Pinus Mugo ‘Piccobello’ (Dwarf Mountain Pine)

Evergreen and hardy, this is delightful little pine with dark green incurved needles arranged in tight whorls.

We’re massive fans of this miniature Mugo, and ‘Picobello’ (Italian: ‘beautiful peak’) might just be one of the nicest cultivars. Decidedly un-massive, it grows staggeringly slowly and pushes out only a couple of centimetres a year to reach an eventual height and spread of around 30cm.

Globe-shaped with crisp edges: hard to resist the urge to douse in good olive oil and some parmesan.  Yummy: these tiny pines are essential for any gravel garden design: somewhere with big boulders for it to nestle around and against and to peek through. Plant several to roam beneath some higher-rise conifers, or clipped Niwaki, in a Japanese –influenced arrangement. Small is beautiful and we urge you to remember little trees can still be architectural: like bold full-stops to pepper a planting layout. Plus its tight form is a lovely contrast to pines with foggier outlines. Plant a flock of these to roam among your borders for when winter strips all the other things back.

Good candidate for container growing, too. Happy in full sun, in any soil that is moist but well drained.

N.B. When clipping several plants with the same tool, have a bucket containing a 5% bleach solution and swish your blades around for 30 seconds between plants to sterilise them. This will help avoid the chance of cross contamination of disease.

As with all woody plants, plant high, exposing as much of the taper at the base of the trunk as possible. Allowing soil to accumulate round the base of a tree can be fatal. Keep very well watered when first planted.