[chrissie B]

morning all , i was just wondering if the top of my i think conifer its a bright green smells like lemon , would root and grow , what happend was the snow last year snapped off the top of one of my two green trees leaving the other one 18 ins taller so while trimming them back i have had to cut the said ammount off to even them up and i have a perfect top left so can i get it to grow on its own its standing in water at the mo .
chrissie b

[Rangerkris]

Conifer    I hate these trees with a passion sorry i can help on your question but i think you would be better off cutting the whole tree of at the ground and removing the roots and plant something thats of use.  A nice cherry, blackthorn, hawthorn, yew any thing really other that conifer if its in a hedge and you want ever green go for holly.

[Rangerkris]

Just seen your in Greece so it may vary on the speices of tree that about for you slightly.

[chrissie B]

sorry you don't like these trees but we grew them from small so pulling them up is out of the question .were you frightened by one as a child , i ask this as i had an experience with a hydrangea when i was small , full of spiders it was still get a shiver if i have to pass one , thanks anyway
Chrissie b

[Stripey_cat]

Round here there are a lot of idiots who plant vigorous conifers (infamously Leyland Cypress) as hedging, then let them get out of control.  Since they make substantial trees they're not ideal in suburban gardens.  Also, a lot of unscrupulous garden centres sell slow-growing ornamental conifers as dwarfs: again, it's easy to accidentally end up with a forest tree when you wanted a sub-shrub.  This tends to give the whole lot a bad name.

Properly handled, I think conifers (and non-flowering-plants in general) are underrated and underused, and native species at least house interesting wildlife.  I'm also a sucker for the resinous scents!  On the other hand, I grew up near well-managed pine-woods, so I'm open to the idea that they can be lovely and provide useful habitats.

[chrissie B]

we keep ours under controll and the 2 we have smell wonderful lemony pine smell , we find them full of crickets , anyway ive stuck hthe top part in the ground hoping it may grow .
chrissie b

[Rangerkris]

Gee you really did get that from me on the posting above hahahaha Sorry about that maybe i should have kept that one to myself.  I guess they do make a good hedge if they are kept short and under control. 

Im thinking of when we have to do tree work in this things the height of house's and when you have finished climbing around the ropes and my ares are covered in all types of sticky gooey sap that sticks to you for hours.  Yukk

[Stripey_cat]

Those are Monterey cypress, aren't they?  So they'll end up pretty big, but if you have the space for it they'll probably stand up to Greek summers better than most broadleaves.  I love the smell of conifers in really hot sun (if anyone's interested, I have very fond memories of siesta-picnicking under cedars near the Olympia site, listening to cicadas or something, and totally overwhelmed by the resin).

I think you may need to try proper cuttings rather than just sticking mature wood in the ground - I'm not the person to ask about that (I have a 0% success rate there - I can graft shrubs, but I can't root carnations).  Google search turned up this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/propagation_takeconifercuttings1.shtml