Very nice! Thanks for posting these "Four years of..." series, much appreciated. It's great to see the progressions over time. I've wanted to add this cultivar to my collection for some time but what with the high price tag I would kick myself were I to kill it, and I keep putting it off. Now that Bob's announced that Coenosium will continue mail-order beyond next year, I geuss I have a little more time to get my nerve up. Do you take any special measures with this one due to it's ultraminiature nature? Alex

Dave, observation and clear thinking is the key in cases like this. There are only a few original Korean fir witches' brooms and most of them were found in the 80ties in Germany. ('Silberperle', 'Silberkugel' and 'Gruebele') As scions come and go from Europe to the U.S. and got some name changes in the meanwhile it all comes to look to the origianal one's and start to compare with the other one's. Then you'll see that the original one is the 'Gruebele' in this case and the others ('Doni-Tajuso', 'Kristallkugel' and 'Chrystal Globe' are just copies... For all clarity: I had this name confusion thing in my mind for the last 3 years and started to graft them all in the same time and looked how they developed in grow rate, time of flushing, needle length, needle colour, etc. ALL ('Gruebele', 'Doni-Tajuso' and 'Kristallkugel' were showing the same in characteristics. ('W.M. 006318 Am' was just a temporary name and 'Crystal Globe' is just a translated name from German to English.) Probably I'm the only one in the World who's surching so deep to find the evidence to solve todays conifers questions/problems and also this time I'm very sure that I'm right. Otherwise I'm waiting for somebody to prove me that I'm wrong :0)

Ugh, your post is so upsetting! I don't think I could have took all the baiting going on all day like that. Plus it was your party that your MIL chose to crash & act up at. But, that's not the real issue. I've followed your life story on the other board. I feel so bad that this is happening to you when it seems your were pretty much expected to parent SD and deal with all the tough stuff and get not even basic respect in return. It seems like it is just not worth it. It's too hard in situations like this. If your DH won't nix his dear mothers nasty behaviors & insist she treat you with respect, you're stuck with her & her reign of terror. I know how awful that can be. I wondered how things would have went down if you insisted she leave your home/the party. Try confronting her on her nastiness every time to her face no matter who is there and see what happens. Bullies hate to be confronted. Bleh.. I'm so sorry. ~Cat

Caroline and Ya Ya, It was called "witching" for water aound here about 70 years ago ... and Dad had a neighbour who had such a capacity come to do it before he drilled a well. The neighbour carried a forked tree-branch, with about 8" of the unified branch sticking out in front while he held the end of each of two forks, about a foot long each, in either hand. While holding the ends of the two branches, he squeezed them apart, putting tension on the join. Sometimes as he walked over the area, the unified branch sticking out in front would slowly drop, which he said indicated that there was water down below. When he held one end and Dad the other, it worked ... but when Dad tried it alone ... nary a quiver out of the trunk part, sticking out in front. There was one particularly strong pull by the wall of our horse barn, which he said indicated a strong stream. Dad drilled the well by the wall of the house. I don't remember whether the "witcher" had indicated that there was a supply of water there or not. I don't know either whether Dad offered/gave him a tip or honorarium ... and, if so, what it was or what its worth might have been. The neighbour might well have turned it down. This was done in the daylight ... not at any "witching hour"! ole joyful