Hi folks
I've had some very good advice on this forum before so I'm kindly asking you all to share your knowledge and help me. I found this beauty: Abies Veitchii 'Heddergott' on my local garden center growing in a #7 pot. It was very pot-bound so I had to unpack the root system. I tried to open it as much as I could but gently with my fingers only (no knives or plant cruelty involved ). it was quite the job: a 7 gallon root system is quite heavy and bulky. Finally I put it on the pot on the picture which is 20 inches wide and 17 inches tall. I'm planning on planting on the raised bed below at the end of summer and a lot of love and sun on the pot until there.
Enough story telling, now the questions:
It looks like firs in general are acid loving plants, should I mix the native soil I have there with a lot of peat? in general: with what should I fill that? The reason for the bed is that my soil is mostly clay, very alkaline and the impenetrable hard clay and rocks layer start at only 8-10 inches deep. As bad as it gets...
Any advice in general I'd greatly appreciate.







Many thanks in advance for your help fellow gardeners

Hello reyderrs:

I will offer general advice, as your growing zone conditions in Montreal are going to be vastly different than mine. You do have Parc du Mont-Royal (which I have twice visited) which was an early example of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.'s design acumen. While there is a national celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth (April 26), I also recognize his excellent work around this continent and am grateful that I've had the opportunity to steward his work in Louisville for over 25 years.

As to your question about soil preparation for conifers: the American Conifer Society is likely the premier source of information for this type situation, where you plan to create the entire growing environment for this plant. They will probably have a recipe for raised bed construction, and I would follow that. Additionally, if there is a local conifer group for Montreal (or maybe associated with the Montreal Botanical Garden) they should have very good tried-and-true advice to create appropriate growing conditions for your plant.

I have planted and grown a wide array of conifers, most recently a planting of about 60 specimens represented 35 taxa in the Shawnee Park pinetum rehabilitation in 2014. Among those trees were three very nice Abies veitchii, which prior to that time I had only read about and admired from a distance (arboreta collections).

You will want positive drainage, ample organic matter, and proper nutritional balance. Whatever you use to create this raised bed, test the component parts as well as the finished product. Peat moss is an organic matter, and typically tends to skew toward acidic reaction. It does not particularly add much in the way of nutrition, and I'm not aware whether it promotes healthy soil biotic activity. Composted organic matter is likely going to be better in that regard, so look into using both and mulching with composted materials so that organic additions are perpetual.

I hope this is helpful.

I thank you a lot for your detailed answer, it is very helpful! Mont-Royal is indeed a extremely beautiful spot of wilderness in the very middle of the city. Even the people that are born here or have lived here all their lives visit it at least annually. I did not know anything about its designer until now, so thanks for that as well.
Drainage is probably the only concern I don't have. The fact of raising the soil level about 11 inches will help already and the picture doesn't show it but the bed is on top of a slope and the ground level goes down right after the bed. It is probably the same everywhere else, but here the houses are always built on top of a mound so the water goes away from the house foundation towards lower ground. Being very close to the house this bed will also benefit from that.
I will certainly look into trying to find local conifer people. Local Rhododendron people have proved themselves easier to find though
Thanks again for your help.

I was thinking that if the tree does well and the roots start hitting the wood walls of the bed, then I could take them out and build a wider and flatter mound with more soil or sand for extra strength and erosion resistance. But I really would like to wait for the tree to do well and to prove itself for, at least, 3 winters before paying for more bags of whatever I'll use for that.

Finally planted into the ground:

Good luck but if the root system was truly knotted, it might have needed a few knife cuts. Just my take on this issue. At least you were aware of it and mentioned it in your post...so many people buy pot bound container stock without knowing it's a ticking timebomb.

davidrt28 said: Good luck but if the root system was truly knotted, it might have needed a few knife cuts. Just my take on this issue. At least you were aware of it and mentioned it in your post...so many people buy pot bound container stock without knowing it's a ticking timebomb.

Probably, very hard to know, I suppose now only time will tell. But at least I know this: when I transfered from the big pot to the ground, there were fine white roots close to the border of the pot so the roots kept spreading beyond the original root ball. That is already good news. When it is really compacted they just keep going in circles. I'll come back here in the next yeas to update on it.

Winter is almost over, it looks like it made it. Let's see if it the buds open normally

Looks quite happy!

SL_gardener said: Looks quite happy!

Thanks 🙏👍

Still looking good 👍😊 no buds breaking yet (10th May). Not super worry, I have a couple more firs and they are also dormant as well. In your experience, are firs slow to wake up compared with true pines or spruces?