Apr 23, 2007 2 min read

I like conifers and I have some really nice ones in my yard: Norway spruce, white pine, Colorado blue spruce.

The one aspect about these mature, monster evergreens that causes me to be rather lackluster about them, however, is precisely their immense size.

I can’t appreciate the texture and appearance of their foliage – it’s just too far up in the air.

One solution, of course, is dwarf conifers, but dwarf conifers can be difficult to define.

Is a 20-foot tall conifer a dwarf?

How about one that only reaches 10 feet?

Are they “dwarf” because they grow more slowly, or are they truly smaller plants when mature?

As it turns out, it’s a little of both.

Last summer, I spoke with some people from Iseli Nursery, a wholesale grower. While many of us may not be able to find – let alone afford – a real stone trough, a concoction of Portland cement, peat moss, perlite and water can be easily shaped into a light-weight trough that looks very much like stone. The cement mixture is called hypertufa, and there are plenty of recipe variations available on the Internet and in magazines.

I’ve made small-size hypertufa containers in the past. Making a large one should be only slightly more complicated-mostly with the forming, I suppose. However, a large container of any type, so long as it has adequate holes for drainage, would serve very nicely as a home for the extremely dwarf conifers I want to grow on my patio.

Several dwarf conifer growers are making it easy to create interesting miniature conifer landscapes by packaging assorted dwarf, slow-growing conifers together. These multiple-packs of conifers are showing up at garden centers and the idea has merit; you take home a variety of conifers that have different shapes, colors and textures.

I’m looking forward to creating a miniature conifer landscape in a trough this spring. It’s going to be like having Bonsai without all the clipping and training. I think I’m going to like that.

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Susan Brimo-Cox gardens, observes nature and writes in Ohiopyle.

Readers can send questions or comments to her at naturesgarden@brimo-cox.com.