Nice Finds! That cedrus looks pretty cool, similar to 'Feelin Blue' in form... That other broom is not coming back... but if the cones were fully formed, you might find viable seed, giving you a 50/50 chance to get a seedling with similar characteristics as the original broom! Once you find and graft your own conifers, you are in deep... now you will not be able to walk anywhere without looking up for brooms....

Here is some info written up by an old member of this board, based on the Bob Fincham grafting dvd.... very useful!

" Cedrus: All are grafted onto Cedrus deodora even the hardier forms such as Cedrus libani var. stenocoma or Cedrus libani ‘Purdue Hardy’"

http://conifers.gardenwebs.net/Graftingtips.htm

Jason Hupp has deodora pre-potted and ready to graft: https://www.westernevergreen.com/availability.html

For future seasons, you can order bare root and pot them yourself to save money, but that this time of year, you will have to pay a premium for the ready to go stuff

Thanks. I found what looks to be 5 seeds. The cones were fully formed and the scales were wide open. So the Pickens were slim. The cones were pointing up so that may have helped keep the few seeds that I found. The cones looked old and came apart very easy. Will the seeds be viable if they’re 2-3 years old?

SC77 you are the guy who found the ‘mason’s comet’ broom right? I‘ve Read your posts about finding and grafting It. Do you have a picture of the original graft? I‘d like to see an update.

Do the cones make seeds? Any interesting seedlings? That’s a cool one. So you have found how many other brooms?

I signed up for an account with western. What does it mean regarding the rootstocks when it says “2 7/8” band”?

You can see various band pots HERE. The 2 7/8 band is AB39 at this vendor.

Nice finds, btw.

tj

if you dont know... also try old cemeteries ... ken

I'm not even sure, I've probably spotted 12-15 I would guess, but most are out of reach or on private property. I have only grafted 6 of those, and 2 were useless.... the yellow color they displayed in nature must have just been some sort of nutrient deficiency, because once they were grafted, they were just regular green, so I trashed those. Of the other 4, 'Bird Park' is my other favorite, as it has a really nice blue tone for a norway spruce, with huge buds, and a fairly slow growth rate. The last two are both norway spruce as well, but too early to tell if they are anything special. So far, other than being dwarf, there isn't anything very unique about them.

I agree with ken, cemeteries, or parks with old growth trees are the best place to find them. At Bird Park, I found 3 different brooms, and it's only a few acres park!

Cool find Jacob and that 'Mason's Comet' Is quite nice Shawn.

Seeds are quite resilient and can be viable for years and years and years.... if they are viable to start. This is also dependent on species and storage. You can soak them in water for 15 minutes then see if any sink. Supposedly the ones that sink are viable and the ones that float aren't but the diminutive broom seeds usually all float. I have also heard of floating seeds that still sprouted regardless. I don't have any experience with this, it's just what I have read and heard from plant friends. =)

The broom seeds could be even cooler than the broom itself as they have parentage from another near by parviflora or could possibly be a cross between another near by Pine species. I haven't heard of any parviflora crosses though.

I left them to soak overnight. When I came down this morning all 5 had sunk. I’m obviously going to try and germinate them no matter what. Sounds like Parviflora need a long stratification. What I’m finding is a 90 day stratification is needed. Anyone else have any experience with Pinus Parviflora Seeds?

Update: I got permission to collect the deodar broom and was able to do so 2 days ago. I took about half of it and left the other half just in case. I did 8 grafts on 6 rootstocks. I also am trying to root about 200 cuttings. A gave a good portion of the broom to an experienced buddy and he is grafting it and doing cuttings as well. I think the thing could make a really nice plant. on the tree it does seem to have a ‘Feelin Blue’ form, but with significantly smaller needles. The needles are exactly the same size at Cedrus Atlantica ‘Sapphire Nymph’. I guess only time will tell what it will do once grafted.

Cedrus is my favorite Genus so that makes this all the more exciting for me.

Thanks to everyone who has chimed in and helped me to get this thing done.

This is about a quarter of the broom from below.

A graft In the chamber.

This best shows the contrast in needle size.

Jacob, very cool!

Ooh nice! Wishing you lots success.

This is awesome! Good luck!

Thanks for the update and keep them coming.

tj

Jacob,

Any updates on these grafts?

Sure. All of the original grafts I did in early 2019 failed. Almost certainly due to rookie mistakes (My guess is I didn’t keep the fresh grafts humid enough). My buddy with much more experience got a few to take and of those one is still alive, but its not a great looking plant so far. Here’s a fairly recent pic of it:

This is a double graft on one rootstock and I think he may still have some of the rootstock left on it. The broom is still on the tree and seems fairly well, though somewhat shaded. On the tree it’s a nice baby blue color, but this graft is sorta dull in color. He has it in full sun. Not sure if that‘s a good thing or not.

I went back and collected more scion material this past January to try again. This time I sent a good number of scions to a professional and I grafted 7 or 8 myself. This time I had a 100% take (initially), but with varying degrees of vigor amongst the individual grafts. Some pushed very strong and others are still alive, but pushed very little and they don’t look good. The ones that pushed strong all died after about 6 months. Not sure why, maybe too much shade and too much rain. Before they died they looked like this:

I had some that looked even better than that. One thing that was encouraging was they seemed to be growing a bit more densely than the broom on the tree. Hopefully I can keep the stragglers alive over winter and get some healthy lasting growth next year.

The professional grower is having better luck, but even they haven’t been particularly impressed with the results As their grafts are pushing slower than they expected.

It‘s my understanding that some brooms are just stronger/tougher/more graft friendly and I’m afraid this broom might be a bit on the weak side, but it’s my first broom and Deodara is

my favorite so I’m not giving up on it that’s for sure.

Deodara was planted heavily in my area around 100 years ago. There are many huge trees of the species. Since I found this first broom I have gone on to find almost 90 more, mostly on native pines, but I have scoured many more Deodars for brooms and was beginning to think I would never find another broom in one. About a month ago I was

excited to find this guy though:

It’s definitely not as dwarf as the other, but I’m hoping that means it might graft more easily and be a little stronger in general. In my part of the world I find that I’m having better success grafting in September/October so I didn’t waste any time getting scions off this guy (twice now I’ve had trees with brooms get cut down before I collect so I’ve learned my lesson). I ended up doing about 12 grafts on 7 rootstock. It’s been almost 3 weeks and I’m starting to wean them off the humidity. So far they all look good. I put some cuttings in my rooting chamber as well. Fortunately once again the broom is pretty accessible so I can always get more. And I’ll probably send some to my professional friends when they graft this winter.

Pretty exciting Jacob!

Thanks for the update. :-)