Tiny Tower® Dwarf Alberta Spruce

The dwarf Alberta spruce is a well-known and much-loved dwarf evergreen – a charming pyramid of green. It may look cute and tiny, but in good conditions a plant can grow to about 12 feet tall, with a base 6 or 8 feet across – hardly suitable for a small garden! If you don’t have space for such a ‘giant dwarf’, but love the tree, then the Tiny Tower® Alberta Spruce is the one you want. It is truly dwarf, maturing around 5 or 6 feet tall, and staying closer to 3 or 4 feet for many years. A neat cone of soft needles, it is dense and full, with just enough irregularity to give it character, but never looking untidy. The needles are a very appealing apple-green in spring, turning a slightly darker blue-green by mid-summer, and staying lovely right through winter. It never needs trimming, and is perfect for an accent in a general shrub bed; for planting in a rock garden; marking a turn in a path flanking a door or gate; or, as a perfect potted tree useful anywhere in the garden or on a terrace. Super resistant to cold, a very easy and charming dwarf evergreen for any garden in a cooler zone.

• A dwarf version of the classic ‘Conica’ dwarf Alberta spruce
• A perfect cone of green no more than 6 feet tall when mature
• Naturally very dense, with bright green spring needles turning blue-green
• Very cold-tolerant, even in zone 2 (or zone 4 in a pot)
• Needs no trimming to stay neat and tidy forever

Grow the Tiny Tower® Alberta Spruce in full sun, perhaps with some afternoon shade in zone 6. Plant it in any well-drained soil, preferably moist, although once established it has good drought tolerance in colder zones. Hardy even in zone 2, and really only reliable to zone 6 – or zone 8 in the northwest – it will overwinter in a pot above ground from zone 4 on. Otherwise, bury the plant in the ground, with or without the pot, for the winter months in zones 2 and 3. Sometimes subject to winter sun-scorch in colder zones. Provide shade from the morning sun – a simple burlap screen on the east side is a great protection in cold zones – and remember to soak the roots deeply just before the ground freezes up. A spray with an anti-desiccant is valuable for young plants. Usually free of pest or disease problems. It isn’t necessary to trim it, but if you really want to, do it in late spring, once the new growth has matured and darkened in color. Be careful to trim only lightly, because any exposed bare branches won’t resprout, there must be needles still on them.