oh geez dave..

thats like asking me which of the 2 children is my favorite ....

i will have to mull this over.. perhaps take a walk in the fog.. and make a decision on TODAY's favorite ... which most likely rules out all the deciduous plants ... since they are not really doing much right now

ken

That's a really pretty example of a Skylands you've got there Dave.

mark

the consensus of one is in...

it has to be one of the plants that this collector actually has 2 of ...

my beloved Picea pungens 'Hoopsi'

concolor Candicans was a close second.. with its grapefruit aroma... and the same blue color... but it lacks the perfection of form of Hoopsi ... though its blue comes ALMOST gave it the win .... did i ever post those pix?????

ken

It's crazy as I'm thinking about this but I realized I have no Picea punens 'Hoopsii' (two i's Ken)--no Abies concolor 'Candicans' nor a Picea orientalis 'Skylands'...

Maybe I will say that Pinus strobus 'Keokuk Koner' is mine. New broom from 2008 by kbguess, Keith:
Adorned with tiny purple cones that eventually turn green but are purple most of the time (except winter). The cones grow like that of Picea abies 'Acrocona' or 'Pusch'. The form at the ends of branch tips. It's quite unusual of a shrub...

Pinus strobus ('Keokuk Koner')

Pinus strobus ('Keokuk Koner')

Pinus strobus ('Keokuk Koner') Mother Broom:

Pinus strobus ('Keokuk Koner') scion showing cones at tip ends:

Dax

Tough one.....give a couple days.

Mine is probably my Picea abies 'Gold Drift'. I wish I had a good picture of it. It got me into the conifer world, and had kept me in.
Not to get off topic, but do you have a picture of Pinus strobus 'Hayden'? I am just curious what it looks like because Hayden is my name.

Dax does.

Here you go guys:

Pinus strobus ('Hayden') Witches' Broom

Pinus strobus ('Hayden') Witches' Broom

Pinus strobus ('Hayden') 2009 Graft

More of Kev's finds this year:

Pinus strobus ('Greenfield')

Pinus strobus ('J.D.L.')

Pinus strobus ('Left Side 31')

Sorry, no photos of the Witches' Broom of these others...

Dax

Thank you so much!

Yes sir!

quite new to this and really only started planting this year (except for some arbs and a pair of fat alberts). i think the jury is still out for me. Pinus sylvestris 'Gold Coin' has the best color right now but i'm excited about Pinus contorta 'Chief Joseph' which is getting golder day by day. My Picea orientalis 'Skylands' is always a beaut but i'm eager to see the flush on my Pinus contorta 'Taylor's Sunburst' and can't wait to see how Pinus strobus 'Niagra Falls' shapes up. Sciadopitys verticillata 'Wintergreen' always looks cool to me. Pinus heldreichii 'Mint Truffle' seems to be tough as nails so i gotta like it from a maintanence standpoint, plus the form and rich green color are great too.

yep, that's my "collection" if you can call it that. all tied for 1st for now, we'll see how the winter treats them and i eagerly await spring. heck, almost dec. 1 already!

If I had to choose just one, which is very difficult, it has to be Metasequoia glyptostrobus 'Gold Rush' (or 'Ogon'?) My first "gotta have it" conifer, that led to the obsession. Like you Dave, I don't have anything considered rare, but lots of favorites. Second choice would be Cedrus deodara 'Karl Fuchs'.

Dax, that 'Keokuk Koner' is one kool plant!

Kim

oooooweeee Dangerous photo Kim!

Dax

midwest_dave,

Yo, would you send me an email:
conifercollector@hotmail.com

Thanks man,

Dax

After a couple of days pondering this question. I finally came up with two of may fav's.
They are....drum roll please....
Tsuga sieboldii 'Honeywell Estate' which I don't have but to me its a very cool mini hemlock w/smallest needles that are rounded and somewhat blunt. With the deepest green I have ever seen.
The next one would be Abies koreana 'Ice Breaker' Incredible needles that radiate around the stem showing there beautiful white undersides. Very unique.

Skylands would be my favorite but I think most of my neighbors would vote for the Hoopsii. I do have a 12'+ Karl Fuchs that would be very hard to part with. The older it get the better it looks.

David

David,

Any chance you could post a picture of your 'Karl Fuchs'? How old is it? I haven't measured growth on ours, but I'm guessing it's put on at least 12-18" each of the last 2 years. It's the most beautiful blue, but a bit lankey. I'm expecting it to fill out as it gets larger, and would love to see a picture of a more mature specimen.

Thanks,

Kim

Fokienia hodginsii

Nageia nagi

Podocarpus grayae

Agathis robusta

Araucaria hunsteinii

Wollemia nobilis

Taxodium distichum 'Cascade Falls'

Cupressus cashmeriana (pseudohimalaica)

{{gwi:680739}}

Juniperus flaccida

Eric
Orlando,FL

Eric, I absolutely love the Cupressus cashmeriana (pseudohimalaica) when it matures. Looks almost like spanish moss. I would pay almost anything to be able to grow it here in the colder zone 7.

mark

I hope mine looks like that in 10 years! It's Taxodium mucronatum aka Mexican bald or Mucronatum cypress. The bald part is misleading for sure. Substantially more evergreen than ordinary American bald cypress. This picture was taken last week. Pretty much all bald cypress around it have turned color. This one is still 100% green and probably will remain so for another month. Maybe 6 more weeks.

Another one is Taxodium distichum x mucronatum hybrid 'Nanjing beauty' is a nice one. It's 6 feet tall in my front yard being decorated as christmas tree by my wife at the moment...

What it will look like in 5 years... This picture was taken during December of 2007 and you can see that it's still green.

{{gwi:484017}}

When it comes to growing in limestone rubbles on small lot in Texas, there simply isn't very many choices for growing conifers. Shade tree rules in Texas...

I donÂt mean to be a smarty pants hereÂI know this topic is about cultivars or other especially rare conifers. But, donÂt ignore the regular full sized trees of more common species. I have about 50 or so "special conifers," but my favorite trees, by far, are fairly large specimens of regular species.

Probably my favorites are several of my Norway spruce that have wonderfully lush foliage and a beautiful weeping habit in the branchlets. These trees are absolute stunners. I will be posting pictures of some things this winter, but these trees are hard to capture in photos. They are 80 to 85 feet tall and not growing in more open spaces.

Anyway, I have seen grown up NS cultivars of all kinds, and with the possible exception of a P. abies Âelegantissima, I have seen nothing to rival the best of the regular species NS.

Ditto for eastern white pine (P. strobus). These can be beautiful beyond what any description or photo can show. And likewise, eastern Hemlock.

OK, enough of that. Most of my rare or otherwise "unusual conifers" are still too small to evaluate. So far my P. orientalis Âatrovirens, which is about 9 feet tall, is a beautiful specimen. My P. orientalis Ânutans is shaping up to be special, but is now just under 5 feet. I have a number of fir trees that are growing up nicelyÂNordmann fir among them.

For me to give a really good answer to this question, I will need about 10 more years.

--Spruce