evergreen collecting

I have played around with deciduous trees for two years now and am beginning to want to add an evergreen to my garden. I know that some species of evergreen go thru a late summer slow down during which they can be collected. Am I correct in grouping most pines into this category? Does anybody have any experience collecting Hemlock? I would really love a hemlock, but should they be collected only in early spring or is summer okay, or even better? Those of you in the North East United States any advice on when to go about summer collecting- early aug. or even earlier/later? Thanks for the help, as always.

Austin I collected several hemlocks in the summer and all of them died. This was years ago when I had absolutely no idea what I was doing (hold the jokes)

I do however know that in March I was able to collect a few and all survived.

In my experience, collecting anything in Spring works. So I don't take a chance at doing it at any other time of year.

I agree. Tempting as it may be to collect when the whim strikes, waiting until late winter or early spring is always safest. Collecting at other times of year is only for rescue.

If you read otherwise, please append the unspoken -- "if you really, really know what you are doing and how to keep a tree alive afterward." Then, add another "really."

Well you don't always get the answer you want- thanks for the responses and I am going to just sit tight till spring and enjoy all those collectablishious trees in nature and not my backyard. Patience, at least for me, is the hardest lesson here.

Aah, but the patience and waiting can be part of the pleasure. Try scouting for collectable stuff, all year round, and marking interesting plants onto a satnav or GPS device. Brings yamadori up to date!

Patience is half of what I am in this for, somethings can teach you many things at once. A GPS device would come in handy I have upwards of 6-7 collectable specimens committed to memory and the number grows daily- until spring it makes for a great excuse to go on a hike. Thanks for all your responses, as devastating as they might have been to my evergreen by sept. dream.

Hi Austin,
I would expect that your eastern conditions may vary slightly from ours but here on the west coast we collect our Mountain hemlocks in late summer after the trees have hardened off from their seasonal flush.
I was fortunate enough to go collecting with a very experienced collector in 2008 and we collected in late August through to early October. Out of 10 I collected I lost only two of my smallest subjects. The rest have all flushed out nicely this spring. The key for us here was to wait until we had some decent late summer rains and then the environmental conditions of the site (very shallow rooting zones over bedrock) really helped us to collect the majority of the root system.
Cheers Gman

Hey Gman thanks for the response. I might get a little flack from the others for rehashing this topic with you but your response intrigued me. I read that western and eastern hemlock are relatively the same except the western variety gets mature bark faster. I don't know if this means it also grows/ recovers better and faster or not. The tree I have my sights on is growing on the top of a rocky ledge, it seems like a large amounts of roots would be collectable. What do you mean by little, young or physically small- I would think the older ones would be more trouble. What over winter care did you give the trees, can you collect a hemlock in aug and expect it to make it through a winter (temps reaching 20 degrees sometimes) in just a coldframe, or does it need more?

Austin,
By small I meant "physically small" not age but just size, they (all trees collected) were all old and these two small ones had great scale and built in ramification.
As for what we do after collecting (remember our climate differences) was to heal them into a large bed and then blanket (3-6") of a product we can get called Sea Soil (decomposed bark and fish processing plant waste) and that's it. Our Winters aren't toooo coooooold but January of 2009 did see a real cold snap that lasted two weeks but I believe the death of the two small trees was due to my haste in collecting (not enough root mass) and the trees being weak to begin with.
Cheers Gman