Trees: Conifers
We love our conifers here at Portland Nursery! Whether tall, soft, dwarf, or prickly—we have an assortment available throughout the year that will bring a variety of bright colors and interesting textures to your garden.
Things to consider
Deciding on the right ones can be tricky, so we’ve compiled a guide to help you make decisions.
Conifers serve faithfully as the ‘bones’ of the garden, providing year-round structure and backdrops to fruits and flowers. You can also use conifers to frame an entrance, hide the neighbors, or to spruce up your fall and winter containers. They can also be the star of the garden show!
With just a few exceptions, conifers are evergreen trees and shrubs having needle-shaped or scale-like leaves, including forms with true cones and others with arillate fruit.
Learn More
The first key to success when growing conifers is to understand their growth habits. Conifers can grow very fast or very slow, and since most gardeners are working with limited space, understanding growth rates is very important.
The American Conifer Society has developed 4 categories for growth.
- Miniature
- Rate: Less than 1″ per year
- Size in 10 years: 10-12″
- Dwarf
- Rate: 1″-6″ per year
- Size in 10 years: 1′-6′
- Semi-Dwarf
- Rate: 6″-12″ per year
- Size in 10 years: 6′-15′
- Large
- Rate: More than 12″ per year
- Size in 10 years: Over 15′
Conifers do not stop growing after 10 years, but will slow over time. Assume the 20 year size to be double the 10 year size.
Cultural conditions, such as sun, rain, soil compaction, and fertilizer can affect the growth rate of any given plant. It is worth noting that it rains a lot in Portland, and the moisture often makes plants grow on the larger side of the growth spectrum.
Conifers come in all shapes: pencil, globe, cone, vase, weeping, and creeping. Other terms used to describe conifer forms include mounding, prostrate, columnar, spreading, and pyramidal. Some grow outward rather than upward, so knowing the shape of the plant is the key to understanding how much room it will take in your yard.
Questions on pruning abound, so we’ll do our best to simplify the process for you here.
Yew and hemlock are easiest to prune. They have buds on old and new growth that will fill in around cut branches. Branches can be sheared or pruned individually. Prune in March before new leaves grow.
On fir, cedar, spruce and Douglas fir, buds are visible along the new season’s growth—and some have buds on older wood. Prune back to a bud to control size at any time. For formal shapes like topiary Alberta spruce, prune when new growth is soft.
On pines, buds occur at the end of the stem on the current year’s growth. To keep a pine at its current size or make it bushier, remove buds (called candles) when they elongate in spring. Next year’s buds will form below that spot. Removing larger branches will alter the shape forever, so plan cuts carefully. Larger branches can be removed during winter.
The buds of arborvitae, juniper, and Hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis) are present only where there are living leaves, so a branch cut below the area where leaves are present will not grow new foliage. This is why you see arborvitae hedges with big brown spots in the sides.
Cuts should be made above areas where green growth exists on stems. Any shearing should be done with great care.
Here are some straightforward guidelines for selecting healthy plants that will thrive for years to come.
Check the plant for overall color. Conifers come in a rainbow of hues, from the deepest green to creamy yellow and from cool blue to warm gold. Whatever color you choose, it should be vivid and uniform, not washed-out or spotty.
Examine the branch structure. Specimens with a rounded or spreading habit should be balanced and evenly spaced. Those with a pyramidal or columnar habit are strongest if they have a single, central leader.
Look at the roots. Healthy plants should have a vigorous root system. Root tips should be creamy or reddish in color, not black or soggy. They should anchor it firmly in place, without being loose or wobbly.
Bigger is not necessarily better. Smaller specimens are frequently more adaptable and vigorous. After a year or two, the smaller plants will often catch up to or even surpass the larger version.
- Abies: Native Fir
- Abies: Standard Fir
- Araucaria: Monkey Puzzle Tree
- Calocedrus: Incense Cedar
- Cedrus: True Cedar
- Cephalotaxus: Yew Plum
- Chamaecyparis: Lawson Cypress or Port Orford Cedar, Hinoki Cypress, Alaskan Cedar, Sawara Cypress, White Cedar
- Cryptomeria japonica: Japanese Cedar
- Cunninghamia: Chinese Fir
- Cupressus: Cypress
- Juniperus: Juniper
- Picea: Spruce
- Pinus: Pine
- Podocarpus: Buddhist Pine, Yellowwood
- Pseudotsuga: Douglas Fir
- Sequoia and Sequoiadendron: Giant and Coast Redwoods
- Sciadopitys: Japanese Umbrella Pine
- Taxus: Yew
- Thuja: Arborvitae and Western Red Cedar
- Thujopsis: Deerhorn Cedar
- Tsuga: Hemlock
- Cupressocyparis leylandii: Leyland Cypress
- Cupressus sempervirens: Italian Cypress
- Juniperus scopulorum ‘Sky Rocket’: Sky Rocket Juniper
- Taxus baccata or Taxus media ‘Hicks’: Irish Yew or Hicks Yew
- Thuja occidentalis ‘Emerald Green’: Emerald Green Arborvitae (yes, this is what everyone uses, but there is a reason: it works).
- Chamaecyparis obtusa: Hinoki Cypress
- Cryptomeria japonica: Japanese Cedar
- Microbiota: Siberian Cypress
- Taxus: Yew
- Tsuga: Hemlock
- Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Chirimen’: Chirimen Hinoki Cypress
- Chamaecyparis thyoides ‘Red Star’: Red Star Cypress
- Cryptomeria japonica ‘Spiraleter Falcata’: Japanese Cedar
- Juniperus horizontalis ‘Icee Blue’: Icee Blue Juniper
- Pinus mugo ‘Slowmound’ or any other truly dwarf Mugo Pine
- Larix: Larch
- Metasequoia: Dawn Redwood
- Taxodium: Bald Cypress
