try the conifers forum, I think they'd be most helpful.

Thank you for that advice. If no one knows, then I'll pot them up and see what happens.

Juniper or maybe cypress, presumably more easily recognized parent tree is visible nearby.

Does look like my blue arizona cypress looked when it was a baby, but conifers are just not my area.

i don't know if it is a juniper, but I know that junipers can be that color. We had some when I was growing up.

By all means, pot it up soon. The bigger a conifer seedling gets, the less likely it will survive a transplant. Al

I'll stroll around to look for parent trees -- I know I see Italian Cypress a lot, and some sort of conifers that are trimmed into a spiral topiary type of shape. Not growing any conifers in our yard, though, so I am not that familiar with them.

Parent has to be near enough for seed to have blown or been dropped there, unless it came off of a vehicle.

Do birds factor in with these kind of seeds? We have a lot of mockingbirds, crows, and scrub jays around.

The closest thing I saw was in another backyard about a block away, looked something like this -- I mean it didn't have the standard triangular form. Most of the cone evergreens I see around here are green, yellow green, or dark green.

If it IS like the ones I saw, then it would grow too huge for where I was thinking to plant. :-(

This post was edited by melle_sacto on Fri, Nov 14, 14 at 13:23

Yeah, birds can spread juniper and other conifer seeds. It does look like a juniper to me. It could be from those in the picture, even if the foliage seems different, junipers have both juvenile and adult foliage. But it also could be from somewhere else.

I'd dig it up and pot it to grow a bit older, you or someone can identify it more accurately when it gets more adult foliage. Anyways, you don't want it getting bigger in the middle of your coleonema.

Has the pointed habit of a tree seedling, a conical tree of some size should be expected.

Yes, they definitely need to come out. Just thought the blue was such a pretty contrast.

My son has been asking if we could grow a redwood (noooo, no room for that either!). Maybe I'll give these to him and let him care for them in the pots.