Ideas and Methods for Container Gardening With Conifers

Container gardening is ideal for anybody confined to a balcony or deck and can be an exquisite means so as to add colour, dimension, and flexibility to any panorama, giant or small. Everyone knows {that a} well-planted, well-placed container could make an excellent backyard accent or gown up patios, decks, entryways, and windowsills to perfection. There’s an artwork to container gardening—strategies and tips to make sure that your container-grown vegetation thrive. Quickly, you can also make virtually any plant work in virtually any container, however for long-term success it’s essential to mix the proper plant with the proper pot, to work together with your chosen vegetation’ progress behavior, and to abide by every plant’s publicity, soil, and watering preferences. Container gardening with conifers is not any exception.

Understanding what your tree wants and being decided to offer it, you possibly can plant any conifer in a container, however rising a full-size specimen presents quite a few challenges. To start with, you’ll have to repot it each two years into an excellent bigger container, otherwise you’ll should discover ways to root-prune and even bonsai it to curtail its progress. Most conifer lovers have a tendency to surrender when confronted with the stress of preserving a vigorous, full-size tree completely satisfied in a pot, virtually invariably planting it out within the panorama inside two or three years. However there’s a higher means!

Go for dwarf specimens over full-size varieties

Providing the identical colour, texture, sculptural kind, and evergreen magnificence as their full-size counterparts, slow-growing miniature and dwarf conifers enable for a extra stress-free option to backyard in containers. Additionally they require a lower-maintenance strategy and guarantee success each for the conifer itself and for the gardener. Most dwarf conifers develop so slowly that they’ll thrive for a few years earlier than outgrowing their unique containers. There’s at present a stunning number of dwarf conifers out there in an array of attractive hues and in kinds starting from tender, rounded globes to slim, sturdy, upright spires. I’ve narrowed the sector to my high 5 picks under. Mix any one in all them with your individual favourite container, comply with these easy rising ideas, and you can also stay up for a few years of evergreen enjoyment.

‘Golden Mop’ threadleaf cypress

‘Golden Mop’ threadleaf cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Golden Mop’, Zones 5–7) has threadlike golden foliage that radiates outward from the middle. This well-behaved, compact, low, mounding shrub is fabulous within the panorama or a big container; it provides vibrant colour and tender, touchable texture anyplace it’s grown. Sited in solar to partial shade (it maintains its colour higher in full solar), this magnificence will attain 6 to eight toes tall and broad at maturity.

‘Cole’s Prostrate’ Canadian hemlock

‘Cole’s Prostrate’ Canadian hemlock (Tsuga canadensis ‘Cole’s Prostrate’, Zones 3–7) drapes itself over the perimeters of the proper pot. A tricky, slow-growing conifer with a cascading behavior, it finally reaches 6 inches tall and three to 4 toes broad. Greatest to develop it in afternoon shade in NorCal.

Blue prostrate noble fir

Blue prostrate noble fir (Abies procera ‘Glauca Prostrata’, Zones 5–7) is sluggish to achieve its final dimension of three toes tall and 6 toes broad. With its steely, blue-green foliage carried on semi-spreading, semi-upright, extraordinarily sturdy branches, it’s a magnificence. Make assertion in full solar (with diligent watering), or for a extra stress-free expertise, develop it in afternoon shade.

‘Picola’ Japanese umbrella pine

‘Picola’ Japanese umbrella pine (Sciadopitys verticillata ‘Picola’, Zones 4–9) is gorgeous, with a dense, upright, conical progress behavior and quick branches that carry enticing whorls of lengthy, shiny, darkish inexperienced needles. Gradual-growing, measuring simply 4 toes tall and three toes broad at maturity, it could actually tolerate solar however does higher in afternoon shade in hotter areas.

‘Jean’s Dilly’ dwarf Alberta spruce

Create a miniature forest of ‘Jean’s Dilly’ dwarf Alberta spruce (Picea glauca ‘Jean’s Dilly’, Zones 3–6) by planting multiples in a single enormous container. It is a pretty upright, conical conifer with impenetrably dense, fine-textured, inexperienced foliage. With such a sluggish progress charge (at maturity, it reaches simply 3 toes tall), it might by no means want repotting. It does greatest when shaded from the most popular summer time solar however seems fabulous in any publicity when dressing up winter vacation porches or entryways.

Decide the proper container

When selecting a pot on your tree, think about the mature dimension of your conifer and each the present and future dimension of its root system. Decide a container proportional to the tree’s present dimension (twice as broad and 50% deeper is an effective rule of thumb), however with enough root area for at the very least three years of progress. Too giant a pot finally ends up inflicting virtually as a lot bother as one too small. In hotter areas of Northern California, the container’s colour can be essential, with a lighter-colored container most well-liked due to its heat-reflection qualities. This helps keep the cooler soil (and thus root) temperatures favored by dwarf conifers. Good drainage is important, so be certain that the container has ample drainage holes.

Not simply any soil will do

The soil needs to be loamy, humus-rich, and barely acidic (a bark-based potting soil is right). It ought to maintain enough moisture but drain properly. I make my very own potting combine for container-grown conifers and have achieved constant success utilizing 5 elements high-quality natural potting soil combined properly with 1 half high quality fir bark. Mulching is at all times a good suggestion and can assist maintain the tree cooler and weed free. It can additionally help in moisture retention.

Hold the water and the fertilizer gentle

When grown in pots, conifers (like all container-grown vegetation) want a daily watering schedule all year long, with additional diligence in the course of the rising season, warmth waves, and dry intervals. Through the rising season, apply a weak (quarter-strength) resolution of well-balanced, water-soluble fertilizer to the soil surrounding your dwarf conifer each 4 to 6 weeks. Alternatively, a yearly software of a 2- to 3-inch layer of natural compost in spring will assist maintain your tree completely satisfied.

Somewhat little bit of shade can be most appreciated

Although most conifers are stated to choose full solar, I’ve discovered that within the hotter areas of Northern California, a container-grown conifer is much less pressured whether it is shaded from summer time’s hottest afternoon solar. A container additionally gives you the choice of transferring it right into a shadier location for the summer time months. In cooler and coastal elements of NorCal, a full-sun location is ok.

For extra on rising conifers in containers, go right here.

—Fionuala Campion is the proprietor and supervisor of Cottage Gardens of Petaluma in Petaluma, California.

Photographs: Fionuala Campion