can anyone name the tree Picea omorika 'Schneverdingen' is under ... based on the leaves .... fort anne ... 4 years old or so ... you should be able to tell the growth rate pretty easily on that one.. got it from girards .... at the size of my stock.. cant see much difference between it and p. g. snake otto Bismarck .... another pungens... time will tell how it is different than others.. though it seems to hold good blueness .... obt. aurea... i have gone through about 6 of them.. to get this one that scoofs at zone 5 ... many just died outright... you ought to see its sister plant .. pic below ... why one nearly died.. and the other didnt.. no clue ...I THINK it might have to do with where they were grown .... e.g. bringing zone 7 or 8 stock .. that first winter can be a bit of a shock .... and the ones i bought ball and burlap.. larger.. mostly died.. whereas smaller potted stock ...was easier to acclimate .. and plant.. so digging and transplant shock might be an issue ... is there much difference between aurea and cham obt crisppi?? thx guys.. whether it is strobus or flexilus.. i dont care ... both thrive for me .... will await the decision of the experts.. when it cones .... wingles.. has made a 80 turn away from the camera angle ... i think its time to give up on the stake.. and let it get weirder .... which means... it will now go vertical.. now that i have given up trying to keep it vertical ... lol ... geo wash is really going yellow for the first time... the pic doesnt do it justice ... i think i hit all the ???'s ken

... ... ... ... ... oh you guys are hilarious ... ... ... ... anyway .... so i go to a friends in Cleveland ... he he says lets go to saybrook ... OH .... whatever ... so we drive for 1.5 hours ... and stop in to Al's place ... Al has a half dozen greenhouses out back ... all crushed from the record snowfalls that winter ... this was about 8 years ago ... its just a complete mess ... my wallet is stuffed [oh for the good old days] .... and i start picking out stuff .... never bought foo foo conifers before.. just a few of the old standards.. but man.. now i own 5 acres.. 4 of which are full sun.. and i need to cover some earth .... so i am going through the place.. picked out all kinds of stuff.. half with no tags .... but now i know they were very well known ... i keep asking him how much.. he wont answer .... just talking with jon ... so i get jon aside.. i'm like ... i need to know how much ... jon wont answer .. though my wallet is stuffed .... it's not that stuffed .... anyway.. after a glorious few hours .... i finally throw down the gauntlet ... and the guy wont take my money ... i'm like.. carp ... i should have picked more... lol ... so off we drive ... 20 new conifers in my possession ... we go around a few bends ... and down the road.. and jon takes me to girards ... where i actually buy another load ... and so it was done ... last year .. i bumped into Al F. .... at hosta college [yeah.. go figure on that] .... and told him he may as well been a heroin pusher.. and just knocked me down and injected me ... and gave me 5 more bags ..... that his generosity has cost me a LOT of money .... lol ... that man had a grin as wide as the grand canyon ... i think i will make this a new post about enabling.. turns out.. al does grafting for his son.. who married the daughter of the Girards ... go figure on all that ... have a good day ken

i also have a Picea sitchensis version.. though it seems to not welcome my z5 winter ... 'Virgata' ... as sold ... the form it has taken on.. is snake like ... though the name seems to indicate otherwise... since rat tail is not snake like ... only time will tell maybe snow cover this winter.. has protected it from the 4 weeks of single digit temps ... ken

Whaas, no mail order since they always seem to be small. I got 'Taylor's Sunburst' at my local nursery. I actually had ordered a 5 ft Chamaecyparis 'Confucious' (from Iseli), but that then had 3 leaders, and I did not buy it, would have been too much trouble to cut out 2 leaders. At the same day I saw a row of those 'Taylor's Sunburst' with those yellow candles, and decided to buy one. I will let it grow slowly in that spot. I also had ordered and bought (and planted opposite to 'Taylor's Sunburst') a 7 ft Picea omorika 'Pendula Bruns'. Actually my brother lives very close to the Bruns nursery, a nice connection there for me. Bernd