Like most spruce trees the Norway spruce prefers a cooler climate. This species will grow faster than some of the other spruce, but it is not as desired as some of the others. It works well as a windbreak or a buffer and has moderate tolerance to urban conditions. It can be a wonderful specimen tree for a yard or park.
Loblolly pine is a needled evergreen tree in the pine family (Pinaceae) and is native to the southeastern United States. It has the most rapid growth rate of all pines and may grow 60 to 90 feet tall with a 20 to 40 foot width.This an important timber tree whose wood is used for paper pulp, plywood, and general construction. Its wood value and rapid growth rate make it an important tree for forest management.
Fraser fir is a needled, evergreen tree in the Pinaceae (pine) family native to the Appalachian Mountains in the southeastern United States. It is named for John Fraser (d. 1811), Scottish botanist and plant collector. The needles are fragrant and long-lasting making the fraser fir an excellent specimen tree for a garden for the blind, a children’s garden, or a recreational play area.
Although common in the landscape, eastern white pine makes an excellent specimen plant or background plant for smaller trees because of its evergreen foliage. This evergreen is an excellent ornamental tree but will not thrive if growing conditions are not optimal.1 The quality of the wood and the long straight stems have made it ideal for many uses, particularly as shingles and ship masts.
It is slow-growing and can get 3-5 feet tall and 5-6 feet wide. Globe blue spruce is a flat topped, conifer ornamental tree, prized for its blue needles. The rigid branches provide excellent rain protection and nesting areas for birds. There are recorded globe spruces that are 600-800 years old. They’re in it for the long haul.
Blue spruce is a columnar or conical evergreen conifer with densely growing horizontal branches. They have waxy gray-green leaves, up to 3 cm are arranged radially on the shoots which curve upwards. The pale brown cones are up to 10 cm long. Genus name is reportedly derived from the Latin word pix meaning “pitch” in reference to the sticky resin typically found in spruce bark.
Blue Atlas Cedar is a showy evergreen conifer that needs plenty of room to grow. It originated in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. A waxy coating on the needles gives them the bluish cast for which Glauca is known. Blue Atlas Cedar have short blue needles in clusters up to 45. They have barrel shaped cones and a fragrant aroma.
This ornamental tree has stiff dark green needles that occur in bundles of two. The cones are pointed directly out and away from the stem and are oval and brown at maturity. The bark of the tree is dark brown to black, furrowed, and plate-like. The branches are stout and spreading, and the trunk is straight.
The common name comes from the seeds being used by pioneers as a coffee substitute. With its bold form, contorted branching, unique bark and decorative clusters of large pods rattling in the wind, Kentucky coffeetree is an exceptional winter ornamental.
The leaves are alternate, pinnately or bipinnately compound, 6-8″ long with 20-30 leaflets. Leaves are bright green in summer; fall color is yellow. Fruit is a reddish-brown to brown pod from 7-18 inches long and about an inch wide. It contains hard, oval seeds and is often irregularly twisted. The pulp inside the seed pod is edible which makes the tree an attractant for bees, moths, butterflies, and small mammals.