My Growing Pinetum
There is always so much to see around the farm this time of year - everything is looking so lush and green.
As many of you know, I am a serious and very passionate gardener, and over the years have designed many gardens around my home. One area that is constantly evolving is my pinetum - an arboretum of pine trees and other conifers. I developed mine about 13-years ago in a field behind my Equipment Barn and near my weeping willow grove. This collection has grown extremely well, and I continue to plant additional specimens every year.
Here is an update on the trees in my pinetum, enjoy.
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- Behind one side of the Pin Oak Allee is my pinetum. This collection includes pine trees, but I have also included many spruces, firs, and other evergreens. When I first bought my farm, I knew I wanted to plant many, many trees – young trees, to replace the older ones when their lives ended. I love all the different sizes and varieties.
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- I try to add a few specimens to the pinetum every year. Many of the specimens I add are small, such as this pine, but this will grow quickly.
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- Here is another small pine tree. Pines are conifer trees in the genus Pinus. There are at least 175 different varieties and subspecies of pines. Pines range from dwarf size to more than 265-feet tall. Pines have needles that are arranged and attached to the branches in clusters of two, three, or five.
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- This is a fir. Firs, Abies, have needles that are softer, flatter, and cannot be easily rolled between the fingers. And fir needles are usually attached only on the upper side of the branch. They are most closely related to the genus Cedrus or cedar.
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- Picea abies ‘Pendula’ is used as a collective term that describes the myriad weeping and pendulous forms of Norway spruce. The Norway spruce or European spruce is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe. Its uniquely trained form adds so much interest in this pinetum.
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- Picea orientalis is a medium to large tree that commonly grows up to 50 feet tall. It has a dense narrowly conical form, horizontal to upward sweeping branches, and drooping lateral branches.
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- Here is another Picea orientalis. This tree is commonly known as the Oriental spruce or Caucasian spruce. It is a species native to the Caucasus and adjacent northeast Turkey.
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- Picea orientalis ‘Skylands’ has bright yellow needles in full sun or yellow-green needles in part shade. The yellow color typically fades as summer progresses. The interior needles are always green. This is one of my favorite trees in this pinetum because of its name, but the name ‘Skylands’ has no relation to my home in Maine. Actually, this tree was introduced by Skylands Botanical Garden in New Jersey, in 1979.
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- Picea glauca, the white spruce, is a species of spruce native to the northern temperate and boreal forests in North America. Picea glauca was originally native from central Alaska all through the east, across southern-central Canada to the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland. It typically grows up to 80 feet tall with a cone-shaped crown.
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- 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 commonly known as a weeping Alaskan cedar, a slender, strongly 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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- Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Filifera’ is commonly known as Sawara cypress, a large, pyramidal, evergreen conifer that grows in the wild up to 70 feet tall with a trunk diameter to five feet. In cultivation, it more typically matures to a much smaller 30 feet tall. It is native to the Japanese islands of Honshu and Kyushu.
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- This Cunninghamia lanceolata or China fir is an evergreen conifer that is native to forested areas of China and Taiwan where it may reach 150-feet in height.
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- It has sharply-pointed, finely-toothed, blue-green needles with very small oval-shaped fruiting cones that appear in small groups at the shoot ends.
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- I also plant some dwarf specimens. This is a dwarf Alberta spruce with interesting yellowish new growth.
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- Pinus mugo is a multi-stemmed shrub or broad-rounded small tree, which is typically very dense and grows wider than tall. It has bright green needles, scaly brown-gray bark, and small cones, which appear at the tips.
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- Pinus mugo is also known as creeping pine, dwarf mountain pine, mugo pine, scrub mountain pine, or Swiss mountain pine. It is a species of conifer native to high elevation habitats from southwestern to Central Europe. A single shrub produces both male and female cones.
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- Pinus densiflora ‘Jane Kluis’ is a dwarf, globular form with a flat top. It typically grows to four feet tall and six feet wide over the first 10 years.
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- It has rigid green needles that radiate from around the stems. This cultivar was discovered in the mid-1970s by Rudolph Kluis of Marlboro, New Jersey.
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- Pinus thunbergii ‘Thunderhead’ is a compact black pine that only grows to about 15 to 20 feet tall. It can grow upright, but with an irregular spread, and often grows wider than tall. This iconic Japanese tree is known for its beauty as a garden specimen.
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- This is a Cedrus deodara ‘Wells Golden’ – an upright true cedar with rich, golden color, which is beautiful in winter. It can grow up to 30-feet tall.
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- Cedrus evergreen needles are borne primarily in dense clusters that arise from stout, woody pegs.
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- On one side are the tall and gorgeous weeping willows. Over time, this area will fill out more and more. I am so pleased with how it looks, and so happy these trees are thriving here at the farm.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
