Evergreen Conifers Ball & Burlap



Posted: Thursday, September 24, 2009

by Dennis Sons
tn nursery

Evergreen conifers are widely used for landscape design, due to the startling variety of shades and hues, they come in. These conifers , especially the ones with silver or gray foliage help to even out the more garish tone of garden flowers and accentuate the beauty of a garden. Conifers with blue gray foliage enhance the beauty of surrounding roses and soften the greens. Evergreens like juniper, Douglas-firs and cypresses are appreciated for the different colors they take up, as winter approaches. Healthy B & B conifers can be easily transplanted from a nursery and are in great demand, serving to shelter walkways, provide fencing, as a hedge, or to accentuate the designs of nearby buildings and doors.

Urban conditions can be harsh on some evergreen conifers, but the American arborvitae , of the Cypress family (now known as Thuja occidentalis ), and its cultivars, are well suited to the urban atmosphere of either rocky, clayey or compacted soil, with resistance to drought, humidity, pH variation and pollution. The cultivars of A. arborvitae come in a variety of sizes, from shrubs to trees. The smaller ones are perfect for hedges and lining pathways, while the larger ones serve well as fences. Arborvitae less than 3' in height are perfectly acceptable bare rooted, but larger trees need to have soil present, and are preferred B & B. When picking up a plant from the nursery, ensure that it is insect and disease free, potted in moist (not wet) soil and that the roots are not emerging from the drainage hole or the top of the pot.

While planting, as with any B & B tree , great care must be taken when unloading the conifer, due to its tremendous weight. Always handle the tree, by its wire cage and unload by sliding down a wooden plank. Prepare a hole, at-least twice the diameter of the root ball and roll the conifer gently into its center, securing the roots and removing the top half of the wire cage, with all of the burlap. Turn the plant as required, but make sure that it receives ample sunlight and is not in any shade. Loamy soils with good drainage are essential for healthy growth of the plant, since the soil has to be kept moist, for proper root development.

Pruning is sometimes necessary to trim out multiple shoots, which can ruin the look of the plant. Dead twigs and leaves also need to be pruned from time to time. If your evergreen conifer looks a little thin, then you can cut the expanding buds, during spring time to add more volume as the plant grows. Arborvitae shrubs can be sheared, but don't cut back too far or during the winter season, when the freezing temperatures can permanently damage the exposed tissue. While pruning, if you come across some bagworms during June, you have to protect your entire garden because bagworms are the most serious threat to ornamental plants and can defoliate entire gardens. The most effective treatment is to pick off any bags during winter, but if you missed out, a dose of Dipel ( Bacilus thuringenesis toxin) is very effective at killing all the damaging larvae.

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