Hey, guys.
JayDee here, with Jerry.
We're in the Varga Arboretum at the USU Botanical Gardens.
We're going to talk to you about some cool conifers.
There's a number of them that, JayDee and I,
we don't think they're used enough,
and they're just really cool, and we just
want to show people them.
Well, I hesitate because these are the ones I have in my yard,
and I don't want everybody to have my trees.
[LAUGHS]
But in the--
Because you're a good guy.
In the spirit of education, we thought
we would share some cool conifers.
This one behind us is called the Alaskan weeping cedar.
And in my opinion, it's tough as nails.
It is, and it's so cool looking.
It's unique.
You don't want to plant too many of them.
Right.
But to me, it's a specimen.
You put it somewhere, it draws attention.
It's a focal point.
Now, I'm going to age myself a little bit,
but I kind of call this the Snuffleupagus
tree because the branches kind of weave,
kind of like Snuffleupagus' hair.
I like it.
Really cold-hardy.
I live in Cache Valley.
I've got one in my yard, Zone 4.
And I've seen them up there.
I've seen them in other places as well.
But again, very unique.
You don't want to plant a whole hedge of them.
No, but it's a really good focal point conifer.
Yeah, it is.
And it gets a lot, about 30 feet or something.
Yeah.
It's not it's not super big.
No.
But this is a good one.
So this little guy is called Sherwood's dwarf bristlecone
pine.
And bristlecone pines are really unique in the Intermountain
West.
What I like about this one is it stays small.
It's compact.
I love just that look to it.
It's related-- well, bristlecones
are the oldest, some of the oldest trees on Earth
right now.
Yeah.
You go down to Great Basin and--
what are they, 3,000 plus?
Yeah.
We've got-- we've gone on that hike,
along that loop and seen those 3,000-year-old trees.
So--
And my mind is all of a sudden gone
because that's just so cool.
[LAUGHS] It is.
So beautiful.
If you've never been to Great Basin National
Park, that's a must see.
You've got to get up on to Wheeler--
Wheeler Peak.
Peak, and see some of those old trees, yeah.
Yeah, so this is like the little nephew.
The cute.
The cute little nephew that's good for rock gardens,
tight spaces again.
But again, you can see, six to eight feet
is about what it'll get.
And it is bristlecone, which means hardly any water.
Yep.
That's what it loves.
Loves dry soil, harsh conditions,
really hard to kill.
That's why it's doing so good here.
Yeah.
[LAUGHS]
So we've talked about some smaller trees, I know.
This is one of the huge ones.
This is a dawn redwood.
This has got some of the coolest history behind it.
It was thought to be extinct for a lot of years,
until some scientists found it in China.
Yeah.
And it was during World War II, 1945-ish,
and some scientists snuck into China
and got some seed, brought it back,
and some of those original trees are
in some of the botanical gardens around the nation.
But this is one we planted probably about 10 years ago,
was all.
Yeah, and it-- the one thing I like and you
have to be careful of is they're fast growers
and they're big trees.
Huge.
But the cool thing that I like about them is they're
what we call a deciduous conifer.
They drop their needles.
I had somebody one time come into my office
with a stick in November and said,
I planted this dawn redwood and then all the needles fell off.
So it's dead.
What-- yeah.
He said, so what killed it?
Well, you did.
[LAUGHS] So--
But before those needles drop, they
go like a bronze, orange color.
They're really--
Really unique tree.
They really are.
And in the spring, even as the new needles come out,
I love that look.
That just is a real pretty--
ah, just a focal point, but they're big.
Yeah, give them some space.
You got to remember, these are big.
Here's another one that I know is
one of JayDee's favorite trees.
It is.
I love-- this is an oriental spruce.
This one is the particular variety is gowdy.
There's another one called "deer run" that's very popular.
It has a blue--
It's a little thinner, I think, deer run is.
Yeah, and it's got bluer leaves than this.
But I love the short needles and they're soft.
Yeah.
I was going to say, I like it because you know,
when you think of the spruce and some of the others
that look like this, you bump into them and you go, ah.
Well, you kind of swear sometimes.
Well, maybe.
With this one, you can be a true tree-hugger.
Yeah.
And give it love.
Again, it's a smaller conifer.
You know, a lot of our yards are becoming more and more small,
so this is something that would fit in a landscape.
A lot of times, when we try to put the-- we buy
t he cute little blue spruce or something, and in 10 years,
it's dwarfed the house.
These guys that we like stay right where we want them.
Yep.
Yeah.
So this is a cedar, a true cedar, not like the junipers
that we call cedars.
Not the Utah cedar.
No.
This is a cedar, and it's a cedar of Lebanon, which--
Which is really-- it has a cool history to the Middle East.
It does.
Forests of these things, and they're massive.
Huge trees and really cool-looking.
Yeah.
Now this one is called Nana, which
botanically, means "dwarf."
So this is a dwarf tree.
[LAUGHS]
But you can see, "dwarf" doesn't always mean "small."
I mean, it even looks big compared to Jerry.
Well, there's most things, when compared to Jerry.
But it's kind of interesting to me because a lot of people
say, well, I bought it and it said "dwarf."
This is dwarf?
When compared to the other species, yeah, this is dwarf.
And keep in mind, on a conifer label,
usually, they'll give you the 10 to 15 year range.
So then you have to extrapolate.
OK, how long am I going to live here?
Yeah.
[LAUGHS]
So again, cool conifer, smaller in size.
Try it out.
So this skinny guy right here--
Thank you.
Wow.
[LAUGHS]
Makes me feel bad about my own physique,
but this is called the Cupressina Norway spruce.
And you can see behind Jerry's head,
the real Norway spruce has sweeping branches.
Big, they can get quite large and spread.
Yeah.
But you can see this, through plant breeding,
they've got this fastigiate or columnar form.
Really great for corners in homes.
A lot of people, they look for this.
They'll go down south and they'll
see some of those Italian cypress.
And then they'll come home to buy a juniper that,
after a little while, flops.
Yeah.
Look at this baby.
This is tight.
This is really good.
This, I like.
Yeah.
And sometimes, you'll pay a little bit extra
for some of these conifers.
But the reason for that is through the breeding process,
it takes years and years to develop these.
The buddings process, getting them to take.
And they're a little slower-growing.
You can see the growth on this is only a couple inches.
So keep in mind, you'll spend more upfront,
but it's well worth it.
Oh, yeah.
So check out some of these cool trees
and come and visit us at the Varga Arboretum.
We're here in Kaysville, the botanical center.
Please come by.
Grab a weed if you'd like to, take it home as a souvenir.
[LAUGHS]
We're good.
We don't have weeds here.
[LAUGHS]
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