Talkback: National Conifer Week

Posts

• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  October 2009

  We have some Cana lillies in our greenhouse and still producing flowers. How do you overwinter them and when do you stop watering and prune

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  October 2009

  Nice try Adam, but you are still going to have to work a bit harder to convince me.
  One of the problems is that they are hard to combine with other plants and people often seem to go mad and plant too many together. My small son planted a dwarf conifer in his window box but I have refrained from passing judgment.

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  October 2009

  Reply to Lila: What good taste your son has. I regularly use conifers to provide the main permanent plant in patio pot recipes. Its companions can change with the seasons (summer bedding out, and bulbs and winter bedding in) but the conifer remains. Amazing the value you can get from a single plant!

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  October 2009

  Reply to byeshome: It sounds as if your canna lily is growing in a pot, so leave it well alone for now, and just stop watering. The dormant rhizome will be fine over winter in dry compost. What you need to avoid is the dormant rhizome sitting in cold and wet compost, as this could induce rot.
  
  Once water is withheld the top growth will gradually die down, and once it is dead you can cut it all away just above compost level.
  
  When spring arrives you have a couple of options. The first is to simply start watering again to encourage new growth as conditions warm up. The second is to knock teh whole thing from its pot, clean off old compost, and replant in fresh compost. I've done both. The choice is yours!

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  October 2009

  Thanks for advice on conifers,just planted a Cryptomerie Japonica

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  October 2009

  I have three conifers in my garden but must admit to them being in pots as I see the laylandii in other gardens in my road and they are ugly great things blocking out any light.

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  October 2009

  We have six leylandii trees in our garden that really need cutting down to a much more managable size, but like Adam says, the birds, especially sparrows love them. We had blackbirds nesting in them last year.

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  October 2009

  Hi
  I love conifers and have lots in my garden, but 2 years ago I bought 2 dwarf conifers for my front garden and they have grown to about 3ft high x 3 ft wide and are too large for their position now. When is the best time to move them and is there a secret to it?
  I would be grateful of any advice.
  Many thanks

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  October 2011

  Im my old garden we had a row of conifers that we planted to make a nice hedge row they grew quite quickly over a few years to be around 4 ft high, we had to cut it around twice a year. In our new garden we've got a contemporary garden room which is the focal point so we haven't really put a hedge in just a nice fence.

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• Gardeners' World Web User Posts: 17,147

  November 2011

  I only have one conifer in my garden, the aforementioned 'Boulevard' which I do love, in contrast to my first garden when I went a bit OTT. I think being a complete novice to go into a garden centre and see so many shapes and colours, but also so easy to look after, was the appeal for me. As my experience and knowledge has grown I've started choosing other types of plants, and the poor old conifer has been ignored, unfortunately. I'm sure I do have room for more than one and I would love to encourage more birds into my garden other than for a meal, so I'm going to put my thinking cap on the see where I can plant one (or two).

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