conifer

Can anyone advise me of a suitable small &slow growing conifer for pots, which will regrow from brown wood after pruning / frost damage .?

I doubt that such a conifer exists-if it has gone brown it is like to regenerate green growth-such is the nature of the beast

R.I.P. for the conifer,its out to the shops for a new one!

they won't re-grow from the "brown" part - but it is possible to "cover it up" so to speak, though I'm not sure if it would work so well with a small pot-grown one.  For example, I had to remove part of a large conifer hedge some years ago, when widening the driveway to my house.  This left the "last" one in the line with a totally brown and bald side.  I got some of those tree ties (which you use to fix a sapling to a post) and used them to tie the branches together across the gap which had been created.  Over a relatively short space of time, the remaining branches grew across the gap and now you'd never guess how it once looked.  Obviously it did take time, but was well worth it.  Maybe give it a try - you've nothing to lose, I guess!

Wow, that's a good idea, hypercharleyfarley! I'll remember that one. I once planted a conifer that had died on one side against a wall, after curttiing off the brown side. This worked well, because it was flatter than a more well-shaped conifer and fitted the space rather well.

Wendy7, if you buy a conifer sold in a garden centre for pot planting, it will be a slow-growing one. It will grow until its roots are pretty pot bound and this will itself limit the size of the tree. You should take it out annually and trim the roots by about an inch all around, then put fresh compost around it in the pot and also top it up with a bit of fresh compost. Keep it well-watered but don't be tempted to put it in a big pot or it will grow faster. Then you just have to accept that pot-grown plants do not live as long as ones in the ground or else get too big for purpose, and they have to be replaced. The brown die-back is usually because they did not get enough water - they are thirsty plants and need a regular soaking, daily in hot weather. Make up for the loss of nutrients in the potting medium (which should not be potting compost) which are washed away by watering by feeding it.Conifers like acidy soil, though they will grow in fairly neutral soil too, so need a fertiliser suitable for acid-lovers. Dono't fertilise too much, though ,or you'll stimulate too much growth.