but of course.. that doesnt mean they are not near exact duplicates .. to all but the hardcore enthusiast ... back in the day .. as a name collector.. i had to have one of each ... a decade latter.. and lots of money ... i realized... one or the other... whichever was actually available .... or cheaper.. was the one i needed ... so .. dont get to caught up.. in the name game ... if you have a spot ... get one or the other... if you have two spots.. spread across 5 acres ... go for both ... but you dont need both.. in a smallish garden ... ken ps: or maybe you do .. lol ... been there.. done that .. lol

That has really grown a lot since March and even straightening itself out well. Nice progression photos. We are in the 90's also. I'm not a big one for watering all the time, but had the sprinklers going for hours yesterday since we are not getting any rain. At least last year we had a month of heavy rains in May. Looks like this is going to be a rotten year and require constant care for the ones planted new this year. Cher

Randall said "Looks like he has a great plant, but with all the nomenclature problems already in our world, let's not get this one mixed up too!" This is Iseli's own fault, because THEY donated some seedlings without a name to an ACS auction. How stupid can you be to gave it a cultivar name ahead of an auction. Any name is ok, even when it was the name of your neighbours wife, it NEEDS a name before it get spread! Even a varietal name will not work, this also will give confusions. Now there are a ton of 'differend Skylands' seedlings availlable and another bigg mess has started...man, what is this a very sad situation...

Picea pungens 'Fat Albert' is not a dwarf tree, so it will grow at a similar rate to other vigorous cultivars. Seedlings can have a lot of variability to them in growth rate and color. Which is why cultivars such as 'Fat Albert' are selected and marketed. Uniform color, growth rate and form. Here is a link that might be useful: Photo of 'Fat Albert'