Sam, another idea is to borrow the idea from a couple of the geniuses of the craft that is conifer alchemy. The likes of Bob Fincham and Jim Boyko, et.al. try to cross cultivars of the same species with different attributes with the goal of creating something really cool. For example: Bob's project in crossing Picea abies 'Gold Drift' pollen with 'Acrocona' creating the well-documented line of golden seedlings that create cones at the branch tips at a young age. Another one he's working on is a cross of Picea orientalis 'Skylands' x 'Nutans' with the goal of creating a weeping golden Picea orientalis. I saw the young seedlings a couple of months ago and while they're still too young to predict what's going to happen, a couple are looking promising. Only problem for you is that there's not a heck of a lot of good pinsapo cultivars out there right now. Hmmm that pollen might be of little practical use. However, there's lots of Abies koreana cultivars out there. Maybe an Abies koreana 'Aurea' x 'Horstmann's Silberlocke' cross for a golden, curly-needle look or a cross with one of the spreading cultivars for a golden spreading Abies koreana. Just my 2 cents. Have fun with the project. ~Dave

Definitely not P. smithiana, which as well as the longer, slenderer needles Bboy mentions, also has more fusiform cones (fusiform = tapered at the ends, not cylindrical), with thicker, slightly prominent (not smoothly adpressed) scales: Also definitely not P. spinulosa, which is very different (needles slender, white on lower side, on pendulous shoots, and very different cones). Picea asperata also differs in slenderer cones with a more rhombic scale apex, and glaucous-grey needles, not green. Beng's comments "One w/similar needles is P. obovata (Siberian), but cones aren't as big as yours" are very relevant; P. alpestris has often been compared with P. obovata, and is treated as a variety of it by some authors [P. obovata var. alpestris (Brügger) A.Henry], but does differ in its larger cones. I'm still sticking with P. alpestris for this mystery tree. Where is it growing? Resin

The plants were purchased from the government so we are fairly sure they are Red Pine. Â Yep, Red Pine 1) Is it normal to take so long for male cones to show. Â I'd say that's a bit slower than one might expect, though the forest habitat (more shade from competing plants) will slow down production compared to single specimens in full all-round sunlight 2) The red parts seem larger than any other picture on the web. Is this because they are more mature and elongated at the time the picture was taken? They also seem redder than any picture I can find. Â Yep, they're mature and shedding pollen. Rather surprising for them to be shedding as early as 5 March though (or is it stupid US date citations?) 3) Is it unusual to have all of the trees produce male cones the same year? You would think that they would all start in different years. last year was a very cool summer here. Â No, normal; generally, all trees of a particular species in a particular area will cone in the same year, as they'll all be triggered into coning by the same weather factor. Over here, even a fairly short warm sunny spell can trigger a good crop, if it is at the critical right time (end of May or early June seems to work for a lot of species) even if the rest of the summer is cool. Resin

What is curios, this "false" Acrocona was ... grafted! I collected the cones with the same idea - to grow seedlings. Last summer I visited Kalsnava arboretum in Latvia. They have aprx 10 Acrocona seedlings, already reaching 1-1,5 m in heigh. Every tree is unique, but one of them was really special. Quite regular conical habit, spare horizontal branches. After getting closer to it, somebody may think: "wow, I found a witchÂs broom". Really, on the leader - kind of dense broom; but - the same may be noticed on every larger side branche! These "brooms" were evidently formed during the same growth season; after this season all "broomed" branches and the leader returned to the normal growth rate. The most interesting are the cones: very small (a la "Push") on brooms, quite large on "normal" branches. So I decided to play a little bit with Acrocona seedlings. Collected cones from two different trees and noticed - cones are not identical. So it is possible to draw a conclusion: more than one clone is sold under the name 'Acrocona'... at least in Europe.