Looks great! How long did it take to send up a leader? I'm still waiting for the C. 'Samaurai' to do just that. I have not fertilized it just heavy watering. I'm thinking about getting a C. 'Chason's Gift' since it sends a leader up very quickly they say and it is a bit more dense/compact too. Too bad there isn't a blue 'Chason's Gift'.

I think it was about the 3rd year that it had a clear leader.

BTW it had the tiniest bit of burning after this winter. Barely noticeable. It is clearly hardier than Sequoia semprevirens...no surprise there. However Pseudostuga sinensis also had more injury than Cunninghamia...but as a young plant at least was faster growing than _either_. The redwoods seem to want to get well rooted before they take off; same with the Cunninghamia. The Pseudotsuga just took off its second year, on a very dry site too.

I rooted a cutting two years ago, it was growing slowly until it started to sprout suckers after suckers and stoped to grow when it was ~40 cm tall. I cut the suckers and root some of them, but it keeps sprouting new ones. :(

Those suckers make for good cuttings. They know which way is up. Cuttings taken from branches have a hard time with that.
My neighbor cut down a 'Glauca' I gave him and it sprouted from the stump...a lot. He trimmed it once and here it is now.
Mike

You know to be completely honest I cannot know whether Camforest started these from seedlings or cuttings. I'd just assumed it was a cutting, but they do order or are supplied with seed for various coniferous things. (that's how they got the Asian Pseudostugas, where cuttings are not yet considered commercially feasible)

Very nice. What's odd is that small Cunninghamia looks almost exactly like my small Manchurian fir (A holophylla).

Yours must be pretty cold hardy, since it survived last winter.

Davidrt28......Can you share up close pictures of the foliage? Seems like yours is growing very slow.

In my opinion, Cunninghamia rooted from lateral shoots aren't worth messing with. I agree with Mike above. It takes a while to leader.

I've been following Cunninghamia lanceolata for the last 5-8 years or so. I can't see the distinguishing characteristics of the different Cunninghamia lanceolata cultivars available (Chason's Gift, Samurai). I'm starting to wonder if these are bogus cultivars that growers are trying to push. I have small specimens of Glauca, Chason's Gift, Samurai, and green naturally growing species. My impression is you have either 1. blue or green one and 2. a tree started from lateral branch vs vertical shoot/leader. I don't see any difference. They all take pruning well and are fast growers for me in Arkansas. My 6 ft Glauca had the leader broken a few years ago. I cut the tree down and kept one vertical shoot. Within 2 years its now 8 ft tall.

The cultivar Chason's Gift currently available comes from JC Raulston Arboretum in North Carolina. Most of the East coast growers cuttings originated there.

Cunninghamia lanceolata 'Chason's Gift'

2 growing seasons from my Glauca being cut to the ground. They grow pretty fast.

This is a 5-6 inch vertical shoot that was rooted Dec 2013. It grew to 18 inches in one growing season.

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Posted by abciximab 7b/8 (My Page) on
Sun, Sep 21, 14 at 9:47

Davidrt28......Can you share up close pictures of the foliage? Seems like yours is growing very slow.
***

Growth looks pretty good IMO. Can't be 100% sure, but this present yr's growth started at the third-down branch-collar.

Yr before that starts at the fifth (or possibly further down) collar.

Beng that seems about right. BTW it saw 3F 3 times, so I'm not sure it's really much hardier than a standard Cunninghamia or if Cunninghamis are simply tolerant of cold winter weather overall. If it had gone below 0F things might have been different; I hope I have no occasion to find out any time soon but I'm a little worried about this winter given that the pattern of polar vertices (? LOL) hasn't abated. The China Firs that have been injured in the Ohio Valley all were injured below 0F IIRC.

I'm pretty impressed by the growth considering:
it was planted in the root crown of a recently dead Quercus alba...I could barely scrape out enough soil/dying roots even for a tiny quart pot

it was about 8-10" high

I only watered in a handful of times in the first couple years, and we had 3 moderate droughts in a row in 2010,2011, and 2012. Unlike Metasequoia 'Ogon', I do not seem to recall it making catch up growth after the late summer wet periods in those years.

But trust me abciximab, I'm not going to cut this down to see if it can catch up to yours on regrowth! IIRC you are in the mountains north of Atlanta? (sorry, see you are in Arkansas. The extreme SE of AR has fairly wet summers) They probably have high summer rainfall and a long growing season (most years). They do love the hot weather as long as they have enough water. Also it gets afternoon shade; not by choice but this was the area that made the best sense to plant it overall.

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Tue, Sep 23, 14 at 16:42

I seem to remember that the story behind 'Samurai' is that it was found at the University of Tennesee after a standard green Cunninghamia was frozen back and subsequently regrew blue. Now I don't know if it is protocol to give it a new name but apparently it did not come from a 'Glauca'. I guess this would be a sport? I think the man that found it had a German name possibly. I emailed Flo Chafin at SO to see just how 'Chason's Gift' is propagated, I think they do all their own propagation.

"found at the University of Tennessee after a standard green Cunninghamia was frozen back and subsequently regrew blue."

That's a very odd story. Are we sure it wasn't growing near Oak Ridge National Laboratory? (LOL) Maybe it had been grafted onto a blue seedling and that's what grew back. I can imagine that in olden times, they had not yet discovered that certain conifers could be rooted with mist systems. Therefore a Cunninghamia before 1960 would have been either grafted or grown from seedlings.

I don't know about 1960, 'Samaurai' is a new cultivar. I will try to find the citation somewhere.

Yes but you said it was selected recently, from a plant of uncertain age that froze back. That could have been from many years ago.

They're fairly easy to propagate from cuttings in the Fall.
I did about 40 in the mid 80's and have about 20 left. I traded, sold, or gave away the rest. Mine have seen 4 F. several times over the years with no discernible damage.
Mike

Darn! Double post.
Mike

{{!gwi}}

This post was edited by mikebotann on Mon, Sep 22, 14 at 16:51

Mike was the tree by the pond (I think that's your picture - one of the best ever posted here btw) the "mother" of your cuttings?

I have Cunninghamia l 'Glauca' its faster than the
species I think there are a few clones around.

Flo said that both Chason's Gift and Samurai find the leader faster than the others, go figure. Also they don't propagate from just vertical shoots, there is simply not enough. I hope my 'Samurai' is listening.

On a similar note, the Taiwania flousiana from CF that was planted two years ago has several shoots at the soil line, one much larger than the others. Maybe this is the begining of a real trunk, I have been informed that it just could be, or that they may be additional plagiotropic shoots, I sure hope not.

It's been my experience when rooting Cunninghamia from a branch is that after a few years a dominate shoot will sprout and head for the sky while the branch cutting is still wandering aimlessly about trying to figure which way is up. I then cut the branch off as if it were understock when the new leader is about 6 or 8 ft tall. It doesn't take long.
I'm still looking for that picture as time permits, davidrt28. No, it was not the 'mother' of the tree on the island. That was a cutting I started also.
Here's the mother tree.
Mike

Thanks Mike. Your place is an inspiration.

We have a few scraggly Cunninghamias that tall here but nothing like that, that is absolutely wonderful. The ones here look like Charlie Brown trees. I was under the impression that they needed heat, but I guess not.

They grow fine here in good heavy soil....
Here's some with a lot of sprouts. Some I cut off, some I leave.
Mike

Whoever coined the expression "hanging on to its dirty underwear" was clearly thinking about China Fir. Old trees accumulate dead growth within AWA at the base of the tree, it never decomposes! Charlie Brown wouldn't have this one.

Mike, have you ever used one of those vertical sprouts? It seems like maybe cut off everything but the top whorl and use that, instant tree, no waiting.

When I just had one tree, all I had were branches unless I wanted to cut the top off of the one tree I had. Now it's no problem getting a vertical sprout.
Had I known then what I know now I would have taken the top off and let new sprouts grow for cuttings. At first I wasn't even sure I could get starts to root. I built a cutting bed facing north with bottom heat and overhead misting on a timer. It worked wonders on all sorts of trees and shrubs. I even used it for germinating seeds.
Cunninghamias do have a problem with branchlets that die and hang on for awhile before dropping. They break off easy in a wind or a light touch, and then fall all over around the tree. This can be annoying for the tidy gardener. I just throw them back towards the trunk and let them be and treat it as a groundcover. It helps to surround the tree at some distance to hide the brown mess, or keep the tree fully furnished to the ground enabling a hiding place for the branchlets. In my large garden the problem is mostly lost in the shuffle and I don't let it bother me too much. I don't have any close to the house where I have to pay attention to that much detail, and fortunately I'm not wound up very tight. ;-) Que sera, sera.
Mike

This post was edited by mikebotann on Wed, Sep 24, 14 at 12:00

Mike you know you are just killng me here with your garden scenes. Which blue lepidote is that?

It's called Islam Violet.
You probably recognize the Unique on the right that's just beginning to bloom.
The conifer on the upper right is a Chamaecyparis obtusa, 'Crippsii'.
In the picture below the Blue China Fir is behind the variegated Holly. The picture is a bit busy, but so am I. ;-)
Mike

Thanks. I think that's probably a corruption of "Ilam Violet"?

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.rhododendrons.co.uk/Product/16553/rhododendron-ilam-violet.aspx

Thank you Davidrt28.
I was surprised I remembered the name, let alone how to spell it.
And thank you for the sites also.

Mike

Awesome, Mike!