Yes, I definitely agree with Greenlarry that it "looks cool." But I would also be very interested in learning wheather some of the more bizarre WBs, like "Pinus mugo Przerov," actually survive and continue to grow. Jan -- would it be possible to provide some follow-up photos ? (thnx)

I wish my climate was more compatible because I think you've found a nice thing there. Its a huge healthy broom. My advice would be to contact western evergreen I've bought some plants from them. the guys name is jason send him some pictures of the broom and ask him if he could graft it. Or buy some Norway spruce understock from him and give it a go. Good luck

Much like cedar-apple rust, this is a fungal disorder that travels between two host plants - true firs (Abies species) and the vacciniums (blueberries and cranberries can also be infected). The best way to control is to remove the host fir species. Otherwise, you can just prune out the infected portions, being sure to sterilize pruners after each cut. It really does not affect the health of the plants and is primarily cosmetic in nature.

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.