Thursday, August 07, 2008

KEARNEY, Neb. – In general, conifers thrive in dry soils and too much water can damage them, said a Nebraska Statewide Arboretum assistant director.

“If we put a conifer in a landscape that’s irrigated with a sprinkler that’s running two or three times a week, the lack of oxygen for the roots will literally suffocate the tree,” said Bob Henrickson, assistant director of horticulture programs at NSA. 

To establish both conifers and turfgrass, Henrickson recommends separating them into their own areas.

For western Nebraska, Henrickson recommends two native pines–the limber pine that’s native mostly to Kimball County and the ponderosa pine that’s found throughout the Pine Ridge area of northwestern Nebraska. 

He said that spruce trees also do well in the western part of the state. The Colorado blue spruce can struggle in windy situations, but it still does well.  Black hills spruce also gets a lot of attention.

The only fir that Henrickson recommends for western Nebraska is the concolor fir. But, homeowners should avoid planting them in wind-swept sites and irrigated landscapes.

“They don’t like poorly-drained soils,” he said.

Two species that don’t get a lot of use are bristle cone and pinion pines, Henrickson said, but they’re good choices, too. These trees are harder to find in nurseries, but they’re worth the effort as they’re “very, very drought tolerant.”

“Korean pine, Swiss stone pine ‘Prairie Statesman,’ mugo pine ‘Tannenbaum’  and Austrian pine are all exotic to Nebraska, but do very well here, Henrickson said.

The Nebraska Statewide Arboretum is a program unit within the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.