I've mentioned in the past that I house
a library of plant books in the coffee room just outside of the main
nursery office. I used to encourage my employees to avail themselves
of the knowledge, as I thought that was an enlightened approach to
advancing their careers. Ha – I was rong! – very few cared. Those
who did take books home were liable to forget, and I was constantly
pestering for their return. I regret losing some, such as the JD
Vertrees 1st edition of Japanese Maples which was
signed by the author. I don't lend books anymore as I've grown into a
bitter old man, and I've instructed my wife to dig an extra large
grave when I pass, and dump all the books in with me.
Yesterday I pulled Conifers
(1986) by DM van Gelderen and JRP van Hoey Smith from the shelf,
which was signed by the latter. Paging through the photographic
encyclopedia brought back memories of plants I used to grow as well
as others still in production. Ten years later (in 1996) the authors
doubled their effort and a two-volume set was published, and Timber
Press from Portland, Oregon brags that “This book is the most
complete collection of photographs – 2347 strong – of conifers
ever assembled,”* and suggest that “It may also be used in
conjunction with the detailed text descriptions in Gerd Krussmann's
Manual of Cultivated Conifers,” one of the
driest, most boring plant reference books ever
(1985-translated-to-English edition).
*Hmm... “the most complete
collection of photographs of conifers ever assembled.” I suspect
that it has been more recently surpassed with newer publications, and
even perhaps by the Buchholz Nursery photo library.
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| Mr. van Hoey Smith |
The two-volume Conifers (1996)
lists 190 photograph locations, and my nursery – with Buchholz
thankfully spelled correct – is number 34 in alphabetical order.
Hats off to the late van Hoey Smith for his world-wide photo
collection, all of which were captured with color slides and kept in
his well-organized files. vHS had no interest in going digital, and
with his slides he bragged that he could locate any individual photo
in a matter of seconds.
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| Picea sitchensis 'Sugarloaf' |
Of the 15 photos from the Buchholz
grounds, only three plants are currently in production: Juniperus
scopulorum 'Tolleson's Blue Weeping', Chamaecyparis (Xanthocyparis)
nootkatensis 'Green Arrow' and Picea sitchensis 'Sugar Loaf' [sic], the
latter described as “A dwarf form with twisted new shoots.”
The book's photo is mediocre at best, but it is the same plant as my
mediocre photo depicted above, some 27 years later. We dug the tree
last week as it was crowding another conifer, Sequoiadendron
giganteum 'Little Stan', which I valued more. The 'Sugarloaf' [correct name - one word] had
grown to 4' tall by 7' wide, and was gifted to me early on by its
discoverer, the late Bill Janssen of Washington state. It originated
as a seedling on Sugarloaf Mountain in Oregon, a 1575'
(480m) summit that was once proposed (in 1942) for an aircraft
warning station against a Japanese invasion. Fortunately that didn't
happen, especially since any visibility from the top is hampered most
of the time by coastal fog.
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| Thuja orientalis 'Locogreen' |
Another entry in the book (on page 652)
is the Buchholz introduction of Thuja (Platycladus) orientalis
'Locogreen'. Unfortunately it is misidentified as named 'Lisa', but
it was never so-designated. When visiting one summer vHS noticed it
in the garden. A plastic label was at the base of the tree with the
“Lisa” name and rooting hormone rate, but that name referred to
the propagator while the metal label on the other side correctly said
'Locogreen'. It is described as “A dense cylindrical plant,”
but strangely, “with greenish yellow foliage, turning yellow in
spring.” Actually the foliage is dark green, per vHS's photo in
summer, but with light green new growth in spring. 'Locogreen' looks
similar to the old Euro cultivar 'Athrotaxoides', or so thought vHS,
while the latter is said to be "Difficult to propagate and hence
rare.” Locogreen' is rather easy to propagate, at least for me,
but the “difficult” suggestion rings true when this grower
attempted to sell his propagules.
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| Thuja orientalis 'Locogold' |
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| Thuja orientalis 'Locogold' |
A twig mutation developed on T.o.
'Locogreen' which was bright yellow in color and I predicted it would
be a cheerful, worthy cultivar. It too struck easily from rooted
cuttings, but unfortunately it looks rather drab when grown in full
sun. Nothing is worse than a conifer that is only “sort of gold,”
and while a couple are planted in the collection, we no longer have
it in production. The 'Locogreen'/'Locogold' tree in the photo above
is no longer with me either, as it flopped apart in a snow storm and
I dumped it...so if anything remains of the selection, you have the
green version, not me. To conclude: 'Locogreen' is gone, 'Locogold'
is no good', and 'Lisa' – also my ex-wife's name – is
invalid...thanks for the memories.
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| Pseudotsuga menziesii 'Skyline' |
A row of Pseudotsuga menziesii
'Skyline' is pictured on page 590, and is described: “This form
has an extremely open habit, like that of Picea abies 'Viminalis'.”
It has always been one of my favorite of conifer cultivars, which was
discovered as a seedling on Skyline Blvd. on the West Hills of
Portland, Oregon. I never saw the original tree, but my start came
from the late Otto Solburger, from his world-class collection of
conifers which the hillbilly assembled as a Christmas tree grower,
located just one-half hour from my nursery. I never met Mr. S.
either, but his wife was very kind, and my interest in propagating
from her husband's “pines” warmed the old lady's heart. From his
collection I promulgated Abies pindrow, Abies cilicica, Pinus
gerardiana, Cupressus bakeri and many other seldom-encountered
species. Though Otto was a slightly-educated Oregon rustic, he
nevertheless developed contacts from around the world when it came to
conifer species...then this young Buchholz later swooped in for the
commercial harvest.
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| Sequoiadendron giganteum in Verboort, OR |
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| Talon with Mr. and Mrs. van Hoey Smith in front of Sequoiadendron giganteum |
One regret is that we never found the
time for vHS to visit the Solburger farm...which he surely would have
relished, but I fondly remember escorting him and wife Riet to
Verboort, Oregon's early planting of Sequoiadendron giganteum in a
Dutch community of ardent-Catholic settlers, where a grove of giant
redwoods are among the oldest/largest in the world outside of their
native range. I even slipped my arm around Mrs. v H.S. for the
photo, and her husband never noticed – or cared – because he was
then enthralled with the “Big Trees,” the “Giants of Verboort,”
a group of seedlings planted by the pioneer nurseryman John Porter
who collected the saplings from California. Porter originally
ventured south to the “Golden state” to acquire instant wealth
during the “Rush,” but had to settle for a bag of redwood
seedlings instead.
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| Pinus densiflora |
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| Pinus densiflora |
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| Pinus funebris |
I discovered Pinus funebris on page
463, and yes the photo location is at Buchholz Nursery. I don't have
it in the collection anymore, and I can't explain why I didn't keep
at least one around, other than the reality that no one would buy the
species. Certainly P. funebris is winter-hardy as it comes from North
Korea, Russia and northeastern China. Conifers states that
“This rare species is closely related to P. densiflora,”
and I may have seen it at a Beijing temple, but assumed at the time
that the specimens there were of the latter species. The specific
epithet funebris suggests a funereal association, and
we also used to grow the “Mourning” cypress, AKA the “Chinese
Weeping” cypress, Cupressus funebris, which is also found near
graveyard temples. But honestly, if I had not seen it this week in
Conifers, I would have completely forgotten that I ever grew
Pinus funebris.
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| Pseudotsuga menziesii 'Compacta' |
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| Pseudotsuga menziesii 'Compacta' |
A tidy specimen of Pseudotsuga
menziesii 'Compacta' occurs on page 583, and vHS photographed it at
least 25 years ago. A mound-planting of Juniperus squamata 'Blue
Star' can be seen in the background which helps me date the picture.
It is in the middle of the original Display Garden and I can see it
from my office window. I have fun leading visitors into the garden
and asking, “Which tree do you suppose is the oldest?” All heads
immediately tilt upward and some speculate that it must be the
behemoth specimen of Pinus flexilis 'Vanderwolf's Pyramid', but nope,
the pine is only about 35 year old. No, it's not the huge Acer
palmatum 'Sango kaku', that's about 48 years old. Then I announce
that it's the 'Compacta' Douglas fir, at least 60 years of age.
Everyone expresses surprise that it's the nondescript conifer that we
are standing next to, as they were probably expecting the oldest
to be something more spectacular. I purchased the tree from
the Chehalis Rare Plant Nursery about 40 years ago, so I'm only
guessing at its current age. That nursery no longer exists, just as
mine some day will also not. In Krussmann's Manual of Cultivated
Conifers it is listed as 'Compacta Glauca', which describes the
needles as “short and blue-green,” and was “developed
near Hamburg, W. Germany by Ansorge before 1902.” vHS pointed
out the location of the Ansorge Nursery as we drove by on a Conifer
Society tour in 2000, but it existed no longer either. And too, the
designation of “W. Germany” is now obsolete, but back when
Krussmann's tome was published (1985) – really not that long ago –
we Americans (and most Germans) never would have supposed that “West”
and “East” would soon merge into just “One”
Germany.
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| Tsuga mertensiana 'Blue Star' |
None of my Tsuga mertensiana specimens
or cultivars were depicted in Conifers, nevertheless a nice
photo of T.m. 'Blue Star' is on page 690. I have seen the very same
specimen myself at the von Gimborn Arboretum, Holland, and via a
circuitous rout starts of that particular tree are in production at
Buchholz Nursery, albeit on a very limited scale. The “Mountain
hemlocks” are agonizingly slow in growth, and quality scionwood is
usually limited. If the propagator chooses to root the cultivar, that
can be accomplished, but in my experience that makes it even more
slow-growing, plus the propagules tend to grow horizontally, and the
grower is exasperated that it can take 8-10 years of constant staking
to achieve a strong leader and a conical shape. Conifers
states that 'Blue Star' is: “A splendid, slender small tree with
almost blue needles. Very difficult to propagate.” Again, only
difficult if one lacks good scionwood, otherwise as successful as any
Picea or Abies. The authors don't mention the origin of 'Blue Star',
but Hillier in The Manual of Trees and Shrubs (2019) credits
the Dutch firm of L. Konijn in 1965. Konijn also introduced Larix
kaempferi 'Blue Rabbit'; because the company's name, Konijn,
translates as “rabbit.” One gripe about T.m. 'Blue Star' is that
the cultivar name was used previously for the popular Juniperus
squamata 'Blue Star', with the latter introduced by another Dutch
Nursery as a witch's broom on J.s. 'Meyeri', discovered by at least
1950 and finally introduced in 1964...but maybe in the 1960s Dutch
nurseries couldn't keep up with each others' names.
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| Tsuga mertensiana |
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| Tsuga mertensiana |
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| Tsuga mertensiana |
One wonders if Tsuga mertensiana truly
belongs in the Tsuga genus, because to this non-botanist it seems so
different from western USA's T. heterophylla and eastern USA's T.
canadensis; and furthermore the various Chinese species, such as T.
yunnanensis, resemble the above two American species. But then the
two Japanese species, T. diversifolia and T. sieboldii look very
different from the aforementioned American species as well. I don't
know the botanical details, but I have spent a career handling all of
the above during propagation. The botanist certainly notices –
while the propagator/grower may not – that T. mertensiana differs
from the other hemlock species in having stomata on the upper
surface, along with needles arranged spirally around the shoot.
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| Tsuga mertensiana |
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| Tsuga heterophylla |
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| Tsuga heterophylla |
With the above in mind, the Tsuga
mertensiana range in western USA is similar to T. heterophylla,
except that the former extends further east and usually at higher
elevation; nevertheless I can show you where the two literally touch
each other on the flanks of Mt. Hood, Oregon. Imagine then, my
interest in a supposed hybrid of the two, x jeffreyi. In Swartley's
The Cultivated Hemlocks, the proposed hybrid is T.
heterophylla x T. mertensiana, but if the cross truly exists, how
would anybody know whom is pollinating whom? The jeffreyi
epithet honors the Scottish plant explorer and botanist John Jeffrey
(1826-1854) who apparently perished without a trace at age 28 while
travelling from San Diego across the Colorado Desert. Jeffrey started
out as a gardener at Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden, then was
appointed by a Scottish group known as the Oregon Association
to collect plant material in western North America. Since he sent his
loot back to Edinburgh, he was honored with the x jeffreyi
name, as well as Pinus jeffreyi and Dodecatheon jeffreyi.
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| Mount Rainier in Washington State |
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| Mount Baker located in northern Washington State |
Swartley's The Cultivated Hemlocks
provides an interesting account of the Tsuga x jeffreyi origin:
“Formerly regarded as a variety of
T. mertensiana, now regarded [1984] as a hybrid between T.
mertensiana and T. heterophylla. If this be so, the second parent
shows remarkably little in the hybrid. A tree with a curious and
doubtful history in cultivation. It was first noticed in Edinburgh
RBG from seed sown in 1851 deriving from near Mount Baker in British
Columbia [actually Mount Baker exists in Washington state, not
British Columbia, Canada]...It was thus unknown in the wild yet
occurred three times in the British Isles. In 1967 or 1968 however,
Mr. J. Duffield found a hybrid swarm of this parentage growing on the
east side of White Pass, south of Mount Rainier, Washington.”
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| Tsuga x jeffreyi |
I would like to search for the White
Pass swarm, but I'm not sure if I could distinguish it from pure T.
mertensiana. The only specimen I have seen is at the von Gimborn
Arboretum, where the tree was rather crowded with other conifers, so
all I could do was record a lower, mertensiana-looking branch. In
Conifers vHS has photographed the full tree and also a
branch closeup from the same-and-only tree I have seen. In spite of
Swartley's speculations of hybridity, Hillier and others now consider
there to be three taxa, two subspecies and a minor variety of T.
mertensiana: 1) T. mertensiana subsp. mertensiana, 2) T. mertensiana
subsp. grandicona and 3) T. mertensiana var. jeffreyi.
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| D.M. van Gelderen (left) and J.R.P. van Hoey Smith (right) |
I have met both authors of Conifers,
The Illustrated Encyclopedia, where supposedly D.M. van Gelderen
of Firma Esveld in Boskoop provided the text and van Hoey Smith
supplied the photographs. At the latter's Arboretum Trompenburg in
Rotterdam I picked up a brochure that aptly describes the collection:
“TROMPENBURG: Where the elite of the world's trees meet.”
I like that motto, and perhaps they were inspired with the aid of a
bottle of wine, just as I was with the Flora Wonder Arboretum: Plants
from the Best Corners of the World.”
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| Tsuga mertensiana |
The one plant in this blog that I have
never grown is x jeffreyi or var. jeffreyi, so it's the
tree that I covet the most out of all the entries in Conifers.
Or, better yet, my desire would be sated if someone in the Flora
Wonder Blog readership could lead me to a wild grove, which I've
heard exists at more than one location. Help me to achieve my
Coniferous Grail.
