Conifers can provide colour, texture and structural diversity to the garden throughout the year. A vast range of species and cultivars is currently available and, if the right choice is made, conifers can be a valuable asset to most gardens. As with most major plant groups, the RHS has strong links with conifers and they provide shelter, structure, specific interest or focal points in all RHS Gardens.
Many of the earliest surviving plantings at Wisley are of conifers and they are still used throughout the garden. Two Chamaecyparis in the wild garden date from the late 19th century and are thought to be the oldest deliberate plantings in the garden. The Pinetum itself has trees planted in the 1920s and the trials field has surrounding conifers from the 1950s. The Rock Garden contains a significant collection of smaller cultivars and new plantings are made throughout the garden, especially in the Pinetum and Jubilee Arboretum.
Registration
Conifers are one of the nine plant groups for which the RHS is the International Cultivar Registration Authority.
Registration of conifer cultivar names
RHS Trials and Awards
RHS Exhibition Awards are given to plants with show-bench quality - regular conifers can be put before Floral Committee B and dwarf conifers are assessed by the Joint Rock Garden Plant Committee. Three awards for plants are available, the highest being the First Class Certificate (FCC), followed by the Award of Merit (AM) and the Certificate of Preliminary Commendation (PC). Anyone can put plants forward for such Awards on specified dates when the Committee meets.
Conifers with the Award of Garden Merit
Links
The American Conifer Society
The British Conifer Society