Weeping Pine

[PinkFloydEffect]

There is not much info online about weeping pines, there is a variety called the Mexican Weeping Pine but the branches still grow upwards like a normal plant. Then there is a weeping white pine and weeping spruce, and a Japanese white pine....

I'm curious now...do these all reproduce through seed? I know many weeping trees do but I have taken Camperdown Elms to heart and those are actually grafted using a mutant Wych Elm top.

I found what appears to be a mutated pine with branches growing downward along the ground like a vine...same concept as the Camperdown discovery in Dundee, Scotland.

I want to try and graft a branch onto a pine stock haha it will be the first down-growing camperdown pine tree to exist! But would this be a waste of time? Seems like I would be reproducing an already downward-growing white pine aka Japanese White Pine that already reproduces through seed??

 

[Raintree]

After I chowed down on a bunch of these...

Your post made a whole lot more sense. Those long low white Pine limbs did appear to become a newly discovered mutated pine species.

:msp_biggrin:

Then the sleestacks came & captured me.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

Oh sweet a handful of dunce caps! lol

All jokes aside though I have never seen lower pine branches do this is it not so uncommon?

Are any of the weeping pine species grafted?

 

[PJM]

Oh sweet a handful of dunce caps! lol

All jokes aside though I have never seen lower pine branches do this is it not so uncommon?

Are any of the weeping pine species grafted?

Read up on layering in spruce and pine trees. It is a method of natural reproduction, but it is supposedly pretty rare for white pine.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

I have heard of air layering before I watch Graham Potter's bonsai videos he had a good episode about air layering at one point: http://youtu.be/CREGA3jxGJE


The thing is:

1. I am still unsure if these branches are mutated.

2. I am unsure if weeping pines (general category) are all reproduced from seed OR grafted?


If weeping pines are reproduced through seed OR they are already derived from a mutated pine (and cloned) then I am kind of wasting my time I thought I was onto something new; I may have just discovered the root source of weeping pines and this has all been done already. I really need more info on the various types of weeping pines before I can decide to carry this project on further...

 

[PJM]

Sorry, didn't mean air layering, regular ground layering. The white pine you found doesn't look like a weeping form. It looks like an open grown tree attacked by the white pine weevil and with its lower branches contacting the ground.

You have a lot of research on your hands, but I think many of the weeping conifers are of seed origin. You should contact some of the larger arboretums such as Morton. They could perhaps give you some insight into how they sourced their specimens.

 

[beastmaster]

Lot of weeping trees are mutants and have to be grafted to regular root stock, but a lot of conifers with weeping shapes are natural trees and will grow from seeds. Look for " Pendula" in their names is often a clue, as is a cultivar name can be a sign it maybe grafted.
Got any more of those shrooooms laying around?

 

[TheJollyLogger]

There is not much info online about weeping pines, there is a variety called the Mexican Weeping Pine but the branches still grow upwards like a normal plant. Then there is a weeping white pine and weeping spruce, and a Japanese white pine....

I'm curious now...do these all reproduce through seed? I know many weeping trees do but I have taken Camperdown Elms to heart and those are actually grafted using a mutant Wych Elm top.

I found what appears to be a mutated pine with branches growing downward along the ground like a vine...same concept as the Camperdown discovery in Dundee, Scotland.

I want to try and graft a branch onto a pine stock haha it will be the first down-growing camperdown pine tree to exist! But would this be a waste of time? Seems like I would be reproducing an already downward-growing white pine aka Japanese White Pine that already reproduces through seed??

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I think what you have there is a pine that was cut off about 7_10 years ago about 2' up, possibly for a Christmas tree. There happened to be a some green branches below the cut, 5 of which became codominant leaders, and some really stretched out looking for sunlight. In my opinion the unique look of that tree is a result of prior damage, not unique genetics.

 

[PinkFloydEffect]

These pictures were taken in September of 2010 so I went back for another look now 3 years later....

Sorry, didn't mean air layering, regular ground layering. The white pine you found doesn't look like a weeping form. It looks like an open grown tree attacked by the white pine weevil and with its lower branches contacting the ground.

You have a lot of research on your hands, but I think many of the weeping conifers are of seed origin. You should contact some of the larger arboretums such as Morton. They could perhaps give you some insight into how they sourced their specimens.

It would be a good way to reproduce it, but I lifted the branches and these areas are not rooted:

I agree it is not of weeping form, just the suspicion of the lower branches. I do not think it is affected by a weevil there is no flagging and all the foliage looks healthy.

Thanks!

Lot of weeping trees are mutants and have to be grafted to regular root stock, but a lot of conifers with weeping shapes are natural trees and will grow from seeds. Look for " Pendula" in their names is often a clue, as is a cultivar name can be a sign it maybe grafted.

Thanks! I wondered if an upside down non-mutant chip/bud graft would produce a weeper or if it would just be u-shaped branch crotches? Odd Camperdownii does not have Pendula in it's name.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I think what you have there is a pine that was cut off about 7_10 years ago about 2' up, possibly for a Christmas tree. There happened to be a some green branches below the cut, 5 of which became codominant leaders, and some really stretched out looking for sunlight. In my opinion the unique look of that tree is a result of prior damage, not unique genetics.

You are deff right it is a coppice stool:

You may be onto something here...however the new coppice shoots looks MUCH older than the lower branches so I don't know why they would have to stretch for light like this unless they came long after the new shoots on the top:

There is barley any vertical twigging off the lower branches it's all off the sides, and the very few vertical sub-branches do not grow up which is what is getting me...they grow out and down as shown below:

As you see the branches on this side of the tree do not tip up until the very end and I am very curious to see if they lay back down as they extend, they follow the slopes/ups and downs of the land very close and snugly as if they would continue downward if the ground was not there:

The opposite side of the tree has lower branches that don't follow the ground so aggressively and close yet there is better sunlight exposure:

In your defense I did photograph a nearby pine with a branch on the ground, it formed more of a pad than a vine but it was a larger single leader specimen. It puts a blow to my theory and backs up yours...this topic is almost dead: