PRODUCTION AT COENOSIUM GARDENS

Years ago I decided to focus on plant production by grafting and to limit production from cuttings. I have only one production house and I tailored its functionality for grafting. I constructed a small tent structure inside it for doing some Acer palmatum and some Fagus sylvatica. Cuttings just don't work that well, but I still do a few flats every 2-3 years with mixed results.

We sit on 5.5 acres (@2 hectares) and devote most of our space to landscaped gardens and living areas. Our greenhouse is 24' x 100' (7 m x 30 m appx.).  I maintain its winter temperature at a minimum of 45^oF (@8^oC). The double poly sides plus the low minimum temperature help greatly with the heating fuel (LPG gas), which has skyrocketed in cost the past few years.

Our sales areas are flat terraces cut into our sloping property. We have two selling areas for #1 containers (one shaded and one not shaded), an area for #3 and #5 containers that is being gradually converted into a garden area as we discontinue those sizes. One area for holding the new grafts for a year that is shaded.

We allow customers who visit to select their own plants from these sales areas. Mail order plants are selected by us immediately upon confirmation of an order. That way we don't sell any plants to visitors that are already spoken for.

When we remove our new crop from the greenhouse in late May-early June, we immediately pot the plants into our 5' square containers. We chose this new container to move away from the round, #1 (1 gallon) containers for several reasons. The dwarf and miniature plants look nice in them. They can be grown in them for up to three years. The containers stack together in the beds nice, saving space and shading the root zones better. They pack nicer for shipping and they are lighter than #1 containers without sacrificing a whole lot of volume of growing media.

Here are a few pictures of our production areas.

The Greenhouse

These pictures show the 2007 crop as the grafts are pushing their new growth. The poly covering was recently removed to prevent overheating on sunny days and the humidity is maintained by high number of plants on the benches plus an occasional spraying from overhead misters.

Pressure treated, wooden benches I constructed keep the grafts off the floor for ease of access by me and not so much ease for mice.

The grafts are in flats and the flats can be packed tightly together when the plants are in 4" pots with air spaces between the seedlings for ventilation.

A picture showing a crop of Picea abies 'Gold Drift' just breaking dormancy.

Some Picea abies 'Hasin' starting to push new growth. When grafting miniatures, the scion wood is very tiny and a very sharp knife is needed.

Container Sales Areas

An overall view of the main sales area showing the mix of cantainers that is gradually being changed to all 5" square pots with a few exceptions.

A few fir offerings showing a nice contrast in the sales area with Abies concolor 'Wintergold' between two green cultivars.

These Picea abies 'Nidiformis Kalous' look perfect in our new production container.

These Abies concolor 'Blue Cloak' look great this year but will soon outgrow their containers. These were produced as part of our last crop of faster growing cultivars.

Assorted Abies cultivars in our new containers.

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February, 2008