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firefightergardener

Abies lasiocarpa 'Siskiyou' and broom?

Six years worth of photos of this rare, tiny alpine fir. It seems to be growing even slower than Abies lasiocarpa 'Lopalpun'. Maybe five inches wide and four inches tall, it's also showing a bunching of even smaller needles/buds. I'll be watching it to see if it does it again next year. If so, we'll have to try and graft it.

2008


2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Closeup.

-Will

Comments (21)

  • ogcon
    10 years ago

    What a nice find,Will. Do we know by whom and approx.area of
    Siskiyous?Doug

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    10 years ago

    crikey.. even with the tag as a scale... i still think you are pulling my leg.. lol...

    as always... i appreciate the time it takes to post the pix

    ken

  • unprofessional
    10 years ago

    Tell the truth: you ever accidentally step on one of all the tiny things you have and totally kill it? 'Cause I know I would end up doing that.

  • firefightergardener
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Three plants I have stepped on pretty bad. Picea omorika 'Postorna', Picea omorika 'Schneverdingen' and Abies koreana 'Pinocchio'. All three recovered though 'Schneverdingen' I've actually stepped on three times... Foot pruning I'll call it...

    Ken, that's to me the magic of these guys. They ARE growing, we can see them push and over several years gain in size, but boy is it amazingly slow. I'm thrilled each and every year by the every so subtle and yes beautiful growth of these tiny fellows.

    Doug, there's little information at all behind this plant other than I obtained it from two that Bob Fincham had, not listed elsewhere and only listed with tags 'Siskyou'. Corrections were made to spelling, though perhaps they were originally spelled wrong and that's the true name. It's certainly possible that they are related to or even the same plant as 'Lopalpun', but given the Siskiyou's have considerable groves of Abies lasiocarpa, and that it's apparently slower than Lopalpun, it seems likely it is a unique cultivar.

    The same aged Abies lasiocarpa 'Lopalpun' below for reference. Both plants are about 10-12 years old. This specimen is about the size of a volleyball, the one above a grapefruit.

    -Will

  • greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
    10 years ago

    Superb! What a fine little plant!

    Josh

  • unprofessional
    10 years ago

    "Foot pruning" cracked me up. Thanks for sharing, as always.

  • tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
    10 years ago

    Thanks Will. Both of those are fine plants and I really enjoy your progression pix.

    tj

  • Random_Treelore
    10 years ago

    How awesome!

  • gardener365
    10 years ago

    Nice, nice, nice, witches broom!

    Dax

  • coniferjoy
    10 years ago

    Nice find Will, a witches' broom in a witches' broom!
    Please remember that Abies lasiocarpa 'Lopalpun' is the same one as Abies lasiocarpa 'Logan Pass'.
    With a bit fantasy you can see that an unclear tag was the cause for this renaming.
    'Logan Pass' is the cultivar name we need to use.

  • Mitya
    10 years ago

    Edwin, whether correctly I you understood that 'Lopalpun' and 'Logan Pass', this one and too?

  • coniferjoy
    10 years ago

    Yep, two names for one plant...'Logan Pass' is the right name.

  • Mitya
    10 years ago

    Thanks, is very important information for me.

  • bobfincham
    10 years ago

    Over twenty years ago I received 'Lopalpun' and 'Logan Pass' from Gunter Horstmann as separate plants that he found as separate brooms. They look so much alike that they are hard to distinguish but when I grow them under similar conditions the 'Logan Pass' has issues. It is susceptible to fungal attacks while the 'Lopalpun' is resistant. I originally had about ten of each in my gardens and now have 1 'Logan Pass' and 7 'Lopalpun' and they were often planted very near to each other. I mentioned this in my book on dwarf conifers.
    The picture shows Uwe with what I was told was the original broom of 'Logan Pass'. I am not sure how they got the tree to their place or if it formed at their place on a seedling or if Gunter meant it was the original graft from the broom.

    Bob

  • PRO
    David Olszyk, President, American Conifer Society
    10 years ago

    Hi Bob,

    that's a great picture of what may be the original broom and the finder's son. I'd like to add it to the ACS database to preserve it forever.

    FWIW, I also have 'Lopalpun' and 'Logan Pass' in my collection. Both were among my first Coenosium Garden purchases from 2004. Although they are similar, they look different enough to be different cultivars in my opinion. They are within 10 feet of each other in a very well-drained rock garden and good air circulation. Thus far, I'm happy to report no disease issues on either.

    Also, my notes show that Günter Horstmann found 'Lopalpun' and Jerry Morris found 'Logan Pass.' Please somebody, confirm or refute this claim.

    ~Dave

    This post was edited by Glaciers-End on Sun, Dec 1, 13 at 11:41

  • firefightergardener
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Abies lasiocarpa 'Logan Pass' in my garden before it passed away(probably due to fungal problems as Bob suggested).

    I can't say the difference is huge but there appears to be SOME difference.

    Abies lasiocarpa 'Logan Pass'

    -Will

  • coniferjoy
    10 years ago

    Dave, you've to changes your notes because one thing is for sure which is that Jerry Morris didn't find the 'Logan Pass', it was found by Günter Horstmann at the Logan Pass at the Glacier National Park.

    One thing I know is that Günther Horstmann named all his first witches' brooms just "hexenbesen", later on he named them after the places he found them, like Picea rubens 'Grandfather Mounains'.
    'Lopalpun' is not a place and doesn't mean anything, it's even not a German word.

    I'll stick with the fact that the cause of this is just a badly written tag:
    'Logan Pass'
    'Lopalpun'
    They're pretty similar to me...

    Bob, did you receive both at the same time?

    This post was edited by coniferjoy on Mon, Dec 2, 13 at 2:40

  • PRO
    David Olszyk, President, American Conifer Society
    10 years ago

    Thanks, Edwin. I'll make the correction. My original notes come from the RHS Encyclopedia. The errors in these books are really starting to add up.

    ~Dave

    This post was edited by Glaciers-End on Sun, Dec 1, 13 at 21:48

  • bobfincham
    10 years ago

    Hi Edwin,

    Yes I did back in the early 1980's.

  • mesterhazypinetum
    10 years ago

    We have still not enough to cook a good soup of from Logan Pass and Lopalpun. The key must be at Uwe. Till that time what is sure?
    Logan Pass is one among Horstmanns early american brooms in 1979. Lopalpun is listed by Welch as 1985 Hort. America.
    Its sure, that Welch had no knowledge about Jerry Morris in 1993. Its a bit curious, that time Jerry was far over 1000 brooms. In 1996 Jerry finished written booking of his brooms. By this way the Jerry Morris Life Monument is still not finished, because we have no idea how many brooms he found after 1996. By this way Jerry has nothing to do with with Logan Pass and even Lopalpun.
    Teoretically we can imagine any misspellings in nurseries, even thought Edwin could have been right by this way.

    Now the strongest data is, that Bob got both of the brooms from Horstmann on different names.

    Zsolt

  • bobfincham
    10 years ago

    Welch listed a number of plants that were of European origin as Hort America because I had them listed for sale in my catalog and it was the only information he had about them.

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