It wasn't, of course, there the day before.

Cue theremin.

Nice find Sam!
Are you sure about this species?

Nice one ace!

Very nice, bboy. Thank you, everyone!

And, Edwin, I am 100% sure of the species. I know because I intentionally look at all of the Pinus monticola trees, searching for the first-ever broom!

Finally, I have succeeded! I only hope that scions can be obtained, and it proves to be a nice broom...

-Sam

Good find Sam!
There is no mistake as to identity. The other two pines native here are the Shore Pines and Ponderosas and they don't look anywhere near a monticola. Pinus monticola is not all that common here. They seem to grow in widely scattered groups here in western Washington State. There are none near me as far as I know. There is a native stand north of Seattle at about 175th just east of I-5. Bboy is probably aware of it's location.
It's a nice looking Pine, and a broom should turn out to be a valuable find.
Way to go Sam!
Mike

Superficially similar ones seen in this area are P. strobus and P. reflexa.

Good name, "catchy". I'll bet you were happier than a witch in a broom factory!!

Dax

"Superficially similar ones seen in this area are P. strobus and P. reflexa"

That's why I asked about it's true species...

Good one, Dax!! I certainly was.

It is DEFINITELY Pinus monticola--without a doubt.
I took additional pictures today when it was bright and sunny.

Sadly, the broom is nearly at an unattainable height in the tree........

-Sam

Been perusing the forum for a little bit now and all your pix and your photography skills are just AMAZING!!!! It's wonderful to look through them all! Thanks for taking and posting them all!!

Mary

Thank you very much, Mary. I'm glad you enjoy the pictures. I hope to see you develop your conifer collection and share pictures as well. :-)

-Sam

Any recommendations for how to get scions?
The tree is 6 meters from the highway..

Thank you for your helpful suggestions!

-Sam

This is the point where you have to make sure not to end up on the local, or national, news lol.

I think a good pair of climbing boots is a good start and some sort of harness to stop you falling.
What are you like at climbing trees by the way. If its that close to the highway then you need to worry about the public alerting the police, just a thought. Most people wouldn't care though.
Anyway good luck.

Christian

Wear goggles so the Bald Eagles who have a nest up there don't poke your eyes out! ;-)

ps A flock of Turkey Vultures just landed on one of the Canary Island Pines (luckily it's not a flock of egrets, they spend hours yelling at each other before they finally settle down for the night, the vultures are silent)...more are swooping in...the sky is getting dark...soon you'll be able to hear the screech owls...what a nice deep woods way to end the day...

pps Since the tree the birds almost always pick is one across the street on my neighbor's place, I get to enjoy the wildlife without any fears of major poop issues tomorrow morning...;-)

Alright, guys.
January is the time to collect this baby.

A shoutout to Dave Olszyk (Glaciers_End) and Will Fletcher (firefightergardener) to join in the endeavor. Since you guys are both local, I thought you might like to have a part in the retrieval.

Any advice on how to go about it would be very much appreciated.
I think that, due to the height, and its proximity to a highly-populated freeway makes it more of a job for a professional arborist/tree climber.

Looking forward to hearing feedback!

-Sam

Sam, call Arbor Care out of Astoria. They saved my broom and do excellent work and they also maintain the trees in Olympia at the state capital.

Hi Sam,

I know a guy. He's a former forester and still has all of his rigs and harnesses. I'll message him and let you know what he says.

When are you looking to come north and do the deed? Yes, I'm interested in helping out and taking part.

~Dave

Spooky!

Nice find! Maybe a fire truck with ladder? ;)

Hi Sam,
we have of finding your great joy and congratulations. Unfortunately, many of such trees in Europe not grow ..... so those little we envy such a find! 8-) + :-)
L+M S

Nice find Sam and hope you are able to find someone that can retrieve it for you. Always a plus when you find a broom in something that is uncommon.

I no longer recall what I was searching for on gardenweb when I stumbled onto this thread. I don't know a whole lot about conifers, but reading this made me very curious. It was clear that the witches broom was a little tree attached to a big tree after reading a while, but I also found this article about witches brooms that might be interesting for anyone who isn't a conifer collector and familiar with the lingo: witches brooms.

And, I really do hope you manage to harvest this and create something awesome!

Daniel

This post was edited by rooftopbklyn on Fri, Nov 22, 13 at 9:15

Thanks for the advice and comments, everyone.

I'll let you know what I can round up for resources!

Dave, I'll be aiming for mid- to late-January.. some day when the weather is dry..

Daniel, I am glad you were as enamored with this witch's broom as I am. It is very fun to discover slow-growing varieties in this way, which you can see grow and develop. :-)
Make sure you keep your eyes open for some exciting finds of your very own!

My favorite part is the cones on it! (5th photo on the thread)

-Sam

I'm jealous! I've been searching for a Pinus monticola broom for years :) I hope that you get it propagated!

Random

WOW! Nice find, but man that thing is UP THERE! Nice to see the western cousins of the Pinus Strobus. I wouldn't say Monticolus and Strobus are superficially alike, as they are related.

I like the shape of the Monticola better, however many Strobus do get that spire like shape to them, especially in forests and on mountain sides. They are such a common pine in the east (strobus) you often see them grown in the open where they usually have much wider / fatter and more irregular crowns. I've seen a few brooms around on those out here, but they are always extremely high up like this one, and Strobus are ENORMOUS trees. Its common to see these well over 100' tall in mountain / forest areas, and even on some old farms / in rural areas. I think the tallest is a whopping 188 feet. Monticola get roughly the same size as well.

How high up there is that thing? Can't see the whole tree but judging by what you can see and its trunk it looks to be a good 60-80 footer? Of course the broom is all the way at the top.

I had 2 Strobus (75' tall) in my front yard as a teen, and used to climb them all the time. They are fairly easy to climb because of the branch structure. Spent many a windy afternoon up there enjoying the sound of the wind rushing through the needles and the view.

Good luck getting some scions!

Sam, its really nice, there are so few monticola brooms yet.
Invite Random for harvest with his big gun... :)
I also heard of cutting such big trees instead of climbing.
Zsolt

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

No guns will be necessary because I have a guy who not only has formal tree-climbing experience, but he is very interested in the project!

Should be able to work something out with him before January for retrieval. Will keep you all updated. Thanks for your interest.

-Sam

Way to go Sam, I can't hardly wait to see pics of this adventure!
Good luck!

This weekend, we retrieved this unique broom!
Sadly, only about 30% of the broom was alive, so let's hope for some successful grafts!

Cutting into "bite-size" pieces..

a boy and his broom ;-)

a few close-ups..

the broom has/had cones!

Foliage comparison: broom vs. species

And, of course, aside from being the excellent photographer for these photos, Stephanie had to find another broom literally in the tree RIGHT NEXT to this one.

-Sam

super

who monkeyed up the tree ...

will you grow the seeds from the cones ...

and finally.. since you were there.. did you harvest the other ...

ken

Thanks, Ken.

I don't think any of the cones had seeds left, but if it continues to produce cones, that would be an exciting experiment in the future!

We got an arborist to do the job. Apparently the broom was over 100' tall in the tree!

And, no, we didn't collect the other broom, but it's a nice mini Douglas fir that we may retrieve on the next expedition.

-Sam