I have P. strobiformis seeds from the Sierra Madre del Sur. These have the longest cones of all the White Pines in Mexico, up to 60 cm long. Some consider this White Pine to be P. ayacahuite, others as strobiformis or a variety of it. I also have Abies religiosa from Nevado de Colima. Some consider this a different species. Rushforth named it A. colimensis, and they are in fact different from the typical Abies religiosa. What seeds are you looking for? I am looking for A. durangensis and A. flinckii.

Well..you are right about the summer maximum but to call this a monsoon....BEtween 2000-3000 m etres, where P. martinezii grows they get 680mm on average. So the circulation may well be that of a monsoon but the result is unlike what the word monsoon in general seems to imply. I also found out that the average temperature is a staggering 14 C (annual average). That is really high for a spruce. The climate is classified as oceanic. Okey, more like Southern France oceanic or NW Portugal Spain Oceanic. But than with less rain. Summer precipitation is probably 200-300 mm but the growing season is much longer. Probably all year round or at least march-november. This means that growing season precipitation is lower than that of most parts of NW Europe (much lower). It may succeed in the eastern US, but not where temperatures can drop to -20 or lower I think. I guess this spruce is may be a zone 9 one. But unsure.

Nice tour at my friend Bob's garden! Thanks for the nice pics of the beautiful speciments. Back in 2004 I saw many of those I saw myself, only then they were a little bit smaller :0) Some comments to these nice pics: Abies pinsapo 'W.B. # 7' doesn't exist. There were only 4 brooms found in Spain by my friend Guenther Eschrich... Picea abies 'Witches' Broom' is the wrong cultivar name for what is Picea abies 'Witches' Brood', formerly named as 'Millstream Broom'... Yep, that Abies veitchii 'Rumburk' is right to the name. In the beginning it will grow as a flat topped broom, later on a leader will develop... Pinus parviflora 'Kinpo' Must bin written as 'Kin-po' That Picea jezoensis 'Nana Kalous' isn't the right one for sure. The true 'Nana Kalous' was found as a witches' broom in the Czech Republic and will grow only about 5 cm/year. Will, if you've the same one then you both have the wrong one in your collections. May be it reverted or it's just the species Picea jezoensis... 'Marianske Lazne' and 'Marienbad' are synonyms for the 'Nana Kalous'. Abies borisii-regis 'J.K. Greece' is also written in the right way. Till now it's the only witches' broom found of this species. The J.K. means Joerg Kohout. Picea omorika 'Gunther' must bin written here as 'Guenther' becuase the double dots here at this forum will give us some troubles... Lucky Bob, again he found a light coloured mutation in a Picea omorika cultivar, formerly in a Picea omorika 'Pendula Major' and this time in a Picea omorika 'Frohnleiten'. Did he spray some special stuff at these plants so they made these mutations? :o) The Abies koreana 'Witches' broom at the left of the Abies procera 'Blaue Hexe' is indeed the 'Kristallkugel'. It's recognizable because it's flat topped... Till recently I always thought that both were German cultivars but I found out that one of them is an U.S. selection...breaking news! Abies procera 'Popisil' Must bin written as 'Pospisil'. Sam is right about the Pinus mugo var. pumilio 'Verijeken Seedling' which was only a temporary cultivar name. The proper cultivar name now is 'Milky Way'. That last pic of the Picea omorika 'Pendula Bruns' isn't the right one, it's Picea omorika 'Bruns' which isn't the same as 'Pendula Bruns'. They even didn't derive from the same nursery... The full cultivar name of the Sequoiadendron giganteum 'Curtis' is 'Philip Curtis'... it's one of only a few witches' brooms of this species... I hope this is good helping info :O)

Well I can see two major factors that could be expected to limit its presence in cultivation right off: "Hardy to Zone 8 (cold hardiness limit between -12.1°C and -6.7°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001). This species is listed as endangered in Mexico under NOM-ECOL-059-94. It was discovered in 1981 (Müller-Using and Lässig 1986), initially at only two sites, one containing a few hundred trees, the other only about a dozen, growing in canyons on moist north-facing scree slopes. The subsequent expansion to six known sites has not identified any large populations (Ledig et al. 2000) and the entire species is thus comprised of only about a thousand trees; as such, it has to be regarded as one of the world's most endangered conifers. "Timber has been extracted in recent years in the larger of the two populations [known at that time]. The other population has fewer than 15 individuals. Fire is the main threat" (World Conservation Monitoring Center 1998)." http://www.conifers.org/pi/Picea_martinezii.php Sounds like another instance of the same situation as with various rare native conifers in California, that is that they date back to a past time when the regional climate was moist, over a much larger area. And now exist as leftovers in niches where droughts and fires have not wiped them out. Yet. Species in tenuous circumstances like these are probably examples of some of the first things that are going to be lost as a result of climate change.