Nodding Oriental Spruce

If you enjoy quirky trees, ones with personality, where every specimen is unique, then you are going to love the Nodding Oriental Spruce. This unique variety is rather unpredictable, producing a combination of upright, horizontal and weeping branches, forming a shrubby bush full of character, perhaps 8 feet tall, and eventually developing a leading stem and becoming more tree-like, and taller. It has very short needles of intense deep-green, and can be pruned or stalk to follow your fancy, so the final outcome is an interplay between you and this exciting tree. Hardy and easy to grow, it tolerates heat and drought rather better than many other spruce. Use it as an exciting specimen in any type of garden, out on the lawn, in beds, among boulders and gravel, or in a large tub. This is one you will love.

• Irregular, horizontal or semi-weeping shrub to small tree
• Deep, deep green needles are short, clustering densely on the stems
• Medium size, between 10 and 20 feet tall when mature
• Older trees have hanging cones that are purple in summer
• Somewhat more heat and drought tolerant than other spruce

For the best growth your Nodding Oriental Spruce should be planted in the sun, as it has only limited tolerance of shade. It grows in almost any well-drained soil, from acidic to alkaline, and does well in gravel soils too. Easy to grow, deer don’t bother it and it has almost no pests or diseases. Prune or stake to develop the form you want, from an irregular, mounding shrub-form to a more upright, semi-weeping tree with a central trunk – you and your tree can work together for a magnificent outcome.