About Abies amabilis ‘Rock Star’: This Pacific Silver fir broom was discovered during a day trip up in the Cascade Mountains of eastern Washington in the summer of 2020. The Abies amabilis parent tree of this new cultivar was growing along the edge of a crumbling rock bluff.
Abies amabilis ‘Rock Star’ broom
We returned in November to harvest scions, and to make matters worse, the rocky bluff was covered with loose rocks, moss, and ferns, so that the trip up was slippery and challenging with the long pole pruner!
‘Rock Star’ on the rocks
Fortunately, we were able to harvest just a portion of this Abies amabilis conifer broom, to leave most of the remainder of ‘Rock Star’ intact!
Abies amabilis ‘Rock Star’ fresh graft
This new Abies amabilis cultivar graft is safely tucked away in the green house for now. We are eagerly awaiting to see this Rock Star’s performance!
About Pinus monticola ‘Mini Monti’: This beautiful blue Western White Pine cultivar, above, is almost 5 years old, as of November 2020, and currently measures 8 inches in height by 10 inches wide.
Pinus monticola broom, ‘Mini Monti’
This Pinus monticola broom was discovered in the eastern Cascade Mountain range of Washington. The conifer broom photo above is from August 2015. A few branches from the lower part of this dense broom had died, and the brown discoloration revealed it’s location deep in the forest against the green background! We were able to rent a snowmobile in the winter of 2016 and collected scions for many new conifer cultivars, including ‘Monti’s Gold’, during that snowmobile trip.
Pinus monticola ‘Mini Monti’ displaying it’s first cone!
Pinus monticola ‘Mini Monti’ scions were grafted in February 2016, and, much to our surprise, the newly grafted cultivar actually produced small cones the same year, in June 2016!
After at least 7 years of watching the beautiful parent Engelman, pushing bright white new growth each spring, and late fall grafts that failed, we finally figured out a solution! We obtained scions the day before the first big snow fall in late November and refrigerated the scions until late January! So excited to finally see a close up view of the beautiful spring push! 2023!
Spring push!
About Picea engelmannii ‘Whitewater’: This majestic engelmann spruce was discovered towering over a riverbank, and remarkably, it is splashed with creamy white variegated branches. The coloration is intense with spring push and the color fades slightly but not completely throughout the summer. By the following spring, last year’s growth has changed to green, just in time to provide contrast for the beautiful new flush of color!
Picea engelmannii ‘Whitewater’ mature tree sporting beautiful variegated branches!
This mature spruce tree, Picea engelmannii, towers above the lower tree canopy, making it challenging to photograph close ups and to retrieve cuttings! The tree was discovered about 7 years ago.
Finally in November 2020, we were able to retrieve some scions of ‘Whitewater’ during the beginning of the first major mountain snowstorm of the winter season. If we were unsuccessful on harvest day, this beautiful colorful spruce cultivar would have to wait yet another year or more!…..(and it did!)
Picea engelmannii ‘Whitewater’ newly grafted cultivar (this one failed)
We were very hopeful that our grafts would take, since this was not the optimal time to harvest or graft Picea cultivars! (which they didn’t!)
Picea engelmannii ‘Whitewater’ (another one bites the dust!)Picea engelmannii ‘Whitewater’ (and another one that almost made it!)
About Abies amabilis ‘Little Star’: This ‘Little Star’ was discovered in the Pacific Northwest Cascade mountain range during the summer of 2020. The tiny Abies amabilis broom sat atop the end of a long branch, and became visible as it bounced around in the breeze between the shadows and sunlight. It was illuminated by a ray of sunshine amidst a dark background forest of moss covered branches.
We returned in November 2020, a few days before the first eastern Cascade mountains snow storm of the season, to harvest this conifer broom, along with the beautiful variegated Abies amabilis ‘Colorific’. This time, the ‘Little Star’ was enhanced by the beautiful color change of autumn.
Abies amabilis ‘Little Star’ broom with an autumn color backdrop
The pruner on a 22 foot pole was too short to reach the broom. The silky saw on a longer pole was also too short, but thankfully, there was a 3 foot stump directly underneath to stand on, and the branch holding the broom was barely within reach!
It’s a keeper!
Much to our delight, the Abies amabilis ‘Little Star’ was a miniature broom with tiny dense short branches! The center had some brown needles. They may have been shaded from of debris collecting in the center of the dense broom.
Close up of Abies amabilis ‘Little Star’ broom
This Pacific silver fir broom was grafted in early November 2020 and the scions of this new cultivar had great cambium for grafting!
‘Colorific‘ pollen sacs February 2022 Abies amabilis ‘Colorific’
About Abies amabilis ‘Colorific’: This intensely colorful Pacific silver fir variegated sport was discovered during the summer of 2020.
Abies amabilis ‘Colorific’ scions from a large vigorous variegated branch
The very large heavily variegated branch, measuring greater that 10 feet in the tree, was the most vigorous and healthy of any of the variegated amabilis specimens we have found so far. The other Davison variegated Abies amabilis cultivar grafts have met with limited success. Only a few of each have survived, probably partly because they had to be grafted in the fall, due to access issues in the snowy mountains. We are cautiously optimistic that ‘Colorific’ will be a beautiful and colorful new variegated cultivar that should graft well! We have acquired experience through trial and error, and the branch was so healthy appearing! A few scions of Abies amabilis ‘Colorific’ were grafted in early November! The cambium was great! We also sent scions to our friend, Paulie Seidel, who has been grafting now for a couple years, with a great success rate! Keeping our fingers crossed!
Abies amabilis ‘Colorific’
The scions were grafted in early November 2020 on to Abies amabilis understock seedlings. The grafts are covered with plastic baggies to contain humidity (removed for photo). There are more scions on the parent tree for later if this proves to be a good one!
About Abies amabilis ‘Galaxy’. Our friends from the Czech Republic gave us directions to an Abies procera broom and we were on an expedition to find it. The road to the other broom was blocked, but not for naught when Mike found this cool Abies amabilis broom instead! This Pacific silver fir broom has a flattened dense growth habit, long needles, and a nice look. It grafted beautifully! We have a couple grafts in the greenhouse and the buds are getting plump and green (not ideal, too soon, I know!). Other ‘Galaxy’ grafts are housed in a cooler environment, and we shared scions of this new cultivar with friends in Oregon. We will see!
Abies amabilis ‘Galaxy’ broom in the tree, discovered in late October 2020!Mike was able to harvest this beautiful Abies amabilis broom ‘Galaxy’.
Abies amabilis ‘Galaxy’ broom was barely within reach of the pole saw. It was so dense that Mike was unable to get the saw through the broom to harvest just a piece. And the wood was extremely dense and he had difficulty sawing through it…
So the entire broom was harvested, but one can appreciate the interesting habit as the whole broom can be seen, disc-like and flat, like most galaxies, with a very nice growth pattern!
Abies grandis parent tree with golden variegation throughout, ‘Grand Prize’!
Abies grandis ‘Grand Prize’ is a new cultivar from a golden variegated Pacific grand fir that was discovered while hiking in the eastern Cascade mountain range of Washington state. The golden variegation was present throughout the tree and the new grafts are pushing with yellow variegated foliage that persists throughout the year! It was found by the Davisons on the same day as a fully golden variegated Pinus monticola, ‘Monti’s Gold‘. It was accessed during the winter via snowmobile and the entire tree, which was at least 10 feet tall, was buried under snow. Mike was able to figure out the location based on the surrounding landmarks and dug out a few branches to gather cuttings, and nearly all of the grafted scions pushed.
Eureka! Abies grandis ‘Grand Prize’ with beautiful golden variegationAbies grandis ‘Grand Prize’ graft with new golden variegated growth.
Pinus monticola ‘Monti’s Gold’ with beautiful golden variegation
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.
Pinus monticola ‘Monti’s Gold’ conveniently pulled down by the snow load to harvest scionsPinus monticola ‘Monti’s Gold’ grafted scion pushing.Pinus monticola ‘Monti’s Gold’ grafted cultivar is keeping it’s golden variegation.Pinus monticola ‘Monti’s Gold’ branch on this variegated Western white pine tree.Spring push, Pinus monticola ‘Monti’s Gold’
Pinus banksiana ‘Jackpot’ is a new cultivar propagated from a compact Jack pine broom that was discovered while snowmobiling in a Jack pine forest behind a casino in Marquette County, Michigan, not far from the shores of Lake Superior. Marquette County is an ideal place to grow Pinus banksiana because of the climate and soil conditions. The broom suffered some damage from a previous cold winter with prolonged sub-zero temperatures. Several of the other Jack pine brooms we had discovered actually died from the extreme winter conditions and were no longer viable by harvest time. The “jackpot” bonus for this new Pinus banksiana cultivar is that it also makes cones!
Pinus banksiana ‘Jackpot’ broom with some prior winter damage.
