I love conifers, always have, not only because of their permanency in the landscape, their diversity of colours and shapes but also, when chosen carefully, their hardiness.
Unfortunately many gardeners aren't familiar with the charms of the conifer family. They are a complex group of plants with difficult nomenclature and few common names. And it's true that they're often misused in the garden. Monotonous planting, and poorly placed trees means conifers attract undeserved criticism. Many conifers are maligned because they grow bigger than the space allocated to them, which is hardly fair on the tree. All too often you see Norfolk Island Pines, Radiata Pines, and Himalayan or Deodar Cedar planted in small front gardens.
But it doesn't have to be this way. There are many small conifers that look beautiful and are perfect features or backgrounds for small gardens. They all make excellent 'exclamations' in the garden, are tall enough to give height and scale and will give you a focus around which the rest of the garden can revolve (picture 1). Their colours are permanent, giving you the chance to create different seasonal displays with bulbs, annuals, perennials and shrubs around them.
Get to know this lot, and you'll love them too.
A handful of favourites
Cupressus glabra 'Blue Ice'
A truly dramatic, upright cone of stunning steel-blue colour, growing 5m tall x 1.5m wide, able to withstand temperatures -10 to 40+, this tree is a favourite 'vertical statement' in our own garden. It is also drought hardy and borer resistant. Medium to quick growing. Suitable for a tub for several years .
Cupressus glabra 'Limelight'
A recent worldwide release from Coachwood Nursery on the New South Wales Central Coast, this tree has a bright lime-yellow leaf colour with a broad conical shape to 7m and 1-2m wide. It's an excellent specimen and even better hedge, is borer resistant and can be trimmed. A fast to rapid grower, it is often recommended when the view next door becomes high rise apartments! Several related good new forms are currently being trialed.
Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd'
A popular slender cone shape, 4-5m tall and 1m wide. This tree has emerald green, curled, parsley-like foliage, which smells like apples when it's crushed. It's a slow to medium grower and makes a great backdrop in the garden, especially when used as a hedge. We use this beauty as a living fence/hedge between us and the neighbours. Suitable for a tub for several years.
Thuja orientalis 'Beverleyensis'
A classic with a narrow column shape to 5m tall and 1.5m wide. Foliage colour is mid-green inside with bright golden yellow tips. New spring growth is even more striking. Traditional 'book-leaf' arrangement of leaves. Medium to quick grower. A shorter form is T. orientalis 'Shirl's Supreme', which gets 2.5m high and 1m wide, with the same great colour of the parent. Suitable for a tub for many years.
Juniperus scopulorum 'Skyrocket'
A spectacular sentinel in the garden to 6-8m tall and 30-50cm wide. A tightly compact, extremely slender column with bluey-green leaves. Can be slightly unstable in exposed, windy spots but excellent in the right protected garden. Medium to quick growing, good in tubs for several years.
Juniperus chinensis 'Keteleeri'
I first saw this tree in the 1970s but it wasn't until 1980, while travelling on the freeway into Tokyo, that I saw how beautiful this unusual tree could be. When used in groups its unique upward branching and twisty shape makes for a dramatic landscape. It grows to 6-8m tall and 2-3m wide into an irregular cone-shaped tree. Foliage is soft and lustrous dark green. My neighbours have three trees and they have been a joy to watch mature for the last 20 years. A superb yet unusual choice for the garden. Slow to medium growing not suitable for tubs.
Juniperus 'Spartan'
We have used this plant in our garden in two ways, as a striking dark-green specimen in a garden bed and as a hedge around Linda's Secret Garden created for Better Homes & Gardens TV Show some years ago. It performs beautifully in both places. It forms a bushy conical or fastigiate tree to 4m tall and 1.5m wide. In 20 years it will broaden out to 2-3m. Its dark foliage colour makes it the perfect foil for silver foliage plants and brightly coloured bulbs. It is showing no signs of being susceptible to insects or borers and is drought hardy. A medium to fast grower, and suitable for a tub for several years.
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