These days, my garden is mostly dormant, plants under a partial blanket of snow, some leaf litter from the fall, some mulch. One of the few who stands out at this time of year is one of my evergreens. Blogosphere, I’d like to introduce you to Bert.

Bert is my only plant that has a name; indeed, I do not typically assign name, gender, or otherwise anthropamorphize the denizens of my garden, but Bert was one of the first here, and I don’t know… He just kind of said, “Hey. I’m Bert.” Thus he was.

Bert is an austrian pine cultivar called ‘Oregon Green,’ purchased from Nunan’s in Georgetown, Mass. I planted him two years ago in the hot south-facing corner of our front flowerbed where an old pine had been cut not too long before we moved in — I had to have its stump ground before making Bert at home. At the time I didn’t know it, but now I hope the soil around that old pine retained a bit of its conifer-friendly higher fungal ratio in that tree’s absence.

Bert has since settled into his corner, uncomplaining, facing heat and drought without so much as a sniffle. Bert is slow growing and should stay relatively small for a tree, topping out at 12 feet, perhaps hitting 20 feet after as many years. I certainly look forward to having him around that long.