Johnny, here's a nice 70' TM pine outgrowing the surrounding oaks in southwest VA. Others can be seen.

Johnny,

Instead of clone 1 and clone 2 how about these names:

'Golden Icing'
'Lemon Zest'

Dax

And here's an open-grown one:

Beautiful! I've planted one from Forest Farm - It's done extremely well, considering I've never watered it and we've had some of the driest summers on record - It's deep green with good bud set. Mine seems happy to stay green all winter - Those yellow ones intrigue me!

Johnny,
I guess I've seen that goldies some years ago.
That time they were younger.

Are they wintergold or gold all the year?

Heavenly finds.

Zsolt

The best find from Sunday's search.

Johnny

Johnny, congrats with your #5 golden one...

Johnny, last pic is interesting. Looks like a recent "burn" area, w/TM pines recolonizing it.

Something I noticed -- several terminal buds on mine have swollen bases. I wondered about it, then examined them w/a magnifying glass. The "swell" was preformed male cones embedded in the buds waiting to expand.

Good find Johnny. Which species this time? And is this #4 since you lost one of the rigida (or am I wrong somewhere) ?

Zsolt, all Johnny's previous finds are winter golds.

Dax

There's more? lol All that I've ever found came from this 1/2 acre burned site

Johnny

Here we are one year later as viewed from a different perspective.

Johnny

A 'Chief Joseph' for southern gardens.

Very nice Johnny!
Yep, the last pic shows a 'Chief Joseph' look alike :0)

Beautiful, almost sunflower-yellow!!

Wow,I haven't been much of a conifer guy since my young days, but I would LOVE to have that one in my yard. Beautiful man, particularly that last one.

Arktrees

Johnny, those put my Wates Golden VA pine to shame.

Are they mostly green during the growing season (like the Wates Golden)?

Dont you buy this half acre? Its a gold mine.

Yes, there is maby bigger tree there with latent gene of gold seeding, when self pollinated producing these? Perhaps the best one have not appeared yet.

Add me to the list of the impressed!

Looks fantastic! Thanks for the update!

"Annual Report" 12/4/2014

Johnny

Outstanding color.

Johnny, are these solid green or green-yellow during the warm season? These are much more yellow than my Wates Golden VA pine, which is a solid, medium green in the summer and doesn't get alot of yellow until, say, late Dec.

Very nice trees. Looks a little bit like "Chief Joseph". Congratulations on the great finds.

Alex

Just to contribute -- a small cone already on my small TM pine transplanted just a couple yrs ago.

MOST EXELLENT !
johnny , was there a post before your dec. , 12 post ?
ron

2012 is the first year the pines were at this location. I've had post on different "Goldies" in the past. Several were destroyed by wild fires prior to 2010. Beng: The summer foliage is somewhat lighter than the type species.

Here's photo of the plant in foreground as a 1-0 seedling which resulted from previous years burn and the destruction of initial golden discoveries.

wow!

A little color after two weeks of dismal weather...good to see the sun again!

Johnny

Amazing color - such wonderful winter interest! So glad you spotted those and are giving them such good care. It's nice to see how thick and richly colored the growth is over time.

Johnny, I hope you're able to get those into production at some point - I would absolutely love to add one to my grove of evergreens! The bright yellow on that most recent picture is breathtaking!

I have a straight species Pinus pungens that I grew from seed - it is about 10' tall but still thin and lanky.

Treeguy, they need at least 6 hrs full sun -- less and it'll be lanky. Below is mine after 7 yrs that gets 6 hrs full sun:

Easily one of the top conifer cultivars around. Stunning!

Beng - thanks for the advice on exposure. Mine was potted up for a couple years as a seedling and grew tall/thin during that time before planting out in full sun two springs ago. It is starting to fill in nicely!

The one with the cone has quite a few scale insects on it, if you haven't noticed - and might want to do something about them.

Here's my Pinus pungens "Mountain Gold", photo taken yesterday. The gold is beginning to show but not induced by cold weather!

Love that color combo! Very cool history.

Very nice !

Thanks for the update -- looks healthy w/some nice buds for next yr. Any plans of doing some grafts?

Looks super!

Dax

Johnny, I'd like to take your new photos to link for conifertreasury.org.

Looks like a happy dream, great find!

Zsolt

Yes Zsolt, you are most welcome!

Johnny

What differentiates following Pinus pungens cultivars: ’Mountain Gold', ’Jonny’s Goldstrike’, ’Custer’s Locks’?
Which has the most intense yellow winter color?

Have you sent scions to conifer kingdom?

Hi David, the 3 clones have been in Europe for quite a while via Oregon grafting interest.

So, which clone is the original one you started the thread with? Is that "Mountain Gold"?

Hi David, Mountain Gold is correct

1

Which do you think will be the fastest growing? I have now found the web pages for them at CK, but they appear to be out of stock.

I wonder if the soils where you have found these have higher levels of radioactivity from granite. (a source of radon) Might explain the high levels of mutation, if you've really encountered so many variegated forms.

Here's 2 Pinus pungens that I found last March 27 2023...color had faded considerably then.

Todays photo has good yellow

!

My standard TM pines kinda looked like that a couple weeks ago, but just from shedding the oldest needles.