what a motley crew ... lol ...

now.. you keep calling yourselves 'breeders' ... what exactly are you guys doing behind the bushes with the conifers .... lol ... would 'propagators' be closer to the word you wish to use ...

and JOY!!!! .... i thought you were the OLD guy in the group .. you are a young punk .. no wonder you are always telling us what to do ... rotflmbo ...

a serious question .. what language predominates ...

i was thinking it would be a great to be there among the famous [not that i am] ... the European conifer glitterati .. and then i realized.. that i probably would not understand a word spoken ... hmmm

thx for putting some faces to the names ... seems i even recognize a few that dont visit GW ....

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Predominate language would be German Ken, one reason I don't take up my invite, plus I'm not on mainland Europe! ;O)

Ken,
I have to keep calling the breeders as breeder simply. Just because they have discovered very big quantities of new conifers, mainly brooms. Have a look at the quantities in great:
Krejci cca. 500, Kohout cca 700, Franz Etzelstorfer cca 6-800, Malik cca 100, Simanek family 25, Novak cca 30, Edwin cca 40, van Nijnatten cca 20, Henk van Kempen cca ? several, president of the Dutch Conifer Society, Valenta cca 150, me about 130, Papez jr. cca 40.
2500 conifer selections, 20 percent of the total world conifers. 3 of us are members at American Conifer Society.

Thats all, Ken.

If you find such a punk company in the States, I'll be there to make photographs.

We were speaking german, because Mr. Malik speaks better german than english.

Zsolt

I'd bet Valenta drank his lunch. That boy's engine runs off beer at his grafting headquarters.

Dax

well with my hosta background.. breeders transfer pollen to make new crosses ... and then grow things out from seed

other people cut off sports or pieces of mutations.. and come up with new plants that way ...

so in my mind.. as warped as it is... i consider them two different groups .... though of course.. they can overlap ....

though i suppose some of you may be fooling with pollen and seeds ... am i correct to assume that a vast majority of what you are 'discovering' .... is not man-crossed seed related ...

anyway ... it cracks me up.. the germans meeting in budweiss .... though i personally hate it.. Budweiser is one of the top selling US beers ... how apropos ... lol

will we be seeing pix of the broom hunting??

oh.. and what was the music.. some antique music box ...

ken

Zsolt, tell your friends that they are blocking the view of the plants in all these pictures...

Its neat to see such passion and commmitment but I was scrolling through the pics waiting to see the conifers!

Is that Valenta in pic 7, enjoying an amber?

Boy, I sure couldn't keep up with who is who. All I know is purple blazer stole the show!

Thank you, Zsolt, for pictures of the gang.

Ken you've seen pictures of Joy before haven't you? That baseball cap is a dead giveaway. I think its stapled to his head. LOL

tj

Ken, I think the local Budweiser is NOT the same thing you get in the States : In fact, as I recall, there was a big court battle in the EU about rights to the name Budweiser, and the Czech brewery won, keeping the US brewer out (except perhaps under some other name).

PS. Thanks for the group photos -- agree that its nice to see a face to go with the name.

Nice! Thanks Zsolt for sharing these photos of the conifer gathering. There was an article in Conifer Quarterly about the Altai expedition. Good stuff!

Nate,
I saw that, but watching the video we saw the morning wood gathering for cooking, cars in the rivers. Very rural, very rustic, and now we all know that brooms are not on the main streets.

A friend of us told here before, he doesn't see the conifers of the gathering. What happens behind the bushes?

I visited first in May to Cesko to document the San Sebastian collection. This is the first well organized broom discovery action, wich is organized by the Professore, goes on since 11 years with the participation of 30 breeders, and the number of selected brooms are over 1300.

As I returned in June again, I met with a new conifer history. This is the Pinus cembra Saga. Franz Etzelstorfer of Austria started to collect cembra brooms in 1996. He became the Father of Cembras with his idea. Years later joined him Malik, Novak, Krejci, in 2009 Jorg Kohout. Franz and Jorg went to Siberia, and they made together a beautiful broom harvest there first. This is the second well organized discovery program beside the San Sebastian, which goes on since 15 years. This autumn it goes further to the European Alps with the old friends for new hunt. We are speaking now about 150 cembra brooms from the Alps and Siberia. Later on I will show you all, what I could document on a rainy Sunday morning. A soft conifer world from impossible heights.

We met there the greatest organizators and members of this two enormous gardening discovery enterprize. This was not written on the photos, just happened behind the bushes.

I feel very lucky to documentate, as they are making conifer history. Thanks to all.

Zsolt

Yep Ken, live is full of surprises isn't it ;0)
I'm not an old retired guy and my memory is still working for a 100% so I will remember your topics to this forum for a long while, at least 3-5 years when your 'Soutbridge Variegated' will make some cones to show to Resin ;0)
I was the youngest person of this very interesting conifer clan from which I became a lot of new conifer info which I can use for this Conifer Forum once and a while.
On the other hand it's a very sad thing that halve of this group will be gone to the etarnal conifer fields in now and 20 years which will make me probably the last of the Mohicans...

Tommy, indeed that cap is stapled to my head during days like these ;0)
It's a very special cap to me because I bought it together with the famous Jerry Morris at a store in the Rocky Mountains during a Dutch conifer Society tour in the U.S. in 2004.
How many of you guys met Jerry in person, Nate did for sure but who else of this Forum?

Well, let's continue this conifer meeting...
This was the meeting point at Mr. Mira Malik's home and nursery.

Mr. Mira Malik (l) and the Dutch delegation from left to right:
Henk van Kempen, Ronald Vermeulen, Andre van Nijnatten and me.

This was our host, Mr. Mira Malik in his purple blazer.
Will, now you know his name ;0)

For Vladimir Valenta this picture taking was like the happy old school days, he still unlearned his bad habits ;0)

First broom pics taken that day:
Picea obovata 'Rotet'

Pinus mugo 'Littl Willi'
{{gwi:744771}}
More pics to come...

I sure want a 'Littl Willi'...the confier that is!

Thanks for posting more pics. As always, worth a 1,000 words.

Edwin, thanks for pix and the extra insight into the meeting (and the cap).

tj

Edwin,
the ringing bell photo is really great! Guests must be feeded anyway.

Some weeks ago Nate and Dax asked me, - after publishing the first series of the Malik Gardens - how the enormous quantity of Jerry's plants are propagated in Europe?

I know two persons, who has a "special responsibility" in this prozess. They are Franz Etzelstorfer and Jorg Kohout. Before "trial" the Professore Malik is also deep in the "crime" with collecting and building up a superb mother plantage in his gardens.

I wish you not no became a last Mohikan. Collect new younger friends by the time who are interested in impossible conifer missions, who are able to follow great ideas. I think all of the company are living for great ideas.

I felt me well in this company.

Zsolt

Zsolt & Edwin,
Thanks for the pictures. It is good to see the faces of the movers and shakers of the European conifer broom hunters.
Dennis

Dennis,
I'd like to annoy a little my american friends with this many photos :)
I hope, you will say ok, we have also some conifers! I'd like to see them, as I'm collecting matter to the Conifer Treasury of the US & Canada since a year (and the previous 30).
Zsolt

Other witches' brooms pics taken that day:
Abies procera 'Henk's Garden W.B.'
Found by my friend Henk as a witches' broom on an Abies procera 'Bizarro'

Abies sibirica 'Siberian Beauty'

Abies nephrolepis 'Nadia'
Very rare witches' broom found by Vladimir Valenta.

Picea sitchensis 'Brigitte'

Abies lasiocarpa 'Cvikov'

Some extra adventure pics:
There was a time to learn...

And when all is getting to much, there was a time to forget...I think Dax knows exactly what I'm trying to show here ;0)

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa oh lord!!!!!!!!!!

Henk is champion! ;0) my hero!

Dax

Dax, the pic looks more worse then it in reality was :0)
The very nice thing here was that Mira Malik provides us the whole day with drinks and food which make's us feel that we were in conifer paradise :0)
I think that you would feel here at home also :0)

lol, great thread... A conifer festival this appears to be indeed, lots of plants, broom finders and breeders, good food and beer lol... everyone had a great time no doubt.

Edwin,
as the Professore looks conifers with Henk on your photo, behind them are in a small corner about 600 mother brooms. Mainly San Sebastian brooms, but some others too. In the first two beds there were greek brooms of Pinus leucodermis, collected by Mr. Halda of Cesko some years ago. I try to collect them today. You will meet with the greek mythology...

Zsolt

I didn't notice those Zsolt ;o)

Dax