Whoa...that's cool! What is it?

Last night we hosted a CNGA member outreach BBQ at the nursery and if you were there, you might have noticed some interesting upright deciduous shrubs acting as decorations in the potting shed. As a follow up, for those of you who didn't know or generally haven't been familiar, let me introduce you to Fine Line® Buckthorn, Rhamnus frangula 'Ron Williams'.
You may be familiar with the Proven Winners brand and this fine specimen comes from that program. You may have seen them as curious little #3 or #5 plants in pretty white pots and had to imagine what that little guy looks like when he grows up. Well as you can see from the picture, Fine Line® Buckthorn grows into a fantastic upright plant, 8' tall and 3' wide with a "finely" textured foliage that has a tropical appearance but is also dense. The plant is very adaptable, requiring moderate water and drought tolerant once established. It is SUPER hardy as well, zone 2 (-50 F)! Plant in sun or part shade, don't pick the few berries it produces (Rhamnus berries are poisonous) and watch the deer walk on by to forage elsewhere. Although no plant is perfect this one sure passes the sniff test as a tough plant for Colorado.
It has a wide range of uses including narrow hedges or screens, accent specimen, patio planters, and combination planters. It can be used to frame doors and pathways as well. We have 10 5' B&B in stock now and will be stocking more next spring, so come by to see one, try one and start designing them into your projects.

Ho! Ho! Ho! 'Green Giant' Arborvitae

No one would ever accuse me of being a fan of Emerald Green Arborvitae, at least not for the front range of Colorado. They are not particularly drought tolerant, realtively slower growing, explode in heavy snow, burn from sun and wind as well as being the epitome of a commodity product. All this being said, there is an arborvitae on the market I am excited about. Thuja standishii x plicata, Green Giant arborvitae is a National Arboretum elite plant that is tolerant of a wide variety of soils and is hardy to Zone 5. This plant can be used as an evergreen screen, hedge or as a single specimen.
'Green Giant' is virtually maintence free, pest and disease resistant and widely considered deer resistant (all deer will graze on something green when they are starving). 'Green Giant' is a very fast growing plant regularly putting on 12-24" of grown annually and even more in some climates. The size of the plants at 10 years is 18-20' tall and 8' wide. Mature height is said to be upwards of 60' tall and 30' wide, although I wouldn't expect quite that large here. The plant is a little more "open" in habit, that is relative to Emerald Green, so that it sheds ice and snow well without breakage.
I planted a small screen of 5 plants in my yard about two years ago as #7's that were maybe 50" tall. They have full south sun exposure and are planted on my property line in an area that is a small drainage swail. Today they stand about 8' to the tip and are nice and full plants. It is important to select trees with a strong central leader. 'Green Giant' will tend to stretch some at the top with a kind of leggy appearance above the body of the plant. There is a selection of 'Green Giant' called 'Steeplechase' which does not thow this longer leader up, but it is not widely available yet outside of the east coast. I have observed that the dormant color can be quite dull and last winter I saw some sunburn on foliage on the south side but the plant has grown right out of it nicely and held up well with the record setting dry winter. With the onset of many insect problems in our pine and spruce populations, there certainly is room for this plant along the Front Range.