Plant Feature: Columnar Eastern White Pine

Physical Description

Botanical Name: Pinus strobus ‘Fastigiata’

Foliage: Gray-green

Flower: Does not flower.

Sun: Full sun

Water: Water regularly, especially when topsoil is dry

Size: 25’-40’ tall and 10’ wide

Zone: 3-9

General Information

The Columnar Eastern White Pine is a narrow evergreen that has characteristic gray-green, silky smooth foliage. The needles are approximately 2”-4” long and appear in clusters of 5. Cones hang vertically from the branches and are 6”-12” in length. The evergreen foliage provides year round interest and does great as a specimen planting. Additionally, it works well as a barrier, hedge and privacy screen.

Care | Propagation | Pests

This fast growing, easy-to-maintain evergreen attracts birds and is resistant to deer. However, this white pine has difficulty with white pine weevils, which tend to lay eggs within the tree and cause permanent damage to the tree's structure. Other types of pests include bark beetles, sawfly larvae and pine needle miner larvae. Similarly, it does not tolerate heavy pollution, specifically that common to urban areas. Ideal conditions consist of moderate water application and acidic soil.

Contractor Spotlight: Green Lawn Care & Landscape

Green Lawn Care & Landscape is an established, 20 year old company offering complete services in all phases of your landscape's life cycle. From the initial consultation to construction to the routine care and upkeep of your property, they pay strong attention to detail and listen to your needs.

Maintenance
Green Lawn Care offers commercial property management to help owners maintain property value, attract business and increase resale value. Residential maintenance programs allow for quality time enjoying the yard and making life easier.

• Mowing, trimming and edging
• Weeding and flower bed maintenance 
• Turf aeration 
• Gutter and window cleaning
• Christmas/Holiday decor and lighting
• Tree care and pruning 
• Fall leaf clean up

Enhancements & Small Projects
Green Lawn Care can also help update or add those finishing touches to the yard.

• All sizes of plantings
• Annual flower beds
• Drainage solutions
• Topsoil placement, fine grading and skid steer/bobcat work
• Freshen up beds with new bark mulch
• Erosion control

Residential & Commercial Construction
Green Lawn Care can also help with large construction projects. They install various products including:

• Trees and plants 
• Topsoil
• Landscape lighting
• Driveways, walkways and patios of concrete, brick pavers, natural stone and wood
• Fountains, ponds and waterfalls
• Retaining walls 
• Pools, spas and hot tubs
• Outdoor kitchens and amenities
• Shade structures, fences and trellis
• Bark mulch, decorative stone, curbing and weed barrier

Irrigation Services

• Full system installations
• Repairs, maintenance and 24-hour emergency service
• Watering management and seasonal watering adjustments
• System turn on and blow outs
• Backflow testing
• Five-year parts warranty and two-year labor warranty for systems maintained by Green Lawn Care

Fertilization & Spraying
Whether it's keeping a green lawn or a professional diagnosis and customized program, Green Lawn Care can help create a property the neighborhood will admire.

• Licensed applicators
• Lawn and plant fertilization 
• Insecticide and dormant oil spraying
• Spider barrier spray
• Preemergent

Winter Snow Plowing & Ice Maintenance 
Green Lawn Care provides the equipment and manpower to provide timely curb to curb clearing of any size area. They serve local hospitals, major retailers and small businesses as well as individual homeowners.

• Dependable 24/7 weather monitoring and service
• Truck mounted plows and sanders
• Liquid and granular deicing spray trucks
• Public and private sidewalk maintenance

A residence installed by Green Lawn Care & Landscape in 2010

Another home installed in 2014

Green Lawn Care & Landscape is Better Business Bureau accredited, licensed & insured and staffed with friendly and professionally licensed personnel.

Boise North End Residence

BEFORE: Existing Deck Area

This project in Boise’s North End involved the renovation of an existing rear yard into an outdoor room that would serve as an extended living space. The clients, Bronco fans with professional ties to BSU, wanted to create an area where they could entertain friends while watching football games right in their own backyard.

AFTER: Expanded Stone Patio with Outdoor Kitchen/Living Area

The plan called for a large patio area, an overhead structure to provide filtered shade, and a custom fire pit. Specialty furnishings included outdoor couches, a secure weatherproof cabinet for storage of the large flat screen TV, and an outdoor grill with kitchen components. A two-person hot tub shaped to fit into a corner helped maximize space.

Wood structure to provide filter shade over game viewing area

The master plan focused primarily on hardscape patio areas for dining and entertainment. Plant materials were concentrated in raised planting beds whose wall heights had been elevated to better function as informal seating. Materials included natural stone and concrete pavers, and also a stucco finish on the planter walls to tie into the existing house.

BEFORE: Existing Planters in Side Yard

AFTER: Raised Planting Beds in Side Yard; New Concrete Pavers

Fire pit with Bronco colors!

Stone and concrete paver interface with water feature

Vendor Spotlight: Hunter

Hunter’s focus is to develop innovative, professional products for efficient irrigation. Hunter’s proven water-saving products combine efficient water use with sustainable design, allowing the products to last for years in outdoor environments. In the hands of the professional contractor, Hunter products will help save water, no matter what type of landscape is being irrigated or where it’s located.

Interested in learning more? Visit their website at hunterindustries.com

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How to Add Winter Interest

In the short winter days that leave Boise with a flat grey sky promising snow, the landscape often appears bleak and desolate. If this gets you down, consider the following options for adding color and visual interest to those dreary winter days. While a bit less showy in the peak of the growing season, these plants possess unique characteristics such as berries, bark, or winter flowers that stand out against the grey of winter.

Try Ilex verticillata ‘Spriber’ (Berry Nice Winterberry Holly, a 7’h x 4’w deciduous shrub that features bright red berries through the fall and winter), or Viburnum prunifolia (Blackhaw Viburnum, a 12’h x 8’w deciduous shrub that holds blue-black berries and attracts wildlife), or Symphoricarpos ‘Bokrabright’ (Bright FantasySnowberry, pictured above, is a 4’ x 4’ deciduous shrub with showy white berries that carry through the winter).

Colorful bark like Cornus sericea (Red Osier Dogwood, a 7’h x 12’w deciduous shrub with bright red stems), or Betula nigra ‘BNMTF’ (DuraHeat River Birch, pictured above, is a 40’h x 20’w deciduous tree with exfoliating pinkish-orange winter bark) add color and interest to a drab winter landscape.

There are even flowers that bloom in winter like Hamamelis mollis ‘Pallida’ (Pallida Chinese Witch Hazel, s 15’ x 15’ fragrant shrub of yellow flowers with red cups that appear in the winter on otherwise bare branches).

Evergreens also add color and form that stays consistent through the change of seasons like Picea pungens ‘Hoopsii’, (Hoop’s Blue Spruce, pictured above, is a 30’h x 15’w spruce tree with a blue hue), Tsuga canadensis (Canadian Hemlock, a 40’h x 25’w confier that adds green and pyramidal year-round interest), Iberis sempervirens (Evergreen Candytuft, a 6”h x 1’w evergreen groundcover with green foliage that blooms with white flowers in early spring), or Aucuba japonica ‘Serratifolia’ (Sawtoothed Aucuba, a 4’h x 6’w evergreen shrub with dark green, glossy foliage that produces red berries in the fall).

Utilizing form and texture through bark, branching and ornamental grasses is an additional way to make your garden more exciting in the winter months.

Branching plants like Rhus Typhina ‘Laciniata’ (Laceleaf StaghornSumac, a 10’ x 10’ upright, multi-stemmed form adorned with red buds), Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’ (Contorted filbert, pictured above, is a 10’ x 10’ twisted branching form with yellow catkins that add color to the winter landscape), or Salix matsudana ‘Tortuosa’ (Corkscrew Willow, a 30’h x 20’w contorted deciduous tree with year-round interest that attracts butterflies) become artwork in the landscape.

Ornamental grasses like Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ (Black Mondo Grass, a 1’ x 1’ purple-black grass that adds a stark contrast to the garden), Miscanthus sinensis ‘Adagio’ (Adagio Maiden Grass, a 5’h x 3’w grass that turns golden in the winter months), or Helictotrichon sempervirens (BlueOat Grass, a 3’h x 2’w evergreen grass with a blue-silver hue) add texture and color to the winter garden.

Consider adding boulders and garden art to create ongoing visual interest. Art may include sculptures or bird feeders/baths that have the added advantage of attracting wildlife.