Some of the Best Conifers to Buy for the Garden

Don’t listen to conifer haters. Their outdated views are due to ignorance of the many attributes of this group of plants and a lack of imagination on how best to use them. Conifers have been portrayed as boring, unchanging plants lacking the subtle and seasonally changing attributes of most other groups of plants. But these perceptions are unfair. It’s time to stand-up, praise conifers and appreciate their true versatility.

The Value of Conifers in the Garden

Conifers don’t have to be planted altogether in a conifer bed, or even limited to sharing their bed with heathers, as they were at the height of their popularity in the 1970s. Together with deciduous trees and shrubs conifers are invaluable as skeletal plants giving height and structure to the landscape. Such mixed plantings give an attractive backdrop to ornamental grasses, perennials and bulbs all of which provide changes throughout the year.

Conifers offer instant impact and most importantly their attributes are on show all the year round. They have a beneficial impact on air quality by capturing harmful particles that adhere to the needles and eventually fall to the ground, where micro-organisms detoxify the particulates.

Conifers Have Different Foliage Colours and Shapes

The range of colours is vast from the steely blue of Picea pungens ‘Koster’ to the golden Thuja occidentalis ‘Sunkist’. Many even change colour with the different seasons. Picea orientalis ‘Aurea’ has bright creamy-gold foliage for about six weeks in spring before taking on a darker hue. Pinus mugo ‘Wintergold’ turns from green in summer to deep golden-yellow in winter. Their foliage is extremely varied; for example Junipers have spiny needles and Chamaecyparis have fronds of flat leaves.

Using Conifers for Ground Cover

Ground covering conifers are the ultimate low maintenance plant. Once their prostrate or semi-prostrate branches have totally covered the ground weeds don’t get a look in. After the initial outlay the plantings last for many years with the only maintenance being the occasional removal of wayward branches. The following Junipers excel in this role.

• Juniperus virginia ‘Grey Owl’
• Juniperus communis depressa aurea
• Juniperus communis ‘Repanda’
• Juniperus horizontalis ‘Turqoise Spreader’ Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Carpet’
• Juniperus x media ‘Gold Coast’

Growing Conifers in Containers on the Patio

Conifers do best in a compost which contains some loam like John Innes No 2. After the first season it pays to work in some controlled release fertilizer into the top of the compost each spring. Like all other plants growing in containers they must not be allowed to dry out or become waterlogged.

Many modern varieties of conifer make excellent container plants including the following:-

• Abies balsamea nana
• Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Tonia’
• Cryptomeria japonica compressa
• Juniperus chinensis ‘Pyramidalis’

A Few of the Best New Conifers

• Podocarpus is a bushy needle leaved conifer from New Zealand. The winter foliage of the variety ‘Country Park Fire’ turns from cream to salmon then bronze-red.
• Picea albertiana ‘Daisy’s White’ adds sparkle to the fresh pale green spring foliage associated with the old favourite Picea albertiana ‘Conica’.
• Metasequoia glyptostroboides ‘Gold Rush’ is a strikingly yellow, new cultivar of the dawn redwood.
• Calocedrus decurrens ‘Berrima Gold’ is a new version of the Incense cedar whose foliage is yellow in summer and intense orange at the tips in winter.

Good collections of conifers in the UK can be found at Holden Clough nursery and Bluebell nursery.

So Ignore the Anti-Conifer Brigade and Plant Them with Pride

Conifers may never regain the popularity they once enjoyed, but it’s time to take a fresh look at their virtues and give them their rightful place alongside other currently more fashionable members of the plant kingdom.