"FINE LINE is an upright, columnar, freely branching, deciduous, alder buckthorn cultivar with fern-like foliage, few flowers and nonviable seed. It grows slowly to 5-7’ tall but to only 2’ wide. It acquires its columnar shape from its seed parent (R. frangula ‘Columnaris’) and its fern-like foliage from its pollen parent (R. frangula ‘Aspleniifolia’). Linear, undulate, deeply cut, feathery foliage is medium green, but turns yellow in fall. Small inconspicuous flowers (1/6” diameter) appear in clusters in May-June, but flowering is often sparse. Seed development is unusual, with the few seeds that are produced being non-viable." (MOBOT)
"Species plants (R. frangula) have limited value in the landscape in large part because they are weedy and self-seed. In contrast, FINE LINE is neither weedy nor invasive, but is valued as a restrained and versatile columnar accent. ‘Ron Williams’ is the cultivar name, but plants are now primarily being sold under the trademark name of FINE LINE. U.S. Plant Patent PP14,791 issued May 18, 2004." (MOBOT)