Crystal Blue Spruce

In cooler zones a blue spruce brings something special to a garden, and if often at the top of the list of ‘must haves’ for a new garden – and gardener. You should know that all blue spruce are not created equal, and you can find one to fit just about any sized space. Since your tree will probably be a center-piece, it pays to find something special, a tree with fabulous blue coloring. For a superb, medium-sized tree with stunning, silver-blue foliage, you can’t beat the Crystal Blue Spruce. Its perfect pyramidal form, with neat, horizontal branching, makes it a wonderful specimen you will be proud to have in your garden, and the coloring will leave you speechless. Growing a foot a year, it will soon be 10 feet or so, and will probably top out around 40 feet, with a spread of no more than 15 feet. Plant it 7 or 8 feet from a wall, path, boundary or other potential obstruction, and look up to check for overhead wires. Even when young it is dense, bushy, charming, and oh so blue. Very cold hardy, and drought tolerant too, it is very easy to grow and needs no particular attention to thrive for you.

• Neat pyramidal form with horizontal, spreading branches
• Intense blue coloring, even through winter
• Cold resistant, and tolerant of drought
• A great choice for a lawn, a screen or a cluster in corners of your yard
• Needs no trimming to remain dense and bushy to the ground

Choose a spot in full sun for your Crystal Blue Spruce. That will give you the best foliage coloring. It is entirely hardy through zone 3, and even into warmer parts of zone 2. It doesn’t enjoy heat and humidity, and won’t grow well beyond zone 7. Easily grown in any well-drained soil, from rocks and sand to clay, but avoid wet places – grow on a raised mound or a slope in heavier soils. Water while young and perhaps during dry periods, although well-established trees are very drought tolerant. Deer don’t eat it and it normally has few pest or disease issues. Keep one central stem growing well above all others, so that it doesn’t develop two stems, which are prone to breakage and destroy the symmetry. If you want to trim – it isn’t really necessary, do it once a year as soon as the new shoots have matured a little. Never trim back into branches that don’t have needles – they will never re-sprout.