Last weekend I went back to collect scions form the columnar golden spruce I came across last summer, which appears to be a mutation on Picea orientalis 'Skylands'.

The plant is at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. GFS is a non-profit sculpture garden built beginning in 1989 on the site of the former NJ State Fairgrounds. I was glad to learn that, since I was beginning to wonder if it had been built on a former toxic waste dumping grounds, on account of the mutations ;o) The mission of GFS is to make contemporary sculpture as an art form more accessible and to offer people from all backgrounds the opportunity to become comfortable with contemporary art. Plants serve as the backdrop for the sculptural art

The plants were donated by various nurseries decades ago, and labeling is sporadic at best (I found labels on ~10% of the plants). Over the years, various landscape crews have taken care of the site, and the local Master Gardeners help out as well. Unfortunately, no one was able to help me out with plant ID. The Master Gardeners referred me back to GFS. The people I've talked to at GFS have not been able to locate a complete list of plants, although I'm told that I may be able to get better information in a few weeks when someone returns from vacation.

Here's a taste of GFS:

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I have to admit, I don't really get the art:

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On to the interesting part. Here is the plant in question, which is supposed to be Picea orientalis 'Aurea Compacta', which is I believe an (incorrect) synonym for 'Skylands'.

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Interesting, there was another pair of narrow Skylands, which were used to frame out a path.

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While narrow, these specimens were not as columnar as the other. Here's a close-up of the larger one:

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And they also had two plants with the same 'Skylands' foliage in a squat, low-growing form:

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They have a small conifer display area featuring some dwarf plants, for the most part unlabeled.

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The bright yellow plant in the front was very interesting, a low and meandering Picea pungens (I think) with better-yellow foliage spreading flat on either side of the branches. I took some scion from this plant as well, though I do not know what it is. Can anyone help with cultivar ID?

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One other plant caught my fancy, and did have a label, though the label simply said Picea pungens 'GFS'. Any ideas what about cultivar ID ?

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Scion:

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And some of the grafted plants in their new home:

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Alex