Long Term Investments

These four dwarf confers (Pinus cembra 'Blue Mound') have been growing in my garden for eight years and are now ready to be pruned into something of interest.

 

 

This dwarf conifer (Pinus parviflora 'Miyajima') (next to the phlox) has also been growing in my rock wall for eight years. It was difficult to get it established in the thin lines of soil between the rocks, but now it should be perfect for sculpting as it continues to grow.

I have been growing a cluster of four dwarf conifers (Pinus cembra 'Blue Mound') for eight years now (top picture). I planted them with the notion that eventually I would like to make a landscape scale grove similar in concept to bonsai groves that I so admire. Inspiration for exactly what that should look like has not yet hit. Finally, however, they are getting to a size that I can start forming them into something of interest. My long term investment is beginning to pay off. I have the raw materials in hand to make something interesting of this little grove.

I have several other dwarf confers that all represent similar long term investments. Most are in rock walls (such as the bottom picture above) where I hope to make them into something like the wind swept confers (Krummholz) seen at the tree lines of tall mountains or the confers growing out of rock faces hanging on to tiny cracks in the rocks. A couple have been "in training" for a couple of years, but others are so small they can hardly be shaped yet. I lost a few initially that just couldn't get a toe hold on the rocky retaining wall, so it is gratifying to now have some well established plants in a difficult site that are getting to a size that they can be the objects of my artistic ambitions.