"We found one of those weird trees you were talking about!" my nephew exclaimed over the phone.
I asked him what species of tree it was. He wasn't sure.
"I think it is a fir," he said. He wasn't able to elaborate, so I didn't know if it was a Douglas fir or a true fir. Doug fir brooms are far more common, of course. I've often wondered why- what is it about the genetics of Douglas fir that makes it so prone to dwarfing mutations? Is this true of the other Doug fir species? (one is native to Southern California, and a few others are native to Japan and China. One of these years, I plan to head down to So Cal and have a look.)
It was a few days before New Years when I went out on his friend's property to find the tree. He had been intoxicated when he found it, so he wasn't exactly sure where it was. I had my doubts.
It was cold- there was about a foot of snow on the ground. Dozens of junk cars, campers, pickups, and construction equipment were scattered out through the woods. In fact, a couple of years later, when my nephew found a grand fir broom on the same property, I was inspired to name it 'Deliverance' because of this setting.
We decided to give up and go back to the house. He was not wearing a warm coat, and was starting to get chilled. We cut across a clearing to an old logging road. Out in the clearing, standing alone on the slope, was the tree he had found.
It was about six feet high, and about as big in diameter. The folliage was fine and feathery, with a moderate blue cast to the needles.
From what I could tell by looking at the tree, it had begun its life as a typical Douglas Fir. At some point in its first decade or so, the terminal bud mutated and produced the broom that made up the bulk of the tree. There were a couple of branches with typical foliage sticking out near the bottom of the plant.
Like many brooms, this one appeared to be sterile- there were no cones. From the look at the fine branching and the extensive development of the broom, I am sure that the broom is at least 40 or 50 years old. A Douglas fir should be reproducing by that age.
I grafted it up and got a handful to start. I decided to name it 'Intoxication', to commemorate my nephew's difficulty in relocating the broom. Now, three years later, the graft has produced a broom that is under 6 inches in diameter. It is proving to be slow-growing, which is desirable for gardeners with small spaces. Of course, I'll need to grow and observe it for several more years before I can reliably tell anyone what to expect from it. The process of introducing a new conifer cultivar takes years.
