This balsam fir broom, Abies balsamea ‘Puppini’ was discovered in a remote area of the Keweenaw Peninsula of Upper Michigan in November 2015. It was a beautiful quiet snowy day on January 11, 2016 when we went to retrieve it, and out of nowhere, there appeared a team of husky dogs pulling a 4 wheeler “sleigh”! We were planning to name the cultivar ‘Husky Pup’ but Nickolas Sizoo of Bothwell, Washington beat us to it, naming his unique white fir seedling, Abies concolor ‘Husky Pup’. That cultivar was registered and introduced in 1965 by the University of Washington, where Husky is the school mascot. Abies balsamea ‘Puppini’ is a cute little Balsam fir specimen, petite and healthy, growing 1 inch or less per year! It is doing well in our conifer garden in upper Michigan, and also in the high desert of Eastern Washington.
