July 2025

Article by Peggy Rudberg

In July of 2024 work began at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden to create a garden honoring David Salman. Salman led the transformation of horticulture in our western landscapes to native, xeric and environmentally friendly plants. He collected, sometimes modified, and propagated unusual wild perennial species to create abundant informal gardens. He introduced these species as well as often overlooked plants such as cacti and grasses to the gardening community through his greenhouses and online catalog. His curiosity, innovation and generosity encouraged and enabled plant lovers to cultivate beautiful yet sustainable yards. Horticulturist and planting designer Lauren Springer, colleague and friend of David Salman, selected the Tribute Garden’s plants featuring many species introduced by Salman. She also included some plants new to the Santa Fe Botanical Garden’s collection: dwarf conifers.

Photos taken at SFBG by Peggy Rudberg:

When thinking of living dwarf plants, the term bonsai comes to mind but bonsai growers usually begin with a normal existing plant or seedling which they keep small by pruning roots and branches. The dwarf pines new to the Garden are created by a fascinating combination of an aberration of the natural world and human tinkering.

At the end of the last century the late Colorado arborist Jerry Morris began experimenting with grafting small cuttings from witches’ brooms onto seedling rootstocks of corresponding species. Witches’ brooms are naturally congested shoots found in trees or shrubs resembling bird’s nests or brooms. These abnormal formations are indications of genetic mutations or disease with various causes including fungal infection and insect infestations. Tree diseases or mutations can disturb growth hormones resulting in slower growth. Morris grafted witches’ brooms from Four Corners area piñons to normal local piñon rootstock to create the dwarfs. A few mature dwarf conifers have generated cones holding edible, viable seeds that have produced even smaller trees.
When humans intervene to enhance a desirable quality in a plant it is called a cultivar, short for cultivated variety, or nativar (denoting cultivars of native plants). Cultivars Pinus edulis ‘Farmy’ with a globose form, and Pinus monophylla ‘Blue Jazz’ displaying blue single needles are two of our new dwarfs.

Piñon is already a slow growing tree, especially the monophylla species, with mature individuals adding only 2 to 4 inches a year in height. Dwarf piñon cultivars will add just 1 to 2 inches annually. Combining witches’ brooms native to the Rocky Mountains with local Colorado rootstock makes them perfect for our Santa Fe climate. Like normal piñons they are cold hardy and enjoy full sun, loamy or sandy well-draining soil and can be long lived. Dwarfs often form dense tight mounds making them even more drought resistant. They make excellent additions to rock gardens, planter boxes and small beds. When planting, dig a very wide hole and mix a little compost in with the backfill. Water every week or two until established after two growing seasons but don’t overwater which may encourage faster growth.

Photos below by Lauren Springer taken at Gardens on Spring Creek. Plants originally grafted and then planted by Kirk Fieseler of Laporte Avenue Nursery in Fort Collins.

“Dwarf pinyon pine.” Plant Select. Web. 26 May 2025. Retrieved from: https://plantselect.org/plant/pinus-edulis/

Fiesler, Kirk. “Piñon Pines and their Dwarf Selections.” Colorado Gardener. 17 Feb. 2022. Web. 26 May 2025. Retrieved from:
https://www.coloradogardener.com/post/pi%C3%B1on-pines

Spicer, Derek. “What is a Witches Broom?” American Conifer Society. 22 Nov. 2019. Web. 26 May 2025. Retrieved from: https://www2.conifersociety.org/blogpost/2082607/489884/What-Is-a-Witches-Broom