Got a few Alberta Spruces(none here last year for sale). I usually try to pick ones that have two trunks. One time I got a pot that had two trees actually. Anyway I like to prune them down some before I put them in the ground. Try to open them up some and make them a little more pine and less ‘sprucey’. I liked the bent over one, looks like the trees in the mountains in Wyoming.
Very nice! I can grow an ok tomato plant but so far my luck with small trees is zero. They look really good.
Martin Sant said:
Very nice! I can grow an ok tomato plant but so far my luck with small trees is zero. They look really good.
I am trying to picture how a tomato plant fits into the G scale world?
Jerry,
I would not have figured to prune them that way. They look much better as scale pine trees go. Are you able to keep them small. or do they eventually out grow there usefulness as sale trees.
Beautiful work Jerry.
Trimmed trees will stay small if you go to the effort to make them stay small. This involves regular trimming for shape and fill.
My dwarf crepe myrtles are 15+ years old and lower than my hips, because they get trimmed that way 3-4 times a year. They are among the nicest trees in the garden railroading hobby, bar none.
By all accounts, if left alone, they would have grown to 20+ feet and would be long dead because of their age. But my trimming removes the flowers and old growth and this keeps them forever young.
My “pom” trees are shown below.
A bit of whimsy. I tell people that these are “boxwoods.”
I love the box woods, clever. . . odd. . . but clever. Your trees are very nice Todd.
Wow Todd , those are great. I trim mine about once a year, but sometimes get lazy. Getting harder to get up from the ground, once I get down there to trim them. Since I think I’ll leave these in the pot, I could just yank them out when it’s time to trim. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
This shows the myrtles several years ago before I “trained” them to be “poms.” This is how they would grow to 20+ feet.
This pic is used by The Big Train Show for their garden tours even when we are not on tour. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
These are my weeds. They showed up and I trained them to be trees, although the one on the right is a bit tall, I like it because it provides me with shade.
Guess they are kinda big eh? 
Here we see some that are 5 years old … WOW already . .
I like how these are doing!
They look great Sean, quite a forest you’ve got growing. Much better than one or two by themselves.
I like the airy look. I tried to do that with my Alberta Spruces, but they just filled back in and are all bushy again.
Yeah, I try to trim them once a year, but it gets away from me.
I just bought my first one. I am hoping to keep it sparse like Jerry’s and Sean’s. Mine is small in a gallon pot. I trimmed the heck out of it and I think it looks great. It seems root bound as water just pours through the pot. So Next I will take it out and trim the roots and loosen them up and re-pot it back into the same pot until I can plant it, either in the pot in the ground or just straight into the ground.
I really like the look of Jerry’s trees and the Forest Sean has created. Sean how often are you trimming these to keep them so open.
I’m suppose to trim them …
When I get time and remember…
I will need to abuse the ones I have when I put in my town. They need to be thinned, and trimmed back. I hope I don’t kill them. But, if I do, then its no big deal, I got like 12 years out of them for like $15 each IIRC.
When my wife saw what I was doing to these poor bushes I told her for $8.00 I was getting a great lesson and if they live through it then I will have a nice plant for the RR.
If the patient lives…
Patient…Not really sure patient is the right word. Was Frankenstein a patient. . . I mean I took a healthy vibrant plant and performed an experiment on it. . . that may not have the plant’s best interests in mind.
Here is my first attempt at Bonsai Spruce for the Garden Railroad.
