This black spruce broom Picea mariana ‘Sand River’ was discovered while maneuvering through a bog to harvest Picea mariana ‘MinneHaHa’! This broom had numerous small cones. Seeds from the broom cones were germinated and we saved the seedlings that exhibited a miniature growth rate. The broom scions also grafted well! One of the ‘Sand River’ specimens is on display at the beautiful Oregon Garden arboretum in Silverton.
This black spruce broom with tiny needles and a miniature growth rate was the first Picea mariana broom that we discovered. This tiny broom was located in a wetlands bog in Upper Michigan along the shore of Lake Superior near Marquette Michigan. It was so small that it was difficult to graft and we have only a few surviving specimens. Since it was along the Shores of Gitche Gumee (Lake Superior) near Hiawatha National Forest, and because of it’s miniature size, we named this cultivar ‘MinneHaHa’!
This intense blue Engelmann spruce broom was found in the Cascade Mountain range of the Pacific Northwest, between Yakima and Mt Rainier, on a forest service road. Must have driven past it 50+ times before discovering it one day when the light was hitting it just right!
Guess where this interesting Norway spruce broom was discovered?!
Grafted scions {cuttings} from this Norway spruce tree mutation produced this beautiful low growing spreading prostrate cultivar!
The manager at the Fisher Golf Course kindly allowed us to tour the course and retrieve scions from this interesting specimen. Fortunately we were able to get some scions before a big storm blew over the mature tree. The Abies concolor parent tree of ‘Hoop Dee Doo’ was also lost during the storm.
