Unless you've been under a rock for several years or you're new to conifers, you've heard of this recent introduction, a witches broom from 'Horstmann's Silberlocke', 'Kohout's Icebreaker' is a slow growing dwarf, globose in young age and eventually sending up a slow leader with age. It will form a small pyramid in a decade or two growing between an inch and five inches at the terminal leader per year.

The first is a specimen that is in 60-70% shade, and doesn't quite have the robust leave curl that a full sun specimen has. It also shows decreased growth speed and no sign of a leader so far, despite being the same age as the specimen below. Both plants are Coenosium Gardens products.

2009

This second specimen is VERY happy, in average soil but 12-15 hours of sunlight every day and it gets plenty of water to boot. It's worth noting this plant has even been grafted from(about 15 pieces of wood) and it just keeps growing faster and faster. The leader is about five inches(13 cm) long.

2010 (No photo from 2009 but it looked exactly like the above 2009 from the backyard).

-Will