The brooms:

Keith with the bounty:
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Picea abies 'Brent Douglas'
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Picea abies 'Chillin' Phil'
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Picea abies 'Sherrie'
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Pinus strobus 'Keokuk Koner'
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Dax

Congrats! A nice sweep of brooms ;-)

tj

Thanks dog. :)

Dax

Not bad !

....but where's that Larix lyallii broom I'm waiting for ?

Also, this reminds me that of all the Pinus torreyana trees I saw around San Diego during the holidays, none had a broom :-(
...but I suppose it wouldn't last long, if one ever developped, as it would be quite a prize catch !

The strobus is too cool! Keokuk is not too far from me. What exactly is involved in broom hunting? Just march around in the woods until I find one?

Thanks for the neat pictures!

Elizabeth

Hi Jaro thanks ! :)

Elizabeth in Iowa City Keith has found 3 more brooms. I'll post after he sends them the end of the month. You just gotta be on the lookout anywhere.

A hint, cemetaries are good places to look.

Dax

"A hint, cemetaries are good places to look"

Difficult to get collecting permission from the bodies concerned, though.

"A hint, cemetaries are good places to look"

Does give a new meaning to the term grave robbing thou.

I can just imagine telling the police what you are doing there in the cemetary during a grey winter afternoon... "Officer, I'm just looking for deformed growths on evergreens to remove!"

Nice Dax! I think I like the 'Brent Douglas' the best. Thanks for posting the pics. Dan

You could always tell the police you were the cemeteries gardener. Just trimming trees you know.

Dave

That would be a very grave crime.

;-)

I want a discovery channel show dedicated to searching for trees and witches' brooms. Some gung ho host trampling all over the globe.

That would be bad.

Dan, 'Brent Douglas' we decided was the best broom. Thanks!

Dax

I would go for 'Sherrie', looks like it could be the tighter, slower growing broom from what I can see.

Hi, nice brooms, Sherrie looks perfect. as to me, of course, but why vs, I am ready to cooperate...
Happy grafting.....
Jan wbgarden
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Here is a link that might be useful: Dwarf conifers garden

Hi Jan,
What are the names for the brooms in your photos,especially the first spruce ?

... Dax, you got served"... well, just call it a draw...

What about Asian brooms? They have been cultivating stuff for years, but I guess grafting brooms is not somethging they did.

Where when did using brooms start?

Hi Jan, Keith called me on the telephone to and said he was going to be the Next Jan Slama! Subject was supposed to be: America "vs" Europe. Silly name I guess.

I really like that 'Sherrie' too. They all just need to be grafted. 'Chillin' Phil' might be real nice too. Who knows what they will look like after being grafted after many years from now, probably a lot more different than the broom, maybe not.

I took these close-ups photos:

Have a nice day ;) Dax

Picea abies 'Chillin Phil'
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Picea abies 'Brent Douglas'
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Picea abies 'Sherrie'
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Pinus strobus 'Keokuk Koner'
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I have been inspired by Europe
I probably would not be brooming if it weren't for Jan and his photos.

A four broom day is a Grand Slama in my vocabulary

I am no tree climber yet :(.
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but maybe someday :)

Thanks to all for everything,

Keith

I like your style keith, and Dax, nice close up detail of the brooms.
Just to add my little bit to this broom hunters extravaganza.

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New sylvestris broom I found on Saturday.

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Another new broom named Pinus sylvestris 'Bundle'

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And another new broom named Pinus sylvestris 'Broadley'

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A nice Douglas fir broom I found last year, I still have to go and collect this one.

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Me collecting yet another sylvestris broom and named after my son as he spotted it, I would have completely missed this one ! Pinus sylvestris 'Chris's Broom'

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This was a great broom ! Pinus pinaster I think, I sent material to several collectors, all propagations failed. a real pity, but thats how it goes sometimes. My partner Lynne, also on display here.

Is it the finders choice to hang a name on these brooms or is there some protocol to follow?

Worst case scenario. Suppose you have found the same broom someone else has already propagated from a similar conifer. Then we have two different cultivar names for the same broom.

Are all brooms growing characteristics the same if taken from the same Genus/species conifer?

I hope I am making sense. Just curious.

Dave

I guess most broom hunters will remove the whole broom to avoid duplication, plus there are other practical reasons for doing this.. It would also be a very rare thing for two people to discover the same broom, although not impossible, broom hunters are a rare breed. I would say all brooms are genetically different as species seedlings are, and possibly more so

I found a Ponderosa Pine broom of the rocky mountains subspecies in the black hills... I left it, but it was a satisfying discovery nonetheless.

Hi, my first image bluespruce asked is Picea abies Kynzvart...
Grand Slama, please...
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Picea abies Slajan
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Nice Pinus pumila Michalek - 6 years old seedling
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Some dwarf conifers rockery.....
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Spring is coming... /global warming ha ha.../
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Jan wbgarden

Here is a link that might be useful: Looking for dwarf conifers.....

Hi Dave, nice stuff guys.

I read your question a bit differently so I may not be addressing it correctly but I'll give it a shot.

Scionwood from brooms produce plants that can be very different from the original broom. What the broom is grafted to shouldn't do much in terms of shape but I'm not an expert on this. What I have seen is this:
Pinus strobus 'Chippiannock' which is a broom I thought I discovered but later found that it had already been found and propagated. This broom is easily the size of a compact car and much wider than tall. When propagated it forms however, a nearly perfect globe. Chub Harper found this broom first at 'Chippiannock Cemetary' and later I drew the conclusion to the name or Chub told me, I forget. Anyway, here's the original broom and the grafted broom.

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So there's variability. Just how often or just how much I do not know with regards to the actual grafting.

We do know that Chamaecyparis obtusa cultivars grafted to Thuja occidentalis show a fast growth spurt but later slow back down to their original annual growth. The shape is also held on these grafted obtusa's as compared side by side to a same obtusa on its own roots (rooted cutting).

Of course selection of scionwood and training will correspond to producing identical clones, especially in the Blue Spruce cultivar family. These must be trained upward or staked to achieve upright growth or they will create groundcovers which eventually will produce an upright shoot, however, that's not how to propagate these. They must be staked as youngsters.

Probably many more examples but I think I'm getting my information across.

Naming - that's a subject Ron (bboy) talked about recently and I was surprised at one of the rules. Maybe he or another will chime in to address that. Otherwise, the broom is named and grafted. Careful notes are also taken and filed so there's never confusion later. In my case, I'm sending scionwood to three nurseries and I've created a step-by-step file for reasons including having the ability to look up these records at anytime during my life should I get a phone call from the next generation of broom hunters just as Jerry Morris did for me this past year. He has a file for every broom he found which included who the wood was sent to, when, etc -

Dax

Went back to see an old broom I originally found and propagated from in 2003, it was reasonably healthy at that time, but has now deteriorated to the extent that I doubt it will survive much longer.

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original broom, Pinus sylvestris Vinney Ridge.

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Pinus sylvestris 'Vinney Ridge' - one of the first propagations.

Hi, look on this picture...,two types of needles from one scion...., long and very short ones...
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Another grafting plant,same absolutely...
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I am grafting, this small ones, of course....
Pinus sylvestris Slama magic..ha, ha...
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Jan wbgarden

Here is a link that might be useful: Dwarf conifers

How many broom ya got this year Jan?

Dax

Pinus nigra 'Keightley Broom', original broom and 3year graft in early summer at Foxhollow.
Dax- I think Europe is well in the lead now ! :)

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"Dax- I think Europe is well in the lead now "! :)

I don't know about Dax butI won't dispute that. I am hoping Dax will let some of that European flavor rub off on me.

Between you, bluespruce with Jan and Clement included I am sort of envious. We don't have near the choices available you have. People like Bob Fincham has a lot to offer with his rare miniatures and dwarfs which helps our cause. If Dax becomes the king of the conifer world in the states we could narrow the gap. He might have to get a bigger greenhouse. He has the land. Give us some time.
Thanks for sharing your photos with us.

Dave

You're right bluespruce! :-) There's no competition from us yet.

Dave, Dennis Dodge has a lot of different stuff too. Bethlehem Nursery. He's the king of miniatures as far as the states go. Susan Eyre of 'Rich's Foxwillow Pines' (Rich's wife) said, 'Dennis Dodge is the king of mini's!'

Anyway. Man Bluespruce that is the bomb of nigra brooms. You guys are on top of things. So who's the finder of that tough critter. That is tight.

I assume every possible scion was scored from that puppy. I need about 20 of those.

Dax

The nigra broom was shown to me by a friend, I collected, propagated, and named it. The broom is big ! it measures about 5ft x 3ft.

Blue, here's one for the hunt!

From GW: Sent to me today: Abies borisii-regis 'F.R. Newman'

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(Same Broom - The Underside)
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Dax

Jan, your brooms always amaze me, any time I find a broom found by you, available in the U.S., I snatch it up.

Bluespruce, I love the 'Keightley Broom'. It impressed me as soon as you posted the pic on the the BCS site. So far I only have 'Frank', 'Black Prince', 'Kalous', and 'Sychrov' as far as Pinus nigra cultivars go. If it becomes available in the U.S., 'Keightley Broom' will definately be next on my most wanted list. Thanks

Dax, very cool broom!

Dan

Dave,

Soon Keith from the first post will be on his way to the pacific northwest to begin his hobby of professional broom collector. There is still hope!

Dax

Love those new brooms. The nigra is fantastic.
Here are two I collected this week.
Dax scion gets mailed to you today
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The picture shows two sylvestris brooms from the same tree, about 180 degrees apart from each other. The broom on left has some of the normal foliage attached. It is a much denser broom. Neither is miniature.

Both brooms have cones.
Maybe Dax can get some good foliage photos. I was not patient enough to get a clear shot

Keith

Love those new brooms. The nigra is fantastic.
Here are two I collected this week.
Dax scion gets mailed to you today
{{gwi:631788}}
The picture shows two sylvestris brooms from the same tree, about 180 degrees apart from each other. The broom on left has some of the normal foliage attached. It is a much denser broom. Neither is miniature.

Both brooms have cones.
Maybe Dax can get some good foliage photos. I was not patient enough to get a clear shot

Keith

Will be on the lookout.

Thanks Keith!

Dax

P.s. I hope that is all for this year. I am BRoKE x 10 and racked up my mother's credit card! But thanks everybody!! Gotta get em propagated. Later.

Today witch´s broom - Picea abies Betka.....
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Compare with Pice abies Skokan....
{{gwi:631792}}Jan wbgarden
PS. Keightley broom looks perfect....

Here is a link that might be useful: Dwarf conifers garden.

"The picture shows two sylvestris brooms from the same tree, about 180 degrees apart from each other. The broom on left has some of the normal foliage attached. It is a much denser broom. Neither is miniature"

might not be a good sign to have two on same tree. Perhaps caused by a disease or parasite like mistletoe.

Nice characteristics on 'Betka'; weepy. 'Chillin' Phil' looks sorta like that.

Jan you have any photos of your prophouse where you graft? Others too? I would like to see your set-up!

Thanks,

Dax

Is zone 5 a correct rating for Abies borisii-regis? In reading other posts, this is one of the lease heat tolerant firs?
Thanks,
Mike
tl³

Yep, I'd say z5, and heat tolerance good. Generally fairly similar to A. cephalonica or A. nordmanniana.

Resin

Oops... lease s/b least (:o(

Thanks, Resin. Since I am in zone 4, I will give this plant a protected spot.
Thanks again, Conifer Oracle.
Mike
tl³