2/20/2007

"Your order has been shipped."

Details of your Invoice# WB330502 (under Customer# CE192985):

Qty/Item#/Description/Unit Price:
3 FT526 Seedling Pinyon Pine 12-15" 3.99

Your total invoice totals $12.84, including tax and shipping. Backordered items show a quantity of 0. Items shipped from locations other than our warehouse will not appear in the above details.

Wow. I ordered three pinyon pine seedlings? Wow. One wasn't enough? I had to order three? I suppose some might say even one is too many for a 500 sq. ft. space in San Francisco. (But being a good San Franciscan, I don't hear negative voices so why bother.) At least I only paid $12.84. But perhaps this is evidence that I do have a plant problem.

I can't quite imagine what I'm going to do with three pinyon pines. I know I started out wanting some native conifer interest in my garden. I got hooked on having Pinus monophylla (Single leaf pinyon) after reading about it here. You can get P. monophylla seed here, but good luck finding a seedling. For reasons I don't recall, I decided I wanted a seedling, not a seed. And at some point I switched loyalties to Pinus edulis.

Sunset Western Garden (I'm in Zone 17):
Pinus edulis--Native to California's desert mountains; east to Arizona, New Mexico and Texas; north to Wyoming. Zones 1-11, 14-21. Slow to 10-20 ft. tall, 8-16 ft. wide. Horizontally branching tree is bushy and symmetrical in youth; in age, a spreading tree with a rounded or flat crown. Beautiful densely foliaged small pine for container, rock garden. Lends look of age to new gardens.

Ahh! That's why I switched. It also makes edible seeds (edible by humans), but that will take many years. And I would want the birds to enjoy the seeds anyway.
Pinus monophylla--Southeastern California south to Baja, east to Utah, Arizona. Zones 2-12, 14-21. Very slow to 10-25 ft. tall, 10-15 ft. wide. In youth, slender, symmetrical narrow crowned. Small and round headed in maturity with a crooked trunk; open and broad topped in old age. Good bonsai or rock garden plant--or shrub of great character in dry, rocky places.

Well, that crooked trunk sounds nice, but I think the horizontally branching bushiness of the P. edulis will work better for me. At least for awhile. Assuming it grows at all in part-shade for half the year.

3 comments:

Annie in Austin said...

You'll find some way to fit those pinons into your 500 sq ft, ChuckB ... your previous post showed how ingenious you are at making everything work.

Yeah, you do have a plant problem, and maybe it's trouble for you but it's fun for us!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

chuck b. said...

One's going in the garden, one'll go on the roof in a pot, and I'm giving one to a friend.

chuck b. said...

And thanks for the positive feedback, Annie! (My b.f. would not be pleased--heh, heh.)