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7 Ways to Use Conifers in the Garden

Add conifers to your garden



Conifers – plants with seed-bearing cones – are versatile and attractive additions to the landscape. Many popular selections are hardy to USDA zone 4, providing evergreen color and structure after seasonal flowers fade and deciduous plants lose their leaves.


Most conifers require minimal maintenance. Occasional plant shaping and removal of dead or storm-damaged branches should be done with hand pruners or a bypass lopper. Conifers can have sharp needles, so when you're working with this type of plant, wear leather gloves with mittens to protect your forearms. Sticky sap gets on tools and your skin when cutting conifers. Use alcohol, baby wipes, or special hand sanitizer to remove it easily.


Meet the conifer collector


Harrison Tuttle began collecting conifers in 2005 when he moved to his half-acre home in Raleigh, North Carolina. Today he has more than 500 conifers (from 16 species) including cedars, cypresses, firs, junipers. , larches, hemlock, pines, redwoods, spruces and yews


1. Designing with conifers



You may not be ready to bring in conifers, but you'd be surprised how just a few scattered throughout your garden can add year-round appeal. Take a personal tour of Harrison's Conifer Garden in North Carolina and discover 7 great ways to use conifers in any garden.


2. Create privacy with cones


Evergreen trees and shrubs make great outdoor privacy screens year-round. Use them to block out the sights and sounds of the busy street. Plantings in this front yard include Japanese maple (Acer japonicum), golden black spruce (Picea mariana 'Golden'), Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora 'Golden Coast') and Norway spruce (Picea apis 'Bruhonisiana').


3. Visual excitement with green color



For a dynamic look, switch to contrasting shapes and colors. Streetside plantings include weeping white spruce (Picea glauca 'Pendula'), tiger tail spruce (Picea polita), Japanese maple (Acer palmatum 'Crimson Princess'), weeping nootka cypress (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis 'Glauca Pendula') and silver. Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis 'Silver Ray').


4. Get multi-season interest with conifers


Coneflowers provide visually interesting textures, colors, and even movement in all seasons. Use conifers to turn winter into a season of natural beauty. These border plantings include tan redwood (Metasequoia glyptostrophoids 'Ocon'), Mexican orange (Soya ternata 'Sundance'), Japanese maple (Acer palmatum 'Emperor 1'), Blue Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica 'Horstmann'), and Oriental spruce. orientalis 'Skylands') and Colorado spruce (Picea bungans 'Shiloh Weeping').


5. Create significance



Use the upright forms of cones like this silver-blue Korean pine as an impressive landscape backdrop, in this case for dahlia flowers. This vignette includes dwarf golden mugo pine (Pinus mugo 'Jundert'), Coriopsis tinctoria, Norway spruce (Picea apices 'Bruhonissiana'), Korean pine (Pinus koreana 'Silver Ray'), Japanese maple (Acer japonicum 'Green Cascade'). . dahlias.


6. Boost curb appeal with conifers


Evergreens can provide seasonal curb appeal in mixed plantings like this impressive streetscape featuring Norway spruce (Picea abies 'Pruhoniciana'), rotting white spruce (Picea glauca 'Pendula'), and Norway spruce (Picea). abies 'Frohburg'), hinoki cypress (Chamecyparis obtusa), barberry (Berberis Thunbergii 'Concorde').


7. Combine green colors for effect



When choosing plants to pair with conifers, think about colors and how they will play off each other. Green conifers like this eastern hemlock, along with Acuba japonica 'Limbata', Heuchera 'Paris' and eastern hemlock (Succa canadensis), complement pastel flowers and plants like the eye-catching colorful dogwood (Cornus causa 'Wolf Eyes'). .


8. Create architectural interest with conifers


Conifers are great for adding an architectural element to beds and borders by combining unique habits like this decaying white spruce (Picea glauca 'Pendula') that stands proudSpanish maples (Acer palmatum 'Beni-Shichihenge' and A. palmatum 'Orange Dream').ly in front of a dwarf flowering plum (Prunus cerasifera 'Purple Pony'). and a pair of Japa

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