One of the broadleaf evergreen trees that always elicits oohs and aaahs is Castanopsis cuspidata ‘Angyo Yellow’ and the cream centered counterpart ‘Nakafu’. These yellow-variegated Japanese selections of the the Japanese chinquapin is as rare as the proverbial hens teeth. Our 14 year old specimen pictured here in the winter garden is starting to make quite a show. We expect them to eventually reach their mature size of 25′ – 35′ in another few decades. In Japan, they are propagated by grafting, although they will root from cuttings, albeit in ridiculously low percentages. It’s our dream to one day make these more widely available if we can figure out the propagation that would allow this to happen.
