COLORADO SPRUCE - Picea pungens

COLORADO SPRUCE Picea pungens

red Outstanding Features:
Hardy and adaptable. Bluefoliage types are a strong accent in the landscape.

Description:
Height: 30-60'
Width: 20-30'
Hardiness Zone: 3a

Colorado Spruce is a stiffly pyramidal evergreen conifer. Horizontal branches reach to the ground, but form may become more open with age. Foliage occurs in a wide range of colors from green to silverblue. Blue foliage types are often sold as Colorado Blue Spruce. The blue foliage makes a strong accent in the landscape and should be used with restraint.

Requirements and Culture:
Prefers a moist, well drained soil but will tolerate drier soil. Adaptable to a wide range of conditions. Full sun, especially for blue foliage types which will lose "blueness" in shade.

Limitations:
Cytospora canker, spider mites, spruce gall aphid, Rhizosphaera needle cast.

Selected Cultivars:
glauca with bluish foliage. A number of named cultivars have been selected from the glauca types for outstanding silveryblue foliage color.

`Fat Albert' selected for good blue foliage and dense, pyramidal growth.

`Hoopsii' has very silvery needles and develops a straight trunk.

`Moerheimi' - dense, compact habit with good blue foliage.

`Thomsen' - good symmetrical form with very silver-blue foliage.

Photo Credit: 1 MLA; 2 Bailey Nurseries, Inc. Photo 2 is `Thomsen'.

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