Ginkgo biloba ‘Weeping Wonder’ arose from a broom on a seedling female Ginkgo growing in The Oak Ridge Cemetery (where President Lincoln is buried) in Springfield, Illinois in The United States of America. The parent plant produces large numbers of small fruit therefore its progeny should also be female. The Witch’s broom was propagated by Richard Eyer and introduced by him under the name Ginkgo biloba ‘Weeping Wonder’. It is believed that he later removed the broom from the parent tree. Stan Tyson reports ‘I grafted the plant in the late 80's before the current trend of growing every mutant form of Ginkgo possible started. This plant was a poor grower for me. I have propagated many witched broom's over the years, and a great many have proven to be poor and not worthy of cultivation. I Tried again in the early 90's and kept it alive for a few years and it never developed. I then went looking for the broom for the broom a couple of years later and it was gone. Rich may have got good material that propagated and grew well. This broom was quite variable in leaf and growth, some stems were only producing a centimetre of new growth a year.
It is interesting to note that in the National Collection of Ginkgo biloba & Cultivars we have a specimen of ‘Mutant Weeper’ which exhibits slightly different characteristics, to one which was obtained as ‘Weeping Wonder’. If they are one of the same, it is not too far a stretch of the imagination to assume that this difference can be accounted in the selection of propagating material from the original plant. Mutations (witches’ Brooms) when used as a propagation source can give rise to a variety of variable offspring depending on which part of the broom was used as propagation material.
Description - The foliage is incredibly variable, it produces entire leaves, cut leaves and thread like leaves, in fact up to five different leaf shapes have been observed. The other interesting fact is that is fruits at an early age, some reports suggest that has fruited in year seven. The rate of growth is very much dependant on the type of foliage which dominates that branch or particular shoot. Initially this cultivar grows upright and then produces secondary branches that weep downwards. Whilst the overall height and spread are not known but expect it to grow 2 m or slightly more in 10 years. This plant does make an interesting novelty when grown in a container.