It's a beautiful plant when young. I should know because I recently took a look at two I gave away. Your info is correct. I forget this early in the morning if it is a 10 x 1 or a 10 x 2 but it's one of those. I've been told that 20 years is when it starts to become 'ratty' - often "loose" in appearance and I suppose a lot of that is because people can no longer tie those branches up. So enjoy it for twenty years! What the heck!!!

Dax

Thanks, Dax. I am running out of favorable planting space rather quickly and need to limit my new acquisition to either strictly columnar or prostrate. Some of my recently purchased columnar plants are:

Abies concolor 'Compacta'
Abies procera 'Blue Spiral'
Caldocedrus decurrens 'Pioneer Sentry'
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Columnaris Glauca'
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Spek'
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Wissel's Saguaro'
Chamaecyparis nootkatensis 'Jubilee'
Pinus koraiensis 'Silveray'
Pinus nigra 'Komet'
Pinus resinosa 'Fastigiata'
Pinus strobus 'Stowe Pillar'
Taxus baccata 'Standishi'

You should try Pinus nigra 'Frank' and Pinus nigra 'Richard' if you haven't yet. Two nice columnar cultivars.

That 'Spek' outta be something. Wish they grew here. I eyeballed that plant about three years ago.

'Silveray' is one that I've seen as being somewhat narrow and becoming wide. You may need to correct it in it's early years if necessary choosing the most fastigiate branches while eliminating the others.

I also see you have 2 of my favorite Pines. resinosa 'Fastigiata', and strobus 'Stowe Pillar'. Good footwork there.

Cheers,

Dax

Dax - Yep, I've seen the pictures of your P. resinosa 'Fastigiata', and then I had to buy one. ;o))

Winstoneurope - Do you know if P. nigra 'Frank' and 'Richard' are in cultivation in the US?

'Frank' absolutely is. I may even have a photo from The US National Arb.

Dax

I knew I saw it somewhere. Coenosium Gardens sold it this year - catalog # 17 January 2006.

Here's Mr. Fincham's description:

"A fastigiate form with short, dark green needles that grows considerably slower than the species. The white winter buds are bright against the dark foliage. Our oldest plants are twenty years old and about 10' tall but only 3' wide. We attempted to change the name of this plant to 'Richard' but since many are already in collections in this country as 'Frank', we decided to avoid confusion by maintaining this name. When we offer the slowest form, we will have to come up with a new name for it.

1 year graft - 18.00"

Dax

You can always email Bob and see if any are still at his nursery. www.coenosium.com That's how I got my Picea engelmannii 'Bush's Lace' aka 'Lace'.

Err... so 'Richard' is 'Frank' (?)... Now that will be a surprise to a few collectors I know... ;)

That's a common problem I'm sure you're aware of. I'm sure Mr. Fincham has a reason for why name changing was necessary such as more than one clone sold as 'Frank' ("wherever" - Europe, US, etc)....

Same old story. Which name came first, or, someone else decided to name a nigra cultivar, "Frank", when one already existed. That's how common sense leads me to this conclusion. Now that I think, I'm positive the latter of the two explain better "why".

He was a president of 'The Conifer Society' after all and has partially devoted his life to conifers:)

Good luck getting the "right" plant, obviously, as some will understand!!!

Dax

I was talking a few weeks ago with a collector and nurseryman from Holland (the one who's garden photos were on the forum some time ago - btw, he is viewed as an authority when it comes to conifers by many nurserymen in Europe) and we were talking about the best columnar forms - he mentioned nigra 'Frank' and nigra 'Richard'. It left me thinking a bit, because earlier this year I bought myself quite a few 'Richards' and began to wonder if I made the right choice ;) (I know I was being selfish ;P ). The guy said the two cultivars were very similar in his opinion, so I now assume it is the same thing. Nonetheless it is being sold in Europe under both names at the moment and it seems nobody (or nearly nobody) has realised the mistake yet.

Thanks,
Winston