Great. It looks quite special!
Richard

That's beautiful variegation. Excellently accomplished by two gentlemen, as well.

Dax

Lovely conifer. Looks to be a big winner, thanks to the 2 of you working together.
Cher

Looks really beautiful! Nice examble of how important it is to see potential of the mother plant even if it doesnt allways show itôs very best qualities in original surroundings. The graft, professionally raised in optimal circumstances really brings out the beauty in this case! Great work!!

Where was it found? The foliage looks like it might be A. borisii-regis, rather than A. cephalonica.

Resin

Nice! Good teamwork.

Thank you all for your nice comments for this result.
Last winter about 50 scions were grafted and they all got successful propagated.
The first one's will be released in fall 2014.

Resin, I don't know yet in which region this tree was found.
Do you think it might be a cultivar of Abies x borisii-regis because of it's less prickly needles which is the cause of Abies alba influences?

This pic was also made by Fotis, now you can see the buds as well.

I've seen the plant at Edwin's nursery two days ago.
It's a pretty cultivar for sure!

Wow, a great looking tree for sure. Well done.

Jeff

Thanks! I was thinking mainly from the needle arrangement being fairly pectinate (more radial in A. cephalonica). But it is difficult to be certain from these pics.

Resin

Normaly,Abies cephalonica have a resinous buds, compare with other cv like "Meyer's Dwarf" "Barabit's Gold" Greg's Broom" ...and according to resin the needle arrangement are more radial, also compare with other cv.
Clement

Thanks Resin and Clément!
So the chance is very big that this one is a cultivar of Abies x borisii-regis?

I hope Fotis will chime inn to tell us in which region he has found it...

Hello everyone! Yes this grows to be a very nice cultivar! unfortunately my own graft lost it's upper buds and I'll have to train one lower brunch up, it will take a while to be a nice specimen!

I found this tree quite north near the city -Arta- abit south of the city of -Ioannina-. My belief, from what I've seen walking in several forests of Abies cephalonica, is that all of the forests in mainland Greece have a deegre of hybridazation which becomes more as you travel north. I've seen many stands of Abies cephalonica in southern Greece, close to my garden, at least 500km away from the closest Abies alba, that do show quite radial needle arrangement and many stands that do not. I thought it was acceptable variability within the species.

For me, the only way to be sure, is to visit the island of Kefalonia (Cephalonia), where the forests there should have isolated, away from hybridazation for thousands of years and see the characteristics of the trees there!

With that being said, and since I saw some quite different canopy habits for Abies x borissi-regis (way more dense branch placement, with shorter, softer and more rounded needles) I thought to place this tree (with more open canopy and vigorous growth, with long and prickly needles) closer to Abies cephalonica than Abies x borisii-regis when we had to label the scions. I might be mistaken though.

Furthermore, I should state that cooperating with Edwin was easy, very interesting and way fun and I'm looking forward to future cooperations as well!!!

PS. this cv might need less than 1 hr of exposure per day not to get burned. The variegation was very bright, almost white even in branches under deep shade and the tree was in the shade of bigger ones. Full color should be evident after the maturing of the needles in late summer way more than in spring and the winter needle color is just beautiful!

Best regards,
Fotis

PS2. in my poor opinion this is how the needles of higher hybridised Abies cephalonica x Abies alba should look like!

this tree with possible broom was found about 20km east than "Filip's Colour Catcher"

quite different needles from the variegated tree. Although I might be mistaken! I'm not a specialist!!

Best regards,
Fotis

Great looking conifer, Fotis and Edwin. Great find!

Matt

Resin, what do think now with the info Fotis provided?

My experiences in the Dutch zone 7 is that this variegated cultivar can stand the sun the whole day without any sign of burning.
Last week we had a heat wave and nothing bad happened.

I'm still curious what Resin has to say to Fotis' new info where he found this conifer.
To me it would be much more interesting if it is a cultivar of Abies x borisii-regis because to what I know is that there are only 3 other cultivars availlable for this moment...

Hi CJ - sorry, been forgetting to reply on this one! The location is right in the middle of the area where A. borisii-regis and A. cephalonica intergrade, so allocating it to one species or the other is perhaps impossible.

I should add that I don't agree with the idea (popular in some botanical circles) that A. borisii-regis is itself a hybrid; more realistically, it is "better understood as part of the group from which all of these species [the Euro-mediterranean Abies] have separated to become distinct" (Keith Rushforth, Conifers).

Resin

Michael, that's a brilliant theory. Your implication is that Abies borisii-regis in, in essence, a "missing link."

I like it!
~Dave

Resin, do you agree with Clément that for this one a bud without resin is typical for Abies borisii-regis?

Do you say that Abies borisii-regis is a true species instead of a cross?

What is the percentage in Greece in true areas of Abies cephalonica?
Is it true that Abies cephalonica only exist at the island of Kefalonia?

Lots of questions here to try to identify the right species for this nice variegated cultivar...

Hi CJ,

"do you agree with Clément that for this one a bud without resin is typical for Abies borisii-regis?"

Not sure. Bud resin can be variable, so I would not be surprised if it did not follow species identity to 100%.

"Do you say that Abies borisii-regis is a true species instead of a cross?"

Yes. There are hybrids (sometimes called A. cephalonica var. graeca or A. c. var. apollinis) between A. borisii-regis and A. cephalonica in the southern Pindos Mts, but the main range of A. borisii-regis is further north (Bulgaria, etc.).

"What is the percentage in Greece in true areas of Abies cephalonica?
Is it true that Abies cephalonica only exist at the island of Kefalonia? "

Specimens in Kefalonia and the Peloponnese peninsula, are considered to be pure A. cephalonica.

Resin

Resin, thanks again for your answers.
Then I'll go for Abies borisii-regis 'Filip's Colour Catcher'.

Resin, do you also think that the other one Fotis named 'SK2' (PS2 is wrong) is an Abies borisii-regis?
It was found 20km EAST from the 'Filip's Colour Catcher', which is even more far from Kefalonica and the Peloponnese peninsula...

Same place, effectively - 20 km east is nothing in terms of tree dispersal, so it's part of the same population - both are approx. 150-180km north of Kefalonia and the Peloponnese.

Resin

Thank you, all is clear now!