Friday, May 3, 2013

Conifers...

Out on a dog walk, but nearing home, Lila was doing that thing dogs do, sniffing sniffing sniffing, and my eyes wandered...

And for the first time I really saw the odd combination of conifers in my next door neighbors parking strip. Doesn't it look like the tall pine has a furry trunk?

Here's what's really going on...

This interesting conifer was spotted on another dog walk. It's probably frightfully common to those in-the-know but to me it was rather unusual. Bright yellow-green new growth and pink cones, pretty cool!

Sadly I only had my phone with me so the pictures aren't terribly good.

Continuing the conifer theme I share with you my burgeoning nightmare. This tall Doug Fir is growing at the back of our property line. Every year in June(ish) it drops a load of male cones on the patio, and my plant containers on the patio, causing a mess that goes on for weeks.

The last couple of years have been fairly light, this one however appears to be a banner year as the entire tree looks like this. I dread their falling...

Ending on a happy note my nearly dead Blue Atlas Cedar is pushing out new blue needles! I didn't kill it after all.

This makes me very very happy.

Especially since my new favorite image (borrowed from Martha, please don't sue me Martha) features agaves AND a Blue Atlas Cedar (never-mind that's a weeping tree it doesn't creep me out because you can't really see the dangling branches) from her visit to Flora Grubb. Isn't this combo hot?

All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

33 comments:

  1. Is this not from Martha's recent trip to Flora Grub? I loooove the blue atlas cedar agave combo. And just think, you're blue atlas, agave loving ways are now going to canonized in the design books of the future thanks to Martha.

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    1. Ah yes that makes sense that it would be from Flora Grubb! I "pinned" it late at night and then could only remember that it came from Martha. Thanks Louis!

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  2. dear dog, so many fabulous possibilities...

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  3. The pine with the furry trunk is fun. Maybe you could bag up the cones and sell them as PNW mulch for plants in containers. Love the combo in the last picture!

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    1. The pink cones? Ya I don't think the ladies who live in that house would appreciate my stealing their cones, sadly.

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  4. That is a crazy trio in the parkway! Were all three planted at the same time I wonder, when all were about the same size?

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    1. I couldn't tell you as they were all there when we moved almost 8 years ago. It was just a couple years ago that the pine was finally limbed up, so much better now!

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  5. The optical illusion of the first photo is a doozy. My first impression was that it was the result of a mad pruner, but of course that would be impossible. Thanks for the chuckle. Love those pink cones. Why is it that I love pink only where it is unexpected?

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    1. Good point about the pink...I love it when succulents are stressed and turn pink but probably wouldn't buy the same plant if it were that color naturally.

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  6. SO glad your Cedar is recovering...yay!

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    1. I even planted it in a happy orange container yesterday just to let it know how much I love it.

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  7. Yay on the Blue Atlas Cedar! Definitely a head turning vignette from Martha. However if you had said it was from your garden I would have believed it.

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  8. Yowza to that last pic...that is *it*!

    Is that pine an Austrian Pine / Pinus nigra, with the pair of Golden Arborvitae plants?

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    1. Could be...I don't know my pines very well...

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  9. That is a funny view of that combination of conifers. Happy for you that you didn't kill the Blue Atlas. Love that last photo, especially knowing from experience that the combination of silvery plants and gold succulents isn't the easiest to pull off. I might have to rethink this and move a few plants around since I can't toss my mismatched collection of pots and start over.

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    1. Such is the beauty of gardening with containers...you can pull off combinations that might never work in the ground!

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  10. Conifers are the skeleton in many gardens here, but the furry-trunked illusion is too cool! Glad your cedar is recovering (big sigh of relief, right?)

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    1. Indeed, I really didn't want to think I killed it...

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  11. So glad there are signs of life in your cedar. I've almost killed a few shrubs too, through neglect, it's always disheartening. I think I've seen that conifer with the pink cones somewhere recently, but can't remember where. It's cool.

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    1. Killing plants through neglect is never a good thing, remembering the horrible feeling I had when I saw how dry the b.a.c. was I'm working extra hard to keep things watered during this freaky (wonderful) dry warm spell we're having.

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  12. Oh Martha...why must she post so many appealing things? The pine-ovitae combination is ridiculous but kinda fun.

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  13. Do you have any idea what the pink-coned conifer is? Not that I could grow it in SoCal but I'm curious. I wonder if the mature plant still produces those pink cones...

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    1. I haven't a clue but I think these folks are the "leave the tag on the plant" kind of gardeners so I'll see if I can't find out.

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    2. Kris, Jenni came through with an I.D...it's a Spanish fir!

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  14. I think the pink pine cone conifer is a Norway Spruce? Whatever it is, it's very striking. The combo of the blue atlas cedar and the agave is pretty cool. You really don't want to touch either of them! :) Cheers, Jenni

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    1. You might be right Jenni, I did a search and found some images of pink young cones!

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  15. I love the pictures of different combinations. This is the real source for inspiration and new ideas for any gardener, thank you.

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  16. The pink cones and fresh green foliage combo does look cool!

    I enjoy trawling through garden photos images, through them you can often spot good plant combos that one haven't thought of before but actually can look good together. I do like that conifer and agave combo, two plants that are not traditionally combined together but worked really well in that composition.

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    1. That combo is a perfect instance where the weeping Blue Atlas Cedar would work so much better than the upright, still I'll try to come up with something similar.

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