The Perennial Optimist - ONCE UPON A CONEFLOWER

Small Conifers for Tight Spaces

Korean Silberlocke fir needles, close up.

Who doesn’t love conifers, those graceful needled trees and shrubs that stay beautiful year round for almost no care? We admire their proud outlines on our walks, or laden with lights at the holidays. Just the word “conifer” brings to mind twisted pines, stately spruce and snow-covered fir forests. Yet as much as we covet them, our properties are often too small for more than one or two of these beauties, if that. They take up waaayyyy too much space– or so we tell ourselves.

Luckily there are some terrific smaller choices on the market which provide all the benefits of standard-size conifers (except shade) without compromising space. Think of “dwarf” conifers as you would any other small to medium-sized shrub.

Hardy Hellebores

These beauties never fail to lift your spirits because they bloom in late winter and earliest spring, when everything else is blah and gray. While heavy snows can knock them flat, most still manage to rouse themselves and thrust their fat buds determinedly into the frigid air. As soon as things begin to thaw, the flowers open, sometimes with snow still on the ground.

Japanese Anemone, Ballerina of Indian Summer

Ballerina, you say?

Yes, because Japanese anemones will enchant you with joyful choruses of exuberant round buds on tall, graceful stems. Upon opening, their pert “tutus” of petals bob and dance as if on tiptoe in the slightest breeze. Hence their common name, windflower.