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A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Ponderosa Grove

What more reason than this do you need to plant pondies?

Ponderosa Pine

Pinus ponderosa

Ponderosas are the reason I got started in trees. I wanted a couple for the yard, and I couldn't find one at any garden centre. Indeed, all the trees in garden centres seemed to be for wussy little city yards where there's not room to swing a cat. (Not sure why you'd want to. I'm sure most cats would object. Both of mine certainly would.)

Pine in yard

Young ponderosa in my yard. The carpet surpresses weeds. I can mow right over the edge of the carpet. (It's spiked to the ground. You don't want to run carpet through your lawn mower. I know)

Driving around the acreages I saw how the developers did it. They would start by dozing everything down to subsoil. Plant their mushro ... houses on the naked dirt, and let the new owners buy dirt and start from scratch. Acres and acres of lawn.

I figure that these people are going to get sick of mowing lawn. And some of them will realize that they don't have to have trees that look like decorations from a model railroad.

Ponderosa by lake

Probably about 30 years old.

So I started growing ponderosas. And black poplar. And white pine. This year I've got weeping willow coming in. It's just a bit too cool here for Sequoia or western red cedar.

Ponderosa Pine

Batch of ponderosa in the pot yard.

Ponderosa Pine

20 inch or so ponderosa in 2 gallon Stuewe pot.

Anyway, I'm getting side tracked. Ponderosas start slowly, only about 6-8 inches a year for the first 10 years. Then they take off, and will grow about as fast as a white spruce.

Needles are long, 5-6 inches long. Branches on the lower part of the tree self prune so that after the tree is 40 feet or so high, only the top half to two-thirds has branches. Bark on older trees forms large rusty coloured plates separated by dark grooves.

Rocky Mtn Ponderosa Pine Pinus ponderosa var scopulorum
Location Potsize Height Count Price
PA29 Stu2 15 - 30 in. 38 $10 - $20 ($8 per foot)
PB23 Stu2 30 - 60 in. 450 $20 - $40 ($8 per foot)
PC47 Stu2 30 - 40 in. 57 $20 - $26 ($8 per foot)

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Sherwood's Forests is located about 75 km southwest of Edmonton, Alberta. Please refer to the map on our Contact page for directions.