Some gardens are about interesting designs and others about interesting plants. Ours is definitely about the latter. Our particular interest in conifers began in 2003 when we acquired "Ashridge". The property already had a number of mature conifers - 13 Butan cypresses, a Norwegian spruce, two Spanish firs, and a Radiata pine. We proceeded to add conifers with an emphasis on native Australian examples. However, there are too many exquisite conifers from the rest of the world to justify confining ourselves to natives. Some of our conifers grow very slowly (especially the Huon Pine) and won't approach maturity in our life. Currenly there are in excess of 125 conifers and apart from the 6 Wollemi Pines, they are mostly different species. Some are small cultivars gracing our rock gardens whose names are long forgotten.

The following conifers are not included in the images to follow. In addition to the pre-existing ones mentioned above, those not pictured include 2 stone pines (Pinus pinea), two coastal redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), and two giant redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum).

In the following pages I present a selection of my favourites.