Never thought of Japanese maples. We had one of those, a weeping kind, that was about 4 feet tall. They are cool and would make a nice tree if you can get them young like you suggest.
Where do you get these trees in sizes we want. Lowes has great deals on the spruces and the boxwoods and a some junipers in gallon pots and thats great. But some of these other exotics where can you find them. The two nurseries I went to sell big one, way to big for my taste. Am I going to be relegated to buying them online and if so who is the goto source?
Look for rock garden nurseries!
Here are some maples … great fall colors.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Judys-Enchanted-Garden-LLC/125901600798552 Small Plant Nursery in Spokane
http://www.miniforest.com/ Near Portland, OR
Plenty of small trees available at the Garden Show. Did you know that we are running trains there?
Steve Featherkile said:
Did you know that we are running trains there?
Shhh
That miniforest site is perfect. I will have to check out the other places
Most of mine are weeds, um, volunteers.
Lets see, foreground lower left is a Spirea, the blueish tree, left frame, is a False Boulevard cypress, left frame, behind that is an Alberta Spruce, clustered around the sawmill are 4 weeds with a small (bushy) boxwood sheltered below them. By the trestle, near the sawmill, is a maple, its another weed. Behind the Maple is another weed with my largest weed to the right of the reverse loop.
We love weeds at our house as well. Most of the tress and bushes at my house are volunteers. But our volunteers all get way to big for my railroad space. They will have to be a bit more deliberate. I do have some grape like vine that grows all over my yard that will get incorporated on the chainlink fence as a privacy barrier. But other than that I think I will have to resort to specifically small plants.
If it wasn’t for weeds, I wouldn’t have a “lawn.”
I would be delighted to even get weeds to grow. High desert environments are tough without some drip irrigation…or all cactus environments (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif).
I like Jerry’s idea about using some artificial trees, if I could find some that would hold up a year or two.
Rcih,
My wife would love to grow cactus, she loves them and none do well (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
You just need to live in New Mexico! Even at our elevation, (7300’) they do well.
Devon Sinsley said:
Rcih,
My wife would love to grow cactus, she loves them and none do well (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Their is a cactus that would grow, the Prickly Pear Cactus. It actually grows on dry slopes in the soggy northeast. It will also grow in gardens.
Devon, I prune my weeds with a hedge trimmer about every month or so. If I didn’t, my largest weed would probably be 15 or 20 feet high by now.
So I need to quite buying plants.
In addition to the Alberta Spruce and the Dwarf English Boxwood I picked up a couple more trees this weekend. First up I picked up two juniper bushes at a garage sale $5.00 each. I don’t know the variety but have seen them at the nursery and Lowes. They are nice and compact and small leaved. I already Bonsai’ed one of them.
Hard to see in the photo but I trimmed it down to four branches with a tuft at each end. Then on Saturday I went to the Garden show where our club had a display. When we finished packing up I was walking out to leave and spied this little gem. A Lions Head Japanese Maple. It is a very small leafed maple and the guy said if kept in a gallon pot will only grow about 6" a year and they stay close to the trunk. This picture is not my tree but the same kind. Mine is about 8" tall.
Came out looking good Devon!
I currently live in southwestern Ontario. For ten years I pursued the hobby in an area called the Bruce Peninsula and it was just south of the 45th parallel. My trees (Boxwood, White Spruce, and Dwarf Alberta Spruce) all did well as our winters received a lot of snow and trees were covered over the winter.
Living in a more southerly climate, I tend to lose trees over the summer as it can be too dry and hot. Watering does not help either. You can also keep Cypress trees as well. All plants love a cooler climate, this should give you a better chance at keeping trees in your layout.
Regards, Dennis.
Mugo pines are a nice slow growing low pine bush in most areas so trimming it back to tree look would work well. I think there is one type of Mugo that has long needles and another that has really short needles.
That’s why most of my trees are weeds, um, volunteers. Native plants that just showed up, and that prune to keep them sort of in scale.