This information is so timely for me! I really need something even smaller as an evergreen (maybe 8 feet or smaller) - perhaps a shrub. It sounds like a Colorado Blue Spruce cultivar could be that petite!
@@FrontRangeGardener thank you! I tried to overwinter a mugo pine in a container last year with zero success. In the landscape should do much better! Thanks, as always. :0)
I happened upon you and find you videos very helpful. I have a blue spruce that is ailing from needle drop over and above the normal drop. I want to deep root water it, but I don't know how long to water for using this tool. Can you give me some guidance? I live in Colorado Springs.
Most roots are found in the top foot of soil. A generous surface watering should be sufficient. I don't use a deep watering tool in my landscape. I thought the Front Range got a good amount of precipitation in the last three months.
Tulip Poplar is also a recent East Coast tree that has just now been being planted here in Colorado and they seem to be doing very good. Same with Hardy Rubber Tree
I know a few non-native trees that might fit the bill. If you want to plant a maple, you have to be very particular as to the variety. Many don't thrive in our alkaline soils. Two that do well are 'Hot wings' and 'Autumn blaze'. I also like the thornless cockspur hawthorn. This is a well behaved smaller deciduous tree.
All good choices, except the Ponderosa pine. The deer in my neighborhood just devastate the lower branches. I would use concolor much more often than blue spruce, which are subject to tip back.
Your experience with ponderosa pine is very interesting to me. I live in a neighborhood that is essentially a ponderosa pine forest, and we are full of deer, and I haven't seen the same problem. I love the concolor fir. It's too bad it's not planted more widely. Thanks for watching.
Do you have any resources or a video on native shrubs especially for hedges? I would like to try and do a privacy type hedge but really want to keep them native as much as possible.
I made a video on native shrubs for Fall color. Regent Serviceberry or red-twig dogwood might work for a hedge. It's not my landscaping style, so more research is needed. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CsQkz7xfnp4.html
I wasn't familiar with it, so I looked it up at Colorado State University. It has a note, "Performs poorly in Colorado, short lived. Extremely prone to Lilac/Ash borer." See cmg.extension.colostate.edu/white-ash-autumn-purple-white-ash/
What is your recommendation for a deciduous tree that attracts the least amount of bugs and requires the least maintenance for a small front yard (20 x 20)? I thought about a Rocky Mountain Maple but I don't then I have to deal with maple bugs. Looked at a bur oak but they get pretty tall and I heard horror stories about oak borers.
I have Tatarian Maples that I really like. They are not that big. Autumn Blaze Maple is another good option. For a small tree, thornless cockspur Hawthorne is good, but aphids like it.
Blue spruce requires too much water. When I bought my house there were several scattered throughout the Ponderosa. I didn’t water them for a couple of years with high rainfall and they all died. They don’t provide enough food for wildlife. Pretty, but too high maintenance.
I'm familiar with the Utah juniper. I think that is an example of a tree that's beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's not a.favoritw of mine, but if you like it, I think that's awesome. One caution with junipers is flammability. Don't plant them near homes or other structures. Thanks for watching.
@@FrontRangeGardener Thanks for the flammability tip. And great channel! I've used a few of your tips (had no idea that Aspen are that much of a pain, for example).
Cannot disagree more with your first choice tree. Unless you buy a dwarf variety, a blue spruce should not be planted in a typical 1/4 acre yard. These trees get gigantic, there is no space for them. To maintain many of these trees, people skirt them (cutting off the bottom 6-10 ft of the branches). These trees support the snow loads by balancing on those bottom branches. When skirted, the trees become extremely top heavy and fall over in big snows or high winds. Also, the pruning of these trees leaves them misshapen and weird looking. Every blue spruce in my neighborhood has been pruned aggressively and now looks just plain wrong, including the giant tree in my front yard that will eventually need to be remove because it is too big. All that being said -- I do love and have had a globe blue spruce that was magnificent.
