Hi, My garden is looking a little bare at the moment so I am looking to place a few ornamental conifers around, to add stucture and winter interest. I am looking for lighter greens and yellows, and conifers that grow to about 8-10ft high, I thought of Thuja "emerald green" for one of them, and there is also a conifer called "goldcrest" I see for sale alot but I don't know how hardy they are, and seem to get differing information on how tall they will get, I am in one of the colder parts of the UK, so they need to be hardy, any other conifer recommendarions?

I would also like some ideas for evergreen shrubs I can use to form a mixed evergreen hedge, I am going to use different varieties of Holly for most the hedge, but would like some other species to mix with it that will grow to about 10ft and will not lose leaves or go brown in cold winters.
I was thinking of cotoneaster lacteus and berberis julianae, to mix with the holly, would these be hardy and look ok with the holly? and any other recommendations would be welcome! Thanks

Ah, the mythical conifer that grows quickly to hedge height and stops. If you find one, do tell.

On 11/11/2010 10:37, echinosum wrote:
Julian200;904914 Wrote:
conifers that grow to about 8-10ft high
Ah, the mythical conifer that grows quickly to hedge height and stops.
If you find one, do tell.

Actually some of the yellow cultivars will do that roughly but they take
a lot longer than their more vigorous cousins.

Lonicera nitida has a couple of golden yellow culivars with fine leaves
and sets holly off nicely. I is also fairly quick growing and new growth
is easy to trim. I also have holly, pivet, cotoneaster and beech in my
hedge which keeps its leaves all winter as golden brown. Chunks of 6-8'
the same look good. Some cotoneasters lose their leaves in winter
particularly in harsh conditions.

Regards,
Martin Brown

In article ,
says...

Hi, My garden is looking a little bare at the moment so I am looking to
place a few ornamental conifers around, to add stucture and winter
interest. I am looking for lighter greens and yellows, and conifers
that grow to about 8-10ft high, I thought of Thuja "emerald green" for
one of them, and there is also a conifer called "goldcrest" I see for
sale alot but I don't know how hardy they are, and seem to get differing
information on how tall they will get, I am in one of the colder parts
of the UK, so they need to be hardy, any other conifer recommendarions?

I would also like some ideas for evergreen shrubs I can use to form a
mixed evergreen hedge, I am going to use different varieties of Holly
for most the hedge, but would like some other species to mix with it
that will grow to about 10ft and will not lose leaves or go brown in
cold winters.
I was thinking of cotoneaster lacteus and berberis julianae, to mix with
the holly, would these be hardy and look ok with the holly? and any
other recommendations would be welcome! Thanks




--
Julian200

Hedging, I would only consider evergreens that can be hard pruned, Holly
is excellent allthough literally a pain to clear up after cutting, if
not interested in the security side of things perhaps spending more for a
broad leafed spineless form may be worth while? the Berberis and
Cotoneaster are also excellent, will they look good together, thats a bit
like asking someone to chose your wall paper! all I can say is the result
will grow at different rates and if you are happy with that informal look
then yes they will look ok together.

Your conifers, be careful dwark conifer heights are given for age 10
years, they do not indicate that the plant will stop there, so again only
choose those that can be pruned hard to maintain size and shape in years
to come
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

On 11/12/2010 12:11 PM, Charlie Pridham wrote:
Your conifers, be careful dwark conifer heights are given for age 10
years, they do not indicate that the plant will stop there, so again only
choose those that can be pruned hard to maintain size and shape in years
to come

This is really good advice, many "dwarf" conifers aren't really dwarfs
at all, just slow growing.

-E

Thanks for all your replies, I live in mid-Wales, it was -20c here last year, I did have an Escallonia and an evergreen Viburnum, in the garden both of which did not survive the cold winter. The evergreens that I know grow well here are, Holly and rhododendrons.

For the hedge I am going to use JC van tol holly and golden van tol as the spinless varieties, along with some green and variegated spined holly to add different leaf textures to the hedge, with berberis and cotoneaster, if it will take the cold.

You're going to make sure you have both male and female hollies, so that you can get some berries as well? (And remember that holly varieties seem to have perverse names, so that most of the 'king' are female and the 'queens' male)

Yes, I will have a look at Eucalypts, thanks for the link.

The van tol hollies are self fertile, but for the other holly varieties I am planting do I need a male holly of the same variety to pollinate them, or will a wild male holly be suitable? as I do already have a large male wild holly in the garden.

On 11/11/2010 10:17, Julian200 wrote:
Hi, My garden is looking a little bare at the moment so I am looking to
place a few ornamental conifers around, to add stucture and winter
interest. I am looking for lighter greens and yellows, and conifers
that grow to about 8-10ft high, I thought of Thuja "emerald green" for
one of them, and there is also a conifer called "goldcrest" I see for
sale alot but I don't know how hardy they are, and seem to get differing
information on how tall they will get, I am in one of the colder parts
of the UK, so they need to be hardy, any other conifer recommendarions?

I would also like some ideas for evergreen shrubs I can use to form a
mixed evergreen hedge, I am going to use different varieties of Holly
for most the hedge, but would like some other species to mix with it
that will grow to about 10ft and will not lose leaves or go brown in
cold winters.
I was thinking of cotoneaster lacteus and berberis julianae, to mix with
the holly, would these be hardy and look ok with the holly? and any
other recommendations would be welcome! Thanks

A possible alternative would be one of the Aucuba japonica cultivars.
Hardy to -15°C, and IME pest-free.

--

Jeff

Wild male holly should be OK. You can't get a 'male holly of the same variety' - the varieties in general are either male or female. So if you were starting from scratch, you'd choose a couple of female varieties and a male variety.

Slight complication in that I think there are two species from which varieties have been bred - I haven't looked in to it enough to know if they can fertilise each other. I didn't know about it when I planted mine! But it was interesting, once I planted a definite male, to see how many of the hollies already in the garden suddenly started producing berries!

One of my hollies (I think it is a Van Tol) has yellow berries. Rather a nice change and, while the other hollies get stripped of berries by the mistle thrushes by the middle of December, they don't go for the yellow berries.

Incidentally, holly keeps well in water in a cool place, so it is possible to cut your Christmas holly 2 weeks early while it still has berries.