maybe..

but i doubt they will turn into pears .. eh???

ken

HAHA Ken

but you cant deny how stunning it is now can you?

how do you intend to germinate them? any special treatment for this juniper?

Conifers grown from seed are true to the species, so it would just be Juniperus virginiana seedlings. In order to get 'Grey Owl', you must propagate via rooting, air layering, or grafting.

forgive me SC ..... i need some clarification ....

i am not sure the last comment is correct .. that seedlings of a named cultivar will be the species ... perhaps i am reading it wrong ...

are they TRUE to the species???

i guess i am asking ... what the TRUE part means.. when used in this circumstance ....

unless ... GOwl.. is the species.. and someone in time.. just put a cultivar name on it????

if i grow the seed of a petunia ... it will still be a petunia ... the species ... but i doubt we could go as far as saying the seedling will be true to the species...

ken

They are usually spread by birds, so I suspect they would require some sort of scarification to simulate a bird's digestive system.

Tree named varieties are usually produced not so much by selective breeding (which would take too long) as finding a mutant freak with qualities we like and cloning it. The unique traits tend not to breed true, so you'd probably get a normal Eastern Red Cedar...though you might get lucky. The genes that make it unique are there, but they might be recessive, What is the father? Juniperus virginiana aren't self-fertile.

I'm intrigued by the fact that their *are* named cultivars of Eastern Red Cedar. I respect their toughness, but even I admit they aren't the pretties trees. What makes this cultivar unique? Are there any bluish cultivars?

Ken, that's a fair point. The seedlings are not guaranteed to be identical to the parent species, there is always variation. I guess what I should have said, is that if you grow a cultivar from seed, it does not product that cultivar again (i.e. A clone). If you grow the seeds of a cultivated variety, I suspect that the vast majority would mimic the growth rates and characteristics of the species, while there is a chance some would produce unique variations, that would allow them to become new named varieties themselves.

Ed, yes, it's not too common for humans to manually breed plants, but happens occasionally by some of the mad scientists. Bob Fincham crossed

cross pollinated Gold Drift x Acrocona. The vast majority are mutations found as witches brooms, with a smaller % coming from seedling mutations. Golden Seedlings of Picea Abies 'Gold Drift' X 'Acrocona'

Actually, people manually breed plants all the time. I believe it happens a lot in food crops.

Yea, that's probably true...I was just referring to conifers

cool SC ...

i knew what you meant ... regardless of how you said it ...

growing seeds of plants... is a good way to grow your own understock ...

so if you get some GO to germinate .... they will be Jv ... and they will accept scion ...

but i didnt think you could go as far as saying they are the species ... per se ..

ken

Mine are in 4 inch pots that i will plant out this spring. How many years does it take these things to start making seeds or cones?

I also have "angelica blue" juniper.

Ken...nomenclature. The Genus is Juniperus. The species is virginiana. The cultivar is 'Grey Owl'. So when you say "they will be Jv", you are saying they will be the species. Not necessarily true (all the normal characteristics) to the species, but they will be that species. Some may have variations and, just to throw a curve, this is assuming it was pollinated by another Jv. As Ed mentioned, we don't know who's their daddy. As to who can be their daddy, see the link. The closer, the better.
tj

Cladogram of Juniperus

What makes this cultivar unique?

rather than tall and skinny and green,,,G owl grows low , wide , and grey

much different than species

nice blue "berries"

b.t.w. after a few years in ground,,it really takes off,,,,beware ,,,,give it room

ron

it is more of a squat format.. as compared to an upright tree ..

i think mine were planted by the sub divider 30 or 40 years ago ..

they are on the left.. if i had to say so ... lol .. 10 to 12 feet tall ... 15 to 20 wide ...

good catch junkie ... i meant.. they will be in the family ... subject to the whims of genetics ...

ken

ps: i like this drag and drop pix from the hard drive ... well maybe not .. i got a warning that said: Your post is 249330 characters too long, posts can be up to 21800 characters. Please make it a little shorter and try again.==>> so will put the second pic in a new reply .. and see if that works.. i dont think i have used 250 thousand words in my whole life... lol ... now it says .....Your post is 127648 characters too long, posts can be up to 21800 characters. Please make it a little shorter and try again.OK.. i am not liking this at all ... i have no pix for you ...

lets see if this works

wow.. if i drag and drop.. it rejects the size ... but if i use the photo button below.. it works.. whats that all about .. here is the other pic

now why did it dwarf it ... crikey.. i gotta go

lordy .. point at the dwarf.. and it pops up bigger ....

maybe tamara will tell us how i am doing this magic.. lol

ken

blimey.. what happened to the thumbnail ...

ken

It is usually cited as Juniperus 'Grey Owl', and widely reported to be of unknown, probably hybrid origin, so the seedlings probably won't resemble J. virginiana.

Resin

Why do i see full size online as being 3Hx6W?

I dont have room for it to get 20ft wide.......

full size means after 10 yrs.

mine was placed in a temp. spot,,,,,,well, you know how that goes,,,,,,ha

I had to start cutting the crap out of it,,,,,,,I'm "cloud pruning it" yah,,,that's it

ron

i'm surprised at ken's at 10 to 12 ft,,,,,wow

AND , as always,,,resin sets us straight,,,,now I remember,,plant tag did not list as virginina.

as far as i am concerned.. ALL size estimates.. in the conifer world are at ten years ... [and i am thinking its an hort industry standards in regard to trees.. conifers.. and shrubs .. they never really stop growing at some magical height]

presume.. it can be twice as big.. in all dimensions at twenty ... etc at 30 ...

hence the reason.. i always lecture about the annual growth rate ... X number of inches per decade ...

ken

ps: perennials/annuals.. should have a genetically programmed non-fertilized height ... but the clump or spread.. often can be huge ....

mine take a lot of snow load ... and almost to the point.. that you can NOT see that house in the second pic in summer.. but after a lot of snow.. it can be seen...

sometimes they pop back up.. sometimes they dont ... very infrequently.. limbs break ...

ken

Same problem... exhausting... no photos at all in my post, but still the persistent error message.

what does your post have to do with this topic love???

there is a CONTACT US ..link down below ...

ken

Hello, after some research I discovered this Grey Owl Juniper is a very rare conifer. Through reading scientific studies that say the parents are pfitzer juniper and juniperus virginiana. Basically the chromosomes of the Grey owl plant is now mostly incompatible with regular JV. The chromosomes need a pair. Almost 100% of wild JV will have 2 sets of chromosomes or diploid. G.O. has 3 sets or triploid. This makes pollination possible, but fertilization is only possible if each set has a pair. A very large % will be infertile, but some may join as a genetic variation. If a healthy embryo develops and germinates it should have a more normal JV look because genetics will revert back to species (JV males pollen). If you have another Juniper around with males cones I have no idea what would happen. So in theory blame the pfitzer juniper and its odd genetic makeup for GO look and fertility problems. Beautiful plant though abnormal among conifers.

Also I opened a cone from my Grey owl and the seed is huge. Similar to how we eat alot of agricultural crops that are crossbred and have more robust features.