Planting Evergreens at the Farm
My Bedford, New York farm continues to transform with the planting of several interesting evergreens.
Recently, I received an assortment of plants from Monrovia, a wholesale plant nursery specializing in shrubs, perennials, annuals, ferns, grasses and conifers with several nursery locations across the country. I decided most of the evergreens would look great in my pinetum, an arboretum of pine trees and other conifers I developed about 13-years ago behind my Equipment Barn and near my weeping willow grove. A few were also planted along the daffodil border. I always try to incorporate unique and appealing plantings into my gardens - all of these will be great additions to these ever-evolving spaces.
Enjoy these photos.
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- As a serious and passionate gardener, I am always looking for ways to add more beauty and texture to all my garden beds. When these plants arrived, I already had many ideas about where to place them.
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- I love evergreens. Evergreens retain their interesting colors through the seasons.
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- We had four of these weeping Alaskan cedars. I chose to plant them in one section of the daffodil border. This tree is often seen at nurseries as Chamaecyparis nootkatensis ‘Pendula’. At botanical gardens, it is also called Cupressus nootkatensis ‘Pendula’ or Callitropsis nootkatensis ‘Pendula’. It is a slender, strong weeping form that grows to as much as 35 feet tall. It has widely spaced ascending to horizontal branches with flattened sprays of blue-green leaves.
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- The texture of the flat-needled boughs is soft and wispy. With a blue-green cast, this tree is also sometimes called the weeping blue Alaskan cedar.
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- My gardeners, Ryan and Brian, positioned the trees first. When choosing a location for plants, always take into consideration the height and spread of the plant when it is mature, and be sure to give it enough room in the garden bed.
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- Brian starts by digging the hole at least twice the size of the plant.
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- I always say, “if you eat, so should your plants.” For these plants, we’re using M-Roots fertilizer with mycorrhizal fungi, which helps transplant survival and increases water and nutrient absorption.
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- Domi drops a generous handful of fertilizer into the hole.
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- He also mixes the granules with the existing soil.
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- Meanwhile, Brian uses his hands to scarify the roots of this specimen. Scarifying stimulates root growth. Essentially one cuts up small portions of the root ball to loosen the roots a bit and create some beneficial injuries. This helps the plant become established more quickly in its new environment.
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- Domi checks to be sure this tree is planted at the right depth. Planting a tree too deep can kill it. Plant it only at its flare – the bulge just above the root system where the roots begin to branch away from the trunk.
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- Once it is placed into the hole, it is turned, so the best side faces the carriage road, and then backfilled. After putting a new tree into the ground, be sure to keep it slightly moist for its first year as it takes root.
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- Other evergreens are transported to my pinetum. My pinetum is filled with evergreens – pine trees, spruce trees, firs, and more. I try to add a few specimens to the area every year.
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- These are false cypress. Native to Japan, false cypress is a medium to large evergreen shrub. In the wild, varieties of false cypress may grow 70 feet tall and 20 to 30 feet wide.
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- Here, Domi is planting a Slender Hinoki False Cypress, Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Gracilis’. This is an open-branched, pyramidal form with gracefully arching branchlets. It has tiny, deep green needles. The reddish new growth has a soft, ferny appearance that turns bronze in winter.
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- This evergreen is called a Thread Branch Cypress, Chamaecyparis pisifera filifera ‘Golden Charm.’ It is a compact conifer with interesting, thread-like needles that weep and drape over the entire shrub. It has an excellent semi-erect, mop-headed form and is slow growing.
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- Here, Domi is planting a dwarf balsam fir, Abies balsamea ‘Nana.’ It is native to moist woods and bottomlands from Labrador to Alberta south to northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, New England, New York and further south in the Appalachians to Virginia. This is an aromatic, symmetrical, narrow, pyramidal to conical evergreen conifer with a spire-like crown. It typically grows 50 to 70 feet tall and to 15 to 25 feet wide when mature.
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- And this is a Horstmann’s Silberlocke Korean fir. It is an attractive evergreen tree that looks like a “flocked” Christmas tree. This rare conifer is known for its soft, curly, two-tone needles that are dark green on one side and frosty white on the other.
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- The pinetum is filled with many different shapes and sizes of evergreens. The bright orange of the tall autumn larch stands out on the right. My flowing weeping willows are on the left.
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- Over time, this area will fill out more and more. I am so pleased with how it looks, and so happy all these trees are thriving here at the farm.
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