I guess I'll share these here too, pics favorite conifer, Abies fraseri: http://www.fototime.com/C3B440C5450C96E/orig.jpg http://www.fototime.com/9CA7BB7F0AF74C2/orig.jpg http://www.fototime.com/1CB76C09B005FF6/orig.jpg http://www.fototime.com/3028D304A7CDE01/orig.jpg The Fralsam is a Fraser/Balsam hybrid created by Wier tree farms. Has the best traits of each tree, dark blue-green color, more buds, etc... http://www.fototime.com/2F9ED5FA8A9AF09/orig.jpg http://www.fototime.com/B179AC63C5FC5F4/orig.jpg
Very nice. Thanks for posting the photos. In zone 8, the snow probably doesn't last very long? Your summers must be cool enough to grow these Abies successfully? Summers in a non-coastal zone 8 would be way too hot for this tree. Thanks, Mike
Grow for some years, then get full of bugs and peter out unless kept sprayed. One more than 20ft tall is a whopper here. Native subalpine and Noble firs have similar problems when brought into lowland gardens. Unhappy Abies amabilis are also frequent here, even though it does grow natively and huge in some quite low altitude spots on the outer Coast (high precipitation is important for this one, most populated portions of region too dry for it to persist). Various spruces also very common and ugly on local properties. If these were systematically removed it would be quite an enhancement to the general landscape (2/3 of Seattle is renters, so there's alot of residential property occupied by people who are paying little attention to the yard). Even locally native Sitka spruce (rather frequent in wetlands here in the Puget Trough) is usually full of galls and dead twigs when planted in metropolitan area.
Well, many Christmas tree growers offer Frasers and other tempermental exotics. The owner of Snowshoe Evergreen (Christmas tree grower) in Orting said that Frasers do better here than Nobles. I've seen the Frasers grown localy and they look fantastic. I think the real draw back to having these types of firs is the summer dry season. The Seattle area gets about ~37" of rain anually while the Southern Appalachians, where the Fraser is native, recieve around 75". I agree with Ron most these types of trees planted as ornamentals look sickly with age. On the otherhand, I do believe these trees and other Abies would thrive better if grass and weeds were no allowed to grown around the trunk and drip line. The grass steals an incredible amount of moisture and nutrients away from the tree. Oh yea, spraying for spidermites is a PIA...
