wow. That baby's tight! There are very few Picea rubens cultivars out there. Yours is a very important find. Congratulations and good luck getting her propagated.

Keep me in mind if you happen to have any extra wood or plants in the future . . .

:)

Agree, that's a great little find ..

'Shot Put' is a slam dunk. Lights out baby...

Wow, that is a dandy!

Would love to have some wood to send to some friends. Send me an email if you please would. Same with your pungens broom.

Best Regards,

Dax

Congrats on your find! Depending on your philosophy, sounds like the more you get in circulation to trusted contacts will yield you better success.

Thanks for the glowing reviews. The three pieces on the the tailgate of the truck is the extent of the material as the rest of the broom was just a fused mass of these little twigs. Looking at the picture, now you can see why I am keeping my fingers crossed that some usable material can be found and this thing can somehow be propagated.

{{gwi:639702}}

Great find Scott!!! Assuming this propagates, you will have discovered maybe the best known broom from a Picea rubens. I also really like the name.

Anything you deem junk, send here! You don't need foliage in all cases!

Thanks!!

Dax

usable material? I'd be willing to bet that there's at least 100 scions on those three chunks.

Although I've never personally grafted anything so small, I work closely with a couple of the most successful grafters in the world, one of whom has great success propagating Picea abies 'Wichtel,' a plant with very thin, centimeter-long scions. The plant itself is little more than a moss-covered rock.

What you're showing us will work just fine.
~Dave

This post was edited by Glaciers-End on Tue, Jan 15, 13 at 20:33

I don't propagate so glad to hear that many of you think there is plenty of material there. I will report back once I hear from the person that is doing the work.

ack. Disappointed to hear that you're trusting only one propagator to do the entire job. That's a huge risk for such an important find.

I know that when the guys out in the midwest found those cool brooms and cultivars last winter, wood was distributed to several growers just to ensure success.

I found a Pinus aristata broom last year and know that scions made it to at least 6 different grafters.

Keep me in mind for a plant should they ever become available. I'd pay big bux or trade something equally cool.

best of luck,
~Dave

Good. Dave is correct. You should always have a back up grafter or two or three. I never try completely on my own. Too many things can happen/go wrong: an overheated poly chamber or greenhouse. Loss of heat overnight while a person is sleeping. Really you just never know.

Dax

Agree, send it out to more than one trusted propagator to be sure of every chance for success.

Cool! Another exciting find. I agree, great name!

That looks like it is going to be an amazing little plant. I really like how tight that little guy is. Great name too.

Very nice small broom i like it , I hope some day this beauty
is in my garden

It would look very nice on a standard. Right Henk? ;)

AWESOME!!! Like they said dont trust it to just one person. Brooms on rubens are rare. I have also heard that they are very difficult to propagate. I once had picea rubens 'Storey's Petite' and now its completely gone. The founder trusted only one grafter. Who happens to be a great guy. His died and mine died. As they say "Dust in the wind"

I had until two summers ago a Pinus strobus I named 'Sensei'. It grew 1/2-3/4" per year. I had it eight years until I decided it was time to propagate it. I grafted it, I sent one scion to a friend and both of mine grafted while my friend had no luck. Then the heat wave of two summers ago came along and six weeks of 100F plus temps killed my plant and my grafts. The following winter I had planned to send it off to as many people as I could, but, it's gone. In eight years it was no larger than a baseball. It still makes me sick.

Two days ago I found my most favorite oak-graft eaten to the graft line. I looked and my fence was mangled and crushed and 10 feet away laying on the ground. A deer went thru enough trouble to eat that scion that was only 12" long. You just never know man.

That's it. I'm all done explaining misery.

scpalmnut: I know you haven't been around, but I really hope you could comment on whether or not your grafter sent your broom along to several other grafters. I believe everybody is wondering. I usually wouldn't comment like this which seems like I'm nagging, but, I've been around the block more than three times.

Dax

Hey Dax, you're not nagging. You're just emphasizing that Picea rubens 'Shot Put' is a very important find. Just gotta do it right, right?

~Dave

If it will put everyone's mind at ease, yes more than one person has it and I am told even some well known folks in The Netherlands have gotten some wood.

I'm delighted to hear that.

Dax

Hi all

Was this broom ever successfully grafted?

Sent to several different grafters and don’t think any survived. Oh well, move on.

Bummer. Is any of the original broom intact? Maybe you could try again?

I checked on it a few years ago and it was looking pretty rough.