Austrian Pine 'Green Tower'

Austrian Pine 'Green Tower' (Pinus nigra 'Green Tower') lives up to its name completely: a slender green tower of strong ascending branches held tight against the trunk. The long dark green needles grow in bundles of two, and in winter the shoot tips are set off by large pale buds.

This is the vertical accent for a garden with no room to spread: narrow passages, terrace corners, green screens along a fence, a rhythmic row in a contemporary planting. At 10 years the column is only about 0.45 m wide and 2.5 m tall, and its sturdy branches hold snow and ice better than most columnar pines.

Key characteristics:

• What makes it special: The RHS lists this cultivar as perfect for pollinators - an unusual note for a conifer.
• Dimensions: At 10 years it is a slender column: 2.5 m tall and 0.45 m wide - a vertical that takes up almost no room.
• Hardiness: It winters without a care: hardy down to -34 °C (USDA zone 4).
• Light: Happiest in full sun or light dappled shade; it stands up confidently to strong wind and cold.
• Soil: It happily takes any well-drained soil - chalk, clay, loam or sand, from acid to alkaline.
• Watering: Keep the substrate moderately moist but well drained; once established the pine copes with drought on its own.
• Care: No pruning is needed - the column keeps its shape by itself; adelgids, conifer aphids, pine shoot moths and needle cast may appear occasionally.
• Landscape use: A ready-made architectural vertical accent: as a specimen, in screening rows, in seaside gardens and in containers.
• Origin: A seedling with an unusually narrow crown found by Martin Zimmer in Germany in the late 1990s and propagated in the USA by Horst zu Jeddeloh.