Just before Christmas, immediately after a good snowfall my friends and I decided to break trail into The Big Tree as she is known locally.

The Big Tree is a big old Ponderosa Pine Tree in an area of trails close to my home town. It is the biggest tree in this particular area and a well-known destination for walkers, cross country skiiers and mountain bikers. It is a well-respected tree, often hugged and appreciated. It’s crowning glory is rather grey now with a few straggly branches, making it instantly recognizable from a distance.  It’s lower trunk is marked with the scars of  past unintentional abuse from those wishing to etch their names into history. It’s  jigsaw puzzle- like bark however maintains its golden colour and familiar vanilla scent especially noticeable on a scorching hot summer day. The oils released from its transpiring needles protect it from further dessication giving it that distinctive scent.

Living in Canada for most of my lifetime has given me an appreciation of evergreens, which I honestly did not have before this became my home.  I saw conifers as dark and rather foreboding when it came to landscape design.  Nothing could be further from the truth in my opinion now. Canada has taught me coniferous forests form a large part of Canada’s natural flora and perform a huge service to the world including acting as a massive natural carbon sink. Apart from thir many attributes and contributions to the ecomy, they can also become great additions to a garden.

Increased knowledge has given me respect and admiration of the many conifers that are so useful in our gardens as reliable, attractive plants perfectly suited to our zone three climate. While a Ponderosa Pine with the potential of a over 100 feet  in height may not be a suitable choice for landscaping in a small garden, there are other smaller pines bred for the purpose. Evergreens provide the perfect backdrop for other colourful shrubs and perennials. They might act as a screen from less desirable views and they provide year-round green interest in a climate, where several months of the year provide an overabundance of white.

Many people call any needle bearing tree a pine, which although technically can be true, pines are distinctive genus of conifers. There are eight families of conifers, Pinaceae is just one and that includes all the different genera of firs, hemlocks, cedars and pines.  Pinus is one genus which in turn, includes over one hundred species worldwide.

Ponderosa Pine Pinus ponderosa needles in clusters of three. This makes this species easily distinguishable from Lodgepole Pine, Pinus contorta which has needles in clusters of two. Both these pines are native to the rocky mountains.

Pines have several distinctive features. Their needles are frequently quite long (up to 10cm) but the needles always come in clusters of 2,3 or 5. The branches, needles and cones grow in a spiral fashion. Many pines live exceeding long lives up to 1,000 years. The famous Bristle Cone Pines of the south west U.S.A are known to have lived over 4,000 years. When looking for new garden shrubs, Pines are but one set of evergreen species to choose from. Look for Dwarf Blue Scotch Pines, Mugho Pines and if you have a large estate, you might consider a Ponderosa, Austrian or Scotch Pines. There are many to choose from to suit your growing space and conditions.

Pines make great companion planting for bulbs as their foliage is not so dense as some other evergreens enabling light to penetrate to the ground. Low growing rockplants such as Rock Cress, Campanulas, succulents, Saxifrages also combine well.

While redesigning or considering your new garden plantings for 2025, you may wish to think about the oft forgotten common conifers of Canada.