IN THE GARDEN: BIG LOVE FOR SMALL TREES
Lots to offer: Rebecca van der Zalm has a special fondness for the majestic plants that are too often overlooked
Rebecca van der Zalm remembers when she first fell in love with conifers. It was when she went to the famous Iseli Nursery in Oregon with her parents, who were then the owners of the Surrey nursery that she now owns.
“I grew up on the nursery and was always running around playing and so, of course, I was aware of conifers.
“But it wasn’t until I stepped into Iseli’s that the world of conifers really opened up to me.
“That’s when I realized what wonderful majestic plants they are.”
Over the last few decades, Iseli Nursery in Boring has become one of the most famous places in North America for nursery owners to shop for conifers.
At her own garden centre, van der Zalm has made a point of carrying a large inventory of all the best conifers, most of them imported from Iseli.
At Art’s (on 192nd Street in Surrey), gardeners can find many kinds of cedar, fir, cryptomeria and yew as well as 74 varieties of spruce, 78 kinds of chamaecyparis, 59 kinds of pine, 45 types of juniper, 32 cultivars of hemlock and all sorts of sequoia, larch, and cypress.
You can also find great specialty specimens such as the Japanese umbrella pine, monkey puzzle tree and Tasmanian podocarpus.
Yes, it would be safe to say this is definitely a nursery where the owner has a mad keen interest in conifers and related plants.
But what excites van der Zalm most nowadays are dwarf conifers, ones that grow only three to five feet high, perhaps seven or eight feet tops after many years, and offer fantastic value in terms of colour, shape, texture and structural merit.
“This is definitely one of my most favourite plant groups. I think it is partly because I feel they are so often overlooked, ignored and forgotten about.
“When my customers come in spring, they are invariably looking for pretty flowers — hellebores, violas, primulas and so on — but I would love them to discover the majestic beauty of conifers.”
In terms of shape, the range is amazing, she says, from pyramidal, globular, weeping and columnar to all sorts of attractive irregular, twisted and contorted lines.
The range of colour stretches from assorted shades of green to blue, gold and yellow with striking accents provided by new growth and fall colour changes for bonus interest.
They grow well in a sunny, well-drained spot in the garden or can flourish just as well in a container.
“Dwarf conifers are manageable, hardy and trouble-free and they can be used in a variety of ways.
“If you are thinking of them as static, unchanging and boring, you have not looked at them closely enough. They have so much more to offer,” van der Zalm says. Her favourites are the pines. “I have a particular fondness for Hinoki cypress and dwarf pines. I can always find room for one more. Hemlocks are another group that always grab my attention.”
She loves pines in particular because they can be manipulated easily.
“You can pinch the candles (new growth) on one side and let the other side grow and play with the balance, creating twists and curves.
“I am a sucker for a plant with a twist in the trunk. I like conifers for their neat and tidy habit, but if I see one with a little unusual twist or bend or curve or something unusual, I fall in love with it immediately.”
Japanese white pines have a lot of the qualities she is looking for. The needles have a blue-green twist and the new growth can be very attractive.
Van der Zalm says she likes most plants in the Pinus parviflora category, especially such cultivars as Fukuzumi, Glauca and Negishi.
In the mugo pine groups, she thinks more people should discover Slow Mound, a globeshaped variety with a compact growth habit, making it perfect for small spaces.
Jacobsen is another excellent cultivar with almost a bonsai-look while Carston Gold stands out for its ability to keep its beautiful green colour until it turns golden in winter for a striking splash of colour.
Pinus contorta Chief Joseph is an unusual lodgepole pine that also has the ability to turn bright yellow in winter.
Various forms of Hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) are also very popular because of the sculptural, coral-like look of the foliage as well as the range of colours from dark green to bright yellow.
“One of the newest trends in growing conifers is to take ones that normally grow horizontally along the ground and stake them and grow them into upright specimens.
“This is being done with junipers, hemlocks and larches to create interest.”
Junipers are the one group of conifers van der Zalm does not like talking about.
“I know you see ones like Blue Star everywhere but I am less interested,” she says.
“I think junipers are prickly and a bit too common and anyway they do better in drier climates than ours.
“I just think there are so many better options available. Why pick a juniper?”
Dwarf and miniature conifers have also grown in popularity with the rise of miniature and fairy gardening, which involves creating small gardens, often populated by fairy-like figures and tiny tables, chairs and garden accents.
But for most gardeners, the appeal of dwarf conifers is their ability to fit easily into a limited space and to grow at a manageable rate.
Use them to create interesting textural tapestries and to add structure that does not change with the seasons.
“When a person starts gardening, it all depends who they talk to at the garden centre. If they hook up with a real plants person, they are going to discover conifers much sooner,” says van der Zalm.
Great plants to put with your dwarf conifers include heathers, alpine perennials, dwarf black or green mondo grass and dwarf, small-leafed rhododendrons and azaleas.
For more information visit Art’s Nursery at 192nd Street, Surrey or checkout their nursery’s excellent website at www. artsnursery.com