Nordmann fir

* Common name: Nordmann fir

* Botanical name: Abies nordmanniana

* What it is: A dark-green evergreen conifer with soft, flattened needles and a fairly narrow pyramidal habit. Its form and bug- and disease-resistance are making it an up-and-coming choice of area Christmas-tree growers, but Nordmann fir is also a reliable and under-used landscape evergreen. A good alternative to spruce, pines and the disease-ridden Douglas fir.

* Size: 40 feet tall and 20 feet across in 20 years.

* Where to use: Excellent mid-sized evergreen specimen for a front or back-yard corner that has adequate space. These also can be planted in a line for a tall, dense, evergreen screen along a property line. Grows best in full sun and well drained soil.

* Care: Scatter an acidifying organic granular fertilizer formulated for evergreens around the base of the plant in March for the first few years. Keep damp the first season, then water is needed only in extended hot, dry spells. Pruning not needed unless it outgrows the allotted space. Then lightly shear at the end of winter. If deer are in the area, protect with fencing or use repellents, especially over winter and especially in the early years.

* Great partner: Red daylilies, red or golden mums, and/or golden coreopsis or black-eyed susans are good perennial-flower partners. Golden creeping sedum ‘Angelina’ is a colorful groundcover underneath.