Done, done, and done. Iain accompanied me to Millcreek Gardens today and we snapped up 6 specimens of dwarf Norway spruce. They will grow (slowly) to about three times the current size, and can be trimmed in any way we like. So we can bonsai them or just shape them to suit the space. 
They're characterized by the small, mounded habit and also by the fact that they pop out with gorgeous, bright green leaves in spring. They're about ready to do so now, and what appear to be brown spots are actually new leaves forming.
While at Millcreek, I couldn't resist two of these. They're Mariken Maidenhair Tree, also known as dwarf gingko. They're a deciduous conifer, so they will grow bright green, gingko-shaped leaves, stay small, turn yellow in fall, and drop their leaves for winter. Our garden plan calls for bamboo and conifers as anchor plantings (along with the 2 fruit trees I already planted) and small shrubs as accents. So these two are the first of the shrubs. Last, and smallest, I tucked two 4" pots of variegated lemon thyme into my herb bed. It was 70F today, but tonight it's going to snow and tomorrow the high is forecast to be in the 40s. So only cold-hardy herbs until May. But still: edibles!
2 comments:
one thing to be cognizant of: ginkos are either male or female.
female plants produce really awful smelling fruits. they have buteric acid in them. let's just say it's smell is distinctively 'boot and rally'
if you get a female, you should replace it.
Yep, that's a danger. But no way to tell (I think) on a bare plant and since they're:
1) Teensy! and
2) Very slow-growing
I figure that even if one is female it will produce only a tiny amount of the offending fruits. And as I recall from Pasadena (which had a long line of female ginkgoes) they drop those fruit fast.
But yeah: yuck. Let's hope for males.
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