Conifers

Conifers are great plants. They ask for little and deliver a great deal. They provide year-round colour and the structure that is so necessary to a succesful garden layout. They provide an effective screen from winds that would otherwise cause considerable damage to smaller more tender plants.

It is unfortunate that the Leyland cyprus is now regarded as the scourge of the suburban garden. Rightly so. But the remaining conifers shouldn't be 'tarred with the same brush.' They don't deserve it.

I can't count how many visitors to the garden have seen the hedge above and said something like :-  "Normally I don't like conifers, but seeing that hedge has opened my eyes to new possibilities."

To be fair, even the dreaded Leylandii does not deserve the bad press it has had, and still gets. It's never done anything that nature hadn't intended it to do. If you think back forty years or so when people wanted a living screen around their property they went to the garden centres and were advised to choose Leylandii by the x-spurts who well knew the size it would eventually reach. Yet when people asked how far apart they should be planted, they were not told "forty feet" but "four". Now who should be pilloried?

Nevertheless, conifers are still great plants. But, as with so many things, it really does pay to check them out before buying. The links below provide details on various conifer groups grown at Winsford Walled Garden.

Pinus or pines.






Picea or spruce.






Juniperus or juniper.