By Ron Dieter, Sunnyfield Greenhouse & Gardens

November 11, 1998

Last week I had the pleasure of hearing Justin "Chub" Harper speak to the Geneseo Community Garden Club on the subject of Garden Conifers. Mr. Harper is a nationally known expert on conifers and is past president of the American Conifer Society. He was the supervisor of grounds for John Deere’s world headquarters in Moline, IL, for more than twenty years. His award-winning work at John Deere won him national recognition and he now travels extensively as a speaker and consultant.

Mr. Harper presented a good review of the conifer family and then narrowed his focus to garden conifers. The word conifer means "cone bearing" and most conifers are evergreens. Two exceptions are Larch and Cypress, which bear cones but shed all their needles in the fall. Some of the smallest, as well as some of the largest woody plants on earth are conifers. The oldest woody plants living on earth are conifers, some more than 6000 years old.

There are more than 500 species of conifers and thousands of varieties and cultivars. Hundreds are useful as garden and landscape plantings. Others, although often used as foundation plants and garden plants, grow into large-scale trees overtaking a front yard or city lot. Some popular evergreens, such as the yews and junipers, are used by homeowners as foundation plants even though they require constant shearing and eventually outgrow their allotted space. A good selection of garden conifers would offer a number of much better choices. The problem is most nurseries and garden centers offer only a limited choice of the most popular conifers so homeowners think that’s all there is. Compounding the situation is the slow growth rate of many smaller conifers making them more costly initially. Over the long run, however, they earn their keep because they require little pruning and don’t outgrow their space.

The American Conifer Society has developed a guide to classifying conifers, based upon their rate of growth and mature size. A "miniature" conifer grows less than 3 inches annually and reaches a mature size of 2 or 3 feet. A "dwarf" grows up to 6 inches per year and tops out at 4 to 6 feet. "Intermediate" conifers add 6 to 12 inches of growth each year and mature at 6 to 15 feet, while "large" conifers grow at least a foot each year and will get at least 15 feet tall. Anyone with aging arborvitae, yews, or junipers will tell you they don’t fit in the "dwarf" category, even using a shoehorn.

Within each of these categories are hundreds of conifers suitable for garden and foundation planting. I believe that the current popularity of perennial gardens will naturally lead to a surging interest in garden conifers. As companion plants in the perennial border, conifers can provide tremendous visual impact, especially in winter when most perennial borders need all the help they can get to be worth even a casual glance. Like perennials, many conifers go through seasonal color changes, sporting bright colors of yellow, red, or white in spring and bearing brightly colored cones or fruit later in the seasons.

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say and seeing is believing. Visit the new Quad City Botanical Center to view the conifers in the Sun Garden or visit the larger and older Heartland Collection of Dwarf and Rare Conifers at Bickelhaupt Arboretum in Clinton, Iowa. The best garden conifer collection in the midwest, and many say it is the finest in the United States, is the Harper Collection at Hidden Lakes Gardens in Tipton, Michigan, about a six hour drive from here. All three gardens, designed and donated by Mr. Harper, will certainly stimulate your interest in conifers. Maybe a little conifer or two will find its way into your garden next year.

To learn more about garden conifers, contact the American Conifer Society, PO Box 360, Keswick, VA, 22947, or click Timely Topics at www.sunnyfield.com.