I saw this pine at Hidden Lake Gardens (Michigan). Uncharacteristically, it had no plant label. I can tell it's a two-needle pine, and obviously a variegated form. When I googled 'variegated pine', the hits which most resembled the specimen shown below were various cultivars of Pinus mugo. I haven't had the opportunity to see, in person, many pine specimens that were certifiably that species, and the needle length on the plant I saw (3-4 inches and limber) seemed a little off compared with descriptions of P. mugo that I've seen online. I'm not asking for a cultivar ID. If it is a mugo pine, there are far too many possible cultivars for my photos to narrow the choice. I'd just like to know, with reasonable certainty, whether or not the one I saw is, in fact, Pinus mugo.
The specimen is 4-5 feet high, and about as broad, and fairly dense.
The cones are short, maybe 1-2 inches long
I fought my way inside the outer branches, hoping to see a nursery tag (no such luck), and found a real mare's nest of tangled limbs
I don't know how helpful a shot of the buds will be for answering my basic question, but here's one
And finally, a shot of the needles, more to give an indication of their length, than to show the variegation, since the latter isn't germane to the question of pine species.
