North Pole Spruce

If there are winter days when you feel you need a dog-sled to cross your garden, then you need the North Pole White Spruce. This extra-hardy selection of our native spruce is ideal when you are faced with an exposed, open garden, and live in a colder part of the country. Hardy all through zone 3, the small tree has the perfect pyramidal form we look for in a spruce, with dense, neat branches giving it the perfect look. The blue-green needles cover the branches, and when that arctic wind begins to howl, they won’t be burning and falling, you can be sure of that. It grows 6 to 10 inches a year, forming a slender small tree about 12 feet tall and 4 feet wide, and continues to grow, so one day it could reach 20 feet. Don’t plant beneath overhead wires, or too close to your home. As a single specimen, a cluster of 3 or 5 out on a lawn, or as a screen, it’s sure to look great, and need only minimal attention to be the tree you dream of.

• Selected for enhanced cold tolerance, right through zone 3
• A great choice for open, exposed sites in cold zones
• Forms a neat, slender pyramid, ideal for smaller gardens
• Handsome silvery blue-green foliage
• Established plants have good drought tolerance

The North Pole White Spruce will grow best in full sun, but in zones 6 and 7, at it’s southern limits, it will enjoy some afternoon shade. It is completely hardy in zone 3, and grows best in areas with cooler summers and cold winters. It will grow in just about any well-drained soil, although very alkaline soils are not so suitable for it. A moist soil is best (but not a wet one), however once established it will survive summer drought with no problem. In late fall, before the soil freezes, soak the soil around it deeply, to enhance cold resistance. Maintain a single leading stem for the best shape, cutting back any competing stems by about two-thirds. Deer don’t it it and it is generally untroubled by pests or diseases. Can be trimmed in late spring, after the new growth has matured. Never cut back a branch to where there are no needles – bare branches will never re-sprout.