Pinus monticola ‘Monti’s Gold’ is a beautiful new cultivar propagated from a Western White Pine tree with golden variegation throughout the entire tree. The tree was discovered at dusk in the eastern Cascade mountain range. We were heading home from a hiking expedition driving back on an old dirt road and spotted a bright flash of yellow in the distance within the forest. Earlier in the day, Cheryl had discovered a beautiful golden variegated Abies grandis (‘Grand Prize’). Mike was determined to find a better specimen as we are both super competitive. He slammed on his brakes and we ran up the hill through the woods with our flashlight. We had spotted the bright yellow top of a fully variegated Pinus monticola tree! We were able access the tree in January with a snowmobile. It was easy to obtain scions near the top of the 20 foot tree since the top was bent over from the heavy snow. Nearly all of the grafted scions pushed! The ‘Monti’s Gold’ grafts are continuing the yellow variegation.
