Dwarf Conifers

Dwarf conifers are evergreens selected to grow a few inches a year instead of a foot or more, so they stay between 1 and 4 feet for decades. This page lists the dwarf and miniature conifers Nature Hills Nursery carries, sized for a foundation bed, a rock garden, a trough, or a container without annual shearing.

What counts as dwarf?

Dwarf is a growth rate, not a fixed height. The size classes used across the trade call a conifer miniature when it adds less than 1 inch a year, dwarf at 1 to 6 inches, and intermediate above that. A dwarf Alberta spruce and a dwarf Hinoki false cypress both qualify, and after 20 years one is several feet taller than the other. Read the mature size listed on the plant rather than the word dwarf on the label.

Where a dwarf conifer earns its place

Under a window, a dwarf conifer never has to be cut off the sill. Along a walk, it stays out of the path. In a rock garden or a trough, it gives the planting a year-round anchor while perennials come and go. Container growing works too, one zone colder than the ground, since roots in a pot see more cold than roots in the soil.

Shapes to choose between

Bun and globe forms are wider than tall and read as quiet mounds. Upright dwarf spruce and dwarf arborvitae hold a narrow cone and give a bed some height without a tree. Creeping junipers spread flat over a slope or a wall edge. Weeping dwarfs are trained to a stake, so their height depends on the leader rather than on age.

Color through the year

Golden yellow, powder blue, blue-green, and green with creamy white new tips are all on this page. Several arborvitae and false cypress turn bronze, amber, or purple through the cold months and return to their summer color in spring. If you want one color year round, check the foliage note before you buy.

Pick your zone, measure the spot, then choose a shape.