier gravelly soil. they have become naturalized here on higher ground on the edge of roads.

If you grow white pine you cannot grow currants. Don’t love the fragrance of Balsam? My favorite!

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I’ve been happy with what I’ve ordered from Musser Forests, Inc.

Tamarack grows here quite well and tolerates wet feet, it’s growing in boggy areas of our property, as well as high and dry locals. We’re seeing a lot of Boll Weevil and White Pine Blister Rust on our white pines. They loose their central leader from the weevil and end up with a crooked central leader when a lateral branch takes over as central leader. The rust kills the smaller trees and really beats up the large old trees. Our neighbor just had all his white pine logged as it was declining and the logger told him it was infested with red rot (too bad, they were beautiful and large old trees). We just had a stand of red pine logged off that was planted too densely over 70 years ago. They never got any size, just grew up and then began snapping off. They weren’t big enough for poles so they didn’t yield much cash. Scotch Pine was widely planted around here and has since begun to naturalize itself all over the place. It’s a worthless tree, doesn’t stand up to our snowfall and has no lumber value. It’s even hard to get them to take it for chips at $6/ton. Much of what we’re removing from the future orchard site is Scotch Pine that seeded there naturally. It’s a tree I’ve grown to despise. Balsam grows here quite extensively, but it’s a tree that gets choked out as the hardwoods begin to take over. I like the balsams, but they’re slowly receding on our property as we encourage hardwood growth.

Musser has the Canaan and several other firs available. Otherwise, I’d defer to Dax as he’s the conifer expert.

@RobThomas
I’ve not been able to grow any hemlocks except Tsuga canadensis and Tsuga caroliniana here in IL’s hot and humid summers. Tsuga chinensis or Tsuga mertensiana die during summer here. They are cool seasonal mountainous elevation conifers in their natural habitat. So just because the winter zone hardiness may be okay, you have to take all into account. Doesn’t matter what the tree if coniferous or deciduous or broadleaf evergreen… you always have to relate their natural climatic conditions to that of your own to determine your success. I learned the hard way 15-20 years ago not knowing these things. And then you have to look at exactly where seed provenance is from because that may bump up cold hardiness or lessen it. So some things for you and everyone to think about in selecting trees and all hardwoods.

@moose71 Cold Stream Farm is excellent. I was thinking Digging Dog Nursery earlier and knew there was another nursery but couldn’t remember Cold Stream Farm.

For me Scot’s Pine can also get needle blight (diplodia blight) but it takes longer for the pathogen to take effect in my climate. It’s humidity that causes diplodia.

@mrsg47 glad you mentioned that. And honestly for me… white pine isn’t anything special enough to plant. I would go with Pinus parviflora (which too I’m sure isn’t compatible with currants…) but is far more beautiful, however, much slower-growing… much-much. Pinus koraiensis (Korean pine) is a tie with Japanese white pine (parviflora) as to beauty but it grows 9" a year when established… same with parviflora.

The problem with any pines is when they touch each other or other conifers when used in screening the lower branches lose their needles. Therefore, they make horrible screens. As a single specimen a white pine (Pinus strobus) can be beautiful, you bet.

@AndySmith
I’m thinking you and @Holleg44 are practically neighbors up in zone 4 New York so you guys will be able to get away with growing Scot’s pine. Pine blister rust may be more of a locational problem meaning if it’s established at a location than you’re stuck with it while the guy further up the road may not have it at all. Don’t quote me on that!

@mrsg47 ummm the smell of fir needles crushed in my hands :blush:

Dax

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never seen WPBR up here as we have few white pines. scotch pines grow best all by themselves in a gravely soil. no issues w/ diseases. not worth anything but is a attractive tree.

thought the chinese hemlock were more heat tolerant? I’m in z3b and canadian hemlock grow well here.

Yeah, zone 6 at best, probably really 7, since I’ve seen them get winter burn here.

Monkey puzzle is probably zone 7 hardy, but also dislikes heat and humidity. Best to grow in warmer areas out West.