Will, I'm glad that you started this topic.
2 years ago Henk and I started an investigation to find out why several Abies koreana witches' brooms appaered on the market in a relative short time.
From the beginning on we had in mind that there were only a few originals and the other must be just renamings...

Guenter Horstmann found in 1986 a witches' broom on an Abies koreana which he first gave the temporary name 'Hexenbesen Horstmann No. 1'
Later on he gave the proper name 'Silberperle' which means "Silver Pearl' in English.
For the record, 'Silberperl' is not correct.

For some commercial reason other German Nurserymen renamed the 'Silberperle' into 'Silberkrueger' and 'Silberzwerg'.

The 'Silberperle' found also it's way into the U.S. which was quickly renamed into 'Silver Pearl' and 'Silver Mavers' ('Silber Mavers' is incorrectly written).
Some U.S. person renamed it also after himself into 'N. Degrees'.

To make a long story short, this German Korean fir witches' broom does have 7 names:
-'Hexenbesen Horstmann No. 1' (first and temporary name)
-'Silberperle' (proper name)
-'Silberkrueger'
-'Silberzwerg'
-'Silver Pearl'
-'Silver Mavers'
-'N. Degrees'

The same story goes for Abies koreana 'Kristallkugel'...

Thank you Edwin, this is hugely valuabl, the history of the plant and the mistake shown for all to see. It's unfortunate that this happens but it's wonderful to see some hard detective work by you and others showing the duplicate cultivar name. This is far too common and one way we can reduce this is to use the proper name as often as possible and correct it when one of the illegitimate ones is used.

I only have 'three years' of 'Kristallkugel' but I will post that anyways, just in case you'd like to add the history there too. :)

-Will

Will, 3 years of Abies koreana 'Kristallkugel' is good for me.
Show us your pics and I will tell the full surprising story of it...

Beautiful plant, of course!

Your pictures help me on a number of levels, but most importantly help me see in action that conifer gardening is a process: I see different mulches used, placement of new rocks, movement of the various plants. Very dynamic, and this helps reduce my anxiety to 'get it right the first time.'

Will, could I trouble you to ID all three other conifers in the 2011 photo? I tried zooming up the tag for the blue behind 'Silberperle' in the first photo to no avail.

I'd be glad to Mrs. Greenhaven, and glad these photos help in your design/concepts. I feel I am young enough to continually change my gardens and I think my skill should improve as my experience and gardens evolve. You can see clear changes made as plants are moved, rocks are added and mulches are 'topped off'.

The three conifers in the 2011 shot are:

Top left: Pinus parviflora 'Azuma'
bottom left: Pinus mugo(probably x nigra?) 'Jakobsen'
right: Cedrus deodara 'Feelin' Blue'

-Will

on this particular plant.. i solved the naming issue.. by never being able to find it to buy it ... lol ... so .. in theory.. my dB is correct.. as are my labels and tags ... supreme!!!!

it was on my wish list for years.. but somehow.. i was never the lucky person to get sent one ...

the history is fascinating.. and i am GLAD .. that there are peeps.. on both side of the pond.. interested in securing this info.. for posterity ...

thx for the pix.. and joy.. for the history ..

ken

Thank you very much! I love them all...of course. I was first smitten by the Cedrus...I don't suppose I can grow that out here? But the P. parviflora has really wowed me! Is the Cedrus gone now? Or simply moved? I notice it missing from the 2012 photo.

-Shannon

One of the shortcomings of the GardenWeb forums is that the histories presented here are not "preserved for eternity." After a few years they will be dropped from the bottom of the message lists never to be seen again.

In this case, this will not happen. This morning, I took Edwin's story and transferred it to the ACS database (or course with proper source citation). This history lesson is now truly preserved for eternity.

I plan to hunt down more of these dusty gems as time goes by.

~Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: ACS database - Abies koreana 'Silberperle'

Dave,

On a similar note, I've noticed more of a short-term preservation issue with the usage of Photobucket.

Far be it from a periodic 'grazer' like me to tell regulars here how to post images, but seems lots of folks love Photobucket, and if you're going to spend the time uploading pictures, you might as well use something that is going to last and not disappear after 2 years or when your pictures take up too much bandwidth because it's a heavily viewed thread.

It's always a shame to look back through some older posts and see the vast majority of pictures missing. This may have come up previously, but I've not seen it addressed.

I've had good success with Picasa and Flickr, myself. Just food for thought, as I know it's a great deal of work to take these pictures, upload them, make a post, discuss, etc....

Steg

. . . and don't lose sight of the fact that if you're posting to the ACS website, you don't have to mess with Photobucket, Picassa and others of that ilk. You simply upload right from your computer to the site.

~Dave

Nice plant!

Well done, Dave!

Thank you, Edwin

:)