Slenderina Weeping Colorado Spruce
Picea pungens 'Glauca Slenderina Pendula'
Slenderina Weeping Colorado Spruce
Picea pungens 'Glauca Slenderina Pendula'
How are the heights measured?
All tree, and nothin' but the tree! We measure from the top of the soil to the top of the tree; the height of the container or the root system is never included in our measurements.
What is a gallon container?
Nursery containers come in a variety of different sizes, and old-school nursery slang has stuck. While the industry-standard terminology is to call the sizes "Gallon Containers", that doesn't exactly translate to the traditional liquid "gallon" size we think of. You'll find we carry young 1-gallons, up to more mature 7-gallons ranging anywhere from 6 inches to 6ft.
How does the delivery process work?
All of our orders ship via FedEx Ground! Once your order is placed online, our magic elves get right to work picking, staging, boxing and shipping your trees. Orders typically ship out within 2 business days. You will receive email notifications along the way on the progress of your order, as well as tracking information to track your plants all the way to their new home!
Why are some states excluded from shipping?
The short & sweet answer is: "United States Department of Agriculture Restrictions." Every state has their own unique USDA restrictions on which plants they allow to come into their state. While we wish we could serve everyone, it's for the safety of native species and helps prevent the spread of invasive disease & pests. We've gotta protect good ole' Mother Nature, after all.
About Me
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The Slenderina® Weeping Blue Spruce is an extraordinary tree that will bring something very special to your garden. Its stiff needles are brilliant silver-blue, as rich as the very best blue spruce, but it thrusts up like a slender arrow, with a central trunk surrounded by a curtain of cascading branches. It can be trained to almost any height, and even used to cover a whole wall, or it can be left to flow like a river of blue across the ground, down slopes, and over retaining walls. Whatever way you choose to grow it, each plant becomes a unique individual, and a powerful specimen in your garden.
- Superb rich silver-blue foliage
- Dramatic and graceful weeping form
- Can be trained to suit your location
- Resistant to both cold and heat
- Fast growing and soon a grand specimen
Plant the Slenderina® Weeping Blue Spruce in full sun or light partial shade. It is hardy to at least zone 3, and it takes heat as well. Once established it is drought resistant, and it grows in almost any soil, adding up to 12 inches of new growth every year. It tolerates urban conditions, resists pests and diseases, and is ignored by deer. You control the final form by staking or not, and no complex care is needed to soon have an outstanding plant of great beauty.
- Plant Hardiness Zones 3-8
- Mature Width 3-4
- Mature Height 8-10
- Sun Needs Full Sun, Partial Sun
There is something very special about weeping trees and adding one to your landscaping will transform your garden. Their striking and appealing form, their individualism, and the sheer beauty of those cascading branches bring a special magic that no other type of tree can bring. There are many different weeping trees, but they all fall into one of two types. Some have a central leader that grows upwards more or less normally, but with cascading side branches. Others have no leader and simply grow where they will, or where we train them to. An outstandingly beautiful tree in that second group is the weeping blue spruce, and we have found some stock of a particularly graceful and elegant version of that tree, with a shape more slender than usual when staked, and an even more intense blue coloring. These trees, the Slenderina® Weeping Blue Spruce, hold the promise to become superb specimens in your garden, and their fast growth rate means that it won’t take long.
Growing Slenderina Weeping Colorado Spruce Trees
The Slenderina® Weeping Blue Spruce is a unique plant. We are all familiar with the regular blue spruce, a tree with a single upright trunk and sturdy horizontal branches that radiate around it in a dense pyramidal form. The intense blue of their stiff needles is famous and always admired. The weeping tree we have is very different, but it has the same intense silver-blue needles radiating stiffly outwards around the stems. However, it has no natural central trunk. Instead, it grows as it chooses, in all directions across the ground, staying low – unless we take control, which is what our growers have skillfully done. Attached to a strong stake and held upright this tree is now vertical, but all the side branches continue to cascade downwards, spreading like a skirt when they reach the ground, and becoming large quickly since the branches of this tree lengthen by as much as 12 inches a year.
The tricky part of getting it started has been done. What happens next is up to you. If you plant the Slenderina Weeping Blue Spruce as you receive it, and do no more, it will grow no taller, but instead, it will grow outwards in an ever-increasing circle of undulating and flowing branches, taking the contours of the surface beneath. This can be wonderful on a slope, or when planted at the top of a wall. If you have rough, rocky ground that is unsightly, this tree will transform it into a brilliant silver-blue carpet. Grown this way it will cover an area 12 feet in each direction in about 10 years, but it will stay just a foot or so tall.
If you want a bold, upright tree with a gorgeous cascading look, then when planting, place a strong stake, as tall as you wish, right beside the trunk. This should be sturdy and durable and metal is usually best. Tie your new tree loosely to the stake, and as the central stem grows, continue to attach it. The ultimate height is up to you. The side branches will cascade down, and the lowest ones will form a skirt around the base. Every tree will be different, depending on how it develops, so your tree will be unique, and very easily you can guide it where you want it. As it grows the trunk will thicken and become strong so that the tree is self-supporting. Because of the risk of wind or snow damage, we always recommend keeping a strong stake in place.
A third alternative is to attach the tree to a sunny wall, or a strong trellis. Tie the leading growth to the wall and take it up. On a wall, you can have multiple leading growths, and you could cover a wall completely this way, with a beautiful and dramatic result.
The Slenderina Weeping Blue Spruce should be grown in full sun, and it will take a little partial shade too. It is resistant to cold, growing well in zone 3 and even probably in zone 2, as well as taking the heat of zone 8. It is happy in almost any well-drained soil, from sand to clay, and once established it is very drought resistant. It normally has no pests or diseases, and deer usually leave it alone. It is a tough, reliable grower, so the only attention needed is to its form, and there your imagination is in charge.
History and Origins of Slenderina Weeping Colorado Spruce Trees
The blue spruce, Picea pungens, is also called the Colorado spruce. It grows high up in the Rocky Mountains, all the way from Montana to New Mexico. The harsh life in the mountains has made it tough, and it brings that toughness to its life in gardens. There are numerous special forms of this tree, including several weeping varieties, and many with powerfully-blue foliage. Plants that lack any tendency to grow upright have probably been found several times, but the best and bluest is a seedling found growing in the late 19th century at the Koster & Co. Nursery, in Boskoop, The Netherlands. It was probably on a plant of that top-quality form, around 2000, that David and Linda Eshraghi, who own a plant nursery in Hillsboro, Oregon, found a special branch that had even more intensely silver-blue foliage, and a narrower growing habit when staked into a tree. They called their tree ‘Glauca Slenderina Pendula’ and trademarked it as the Slenderina® Weeping Blue Spruce. This tree is undoubtedly the very best weeping blue spruce available, and these kinds of gorgeous trees don’t come our way too often. Our stock will soon be gone – order now and bring something truly unique and outstanding into your garden.