Great find Sam,sweet broom! I bet Dana got schooled on brooms also,win win. Good eye!
Rob

Hi Sam,
congratulations on findings nice, interesting story accompanies it. Binding of nature and of human life ...
L+M S

Nice catch, Sam!
I gues you will need a lot of understock now, because there are plenty of scions on that broom :0)

Very nice broom Sam I hope you make a lot of new plants of this broom.

Henk

Beautiful ...
Jan Slama wbgarden

Here is a link that might be useful: Dwarf conifers garden

Wow, that WB looks exceptionally choice. I love the chunky needles. Sounds like you'd better wear gloves when grafting it though.

Nice find!

Alex

Thank you for the nice comments, everyone.

We will probably grow 25-50 and distribute the rest to others.

The needles are exceptionally thick and stiff, being very glaucous on all sides.
Also, the buds are extraordinarily large and somewhat resinous as you can see in this picture:
{{gwi:676415}}

It looks so much different than a typical Picea sitchensis!

-Sam

I like it, Sam. Very interesting form and texture. It's also a great name and awesome back story.

It's a pity that grafting is done for me this season. Nonetheless, I'd like to be among the first in line to get a plant this fall/next spring.

best of luck,
~Dave

Good luck with your propagating after all your efforts. It looks great.
Richard

I wonder why your hand looks like you've been picking
wild blackberries in picture#2.So much more dense than 'Papoose' and hopefully less vigorous.Dana must have been
pleased with this unexpected encounter.
Doug

A dandy Sam - Nice older gentleman there.

Dax

Great broom with an even better story.

Thanks Sam.

tj

Thanks again, everyone.

Dave, I would be happy to supply you with a small graft this spring.. perhaps when we meet up for our Abies amabilis broom hunt..!

-Sam

Who cares about the broom, that story is exceptional and you did good honoring it as such.

Great find, great story and great name! I'd like to connect with you for a couple of the scions if possible!

Wow, that is a really sweet broom! Nice find.

Jeff

Today, my buddy Doug and I went and grabbed the entire broom so now we have more scion wood at our disposal.

It occupied the entire bed of the truck!
{{gwi:676418}}

The possible witch's broom on this witch's broom is mostly dead. We will attempt to graft a few of the tiny scions, however.
{{gwi:676420}}

I hadn't noticed how blue the foliage was until the sun came out today. Almost like Abies procera 'Blaue Hexe'..
{{gwi:676422}}
{{gwi:676424}}

-Sam

*drooling*

that's an awesome broom(s). You guys are rock stars. Grafting season's really long in the tooth. I hope the grafts make it.

~Dave

Very exciting - love that color!

Great stuff and well done to name it so appropriately.

-Will

Sam, I also hope you'll succeed grafting the witches' broom on the witches' broom.
Good luck!

Thanks, guys. I grafted a couple today; I'll wait on the rest for the expert grafters to do..

Side-by-side, there is a profound difference evident in the growth rates of the area proposed to be a witch's broom and the rest of the broom...
{{gwi:676426}}

a close-up of the needles and buds of Picea sitchensis ['Dana's Prickly Piñata' WB]
{{gwi:676428}}

-Sam

To formalize it, the name of the witch's broom on 'Dana's Prickly Piñata' will be called 'Dana's Blue Gumball' because of its dense, globose branching. Also, I thought a candy-related name was fitting to be stashed inside a piñata.

Lo, and behold, yet another witch's broom--smaller still--was tucked between the branches of the piñata as well!

Because of the form of this miniature broom, it shall be called: Picea sitchensis 'Dana's Blue Lollipop'
{{gwi:676430}}

Because of the small scions, I was only able to graft seven of the 'Lollipop'. Fingers crossed in the hopes that the grafts take!

-Sam

Sam, the 'Dana's Blue Lollipop' is a real nice 'n tight one!
Good luck in propagating it!

Do you also have a pic were it was tucked in the original broom?

WOW!

There's really little more that I can say. The three forms on this broom should be planted together and grown under the same conditions to see if over time they start looking similar to each other or if they are indeed distinct cultivars.

The next gereration of 'Dana's Blue Lollipop' would look fantastic on a standard.

~Dave

Edwin, the broom was somewhat hidden from view. It was on the side of the broom, between and underneath some other, larger branches.

I just wanted to cut it out and see how much was there, & forgot to take a picture until after.

Dave, I agree a standard is an excellent idea. Probably graft them up about 18" (45 cm).. Plus, it would make it look more like a lollipop. :-)
Also, you say that grafting season is "long in the tooth." How much longer do you suppose we have to graft?

It took some real patience and micro-surgery to graft those scions.. They were just about as wide as they were long--never grafted anything like it before.
As I tried to wrap the grafting band, the scion would occasionally pop out of the slit I had prepared!

-Sam

Good work Sam!
It was a pleasure meeting you saturday (with Doug and Brian)
We talked about you at the ACS board meeting after we left and have big plans for you at the 2015 National ACS meeting LOL
Jeff

Jeff, it was nice to meet you as well!
I am very curious and excited to hear these "big plans!"

-Sam

As to the question of how much longer to graft conifers.
It has been a very mild winter so perhaps not as long as other years?
Last year in late April we (actually Wayne Staley) did a bunch of cork bark P. thunbergii with a 2/3 (so far) success rate. Considerably lower than January but not bad. Then in June we were "gifted" a small branch off a P. ponderosa that Wayne grafted quite a few of and so far so good!
Because we were doing cork barks the grafts had to be very, very low so a bit of a handicap
jeff

Sam, any new news with these three Dana brooms? Success I hope!

Rob

Beautiful brooms and nice story. Hope they take and are available for purchase in a few years.