While walking around the garden recently, we spied a bright gold sport on a patch of Juniperus conferta ‘Sunsplash’, that had sent out several all gold branches. Sports are fairly common on an array of garden plants, but few ever wind up having any garden or commercial value. We like the brightness of the gold, which is much more vivid than the existing gold foliaged cultivar, Juniperus conferta ‘All Gold’. The two questions to answer now are, will it have enough vigor to grow once it’s removed from the parent clump, and will the foliage burn in full sun. Since the parent plant is growing in sun, we looked for burned growth, and were pleased to not find any, so far. The next step will be to take cuttings, and see if they root. If so, they’ll be planted out next year for in ground trials. Fingers crossed.
Put me on the waitlist (maybe early releases at future JCR rare plant auction?).
We’ve got to root the cuttings and trial it first.
Wouldn’t this look stunning in a spring or fall container arrangement!
I’ve seen Hesperocyparis macrocarpa ‘Goldcrest’ (lemon cypress) used in a lot of spring containers by designer Deborah Silver in the Detroit area. It’s an especially vibrant chartreuse.
From your picture, this one looks somewhere between that color and ginkgo fall yellow, at least at this time of year in the given sun exposure. It’s a nice color.
I don’t usually care for yellow conifers, including the popular Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Filifera Aurea,’ but I would love to think up some uses for this one.