Content
The proximity of coniferous plants has a beneficial effect on humans. And not only because they purify and saturate the air with phytoncides. The beauty of evergreen trees, which do not lose their attractiveness all year round, lifts your spirits and pleases the eye. Unfortunately, not all conifers are comfortable in Russia. Prickly spruce is precisely the crop that can withstand frost very well, requires minimal care, and is also considered the most beautiful representative of the genus Picea.
Description of Spruce
The natural habitat of the Picea pungens is western North America. It grows at an altitude of 2-3 thousand m in sparse plantings, often together with Engelmann Spruce, Yellow and Twisted Pines, pseudo-hemlock.
The wood of the crop lends itself well to processing, but is rarely used, since it is difficult to extract it in the mountains, and transportation of logs is even more difficult. Much more often, prickly spruce is used in landscape design. The most popular are trees with blue needles, thanks to which the species is known under another name: Blue Spruce.
Thanks to the variety of varieties, the crop can be found in small and large private plots, in parks, and near administrative buildings. They decorate avenues, embankments, and places of public leisure.Landscape designers like to plant medium-sized varieties of blue spruce near the house. Most of the upright varieties propagate well from seeds, so they live long. They can be used as a “family tree” and decorated with toys and electric garlands on New Year’s Eve.
Featuring beautiful blue needles, prickly spruce differs from other representatives of the genus in its deep root system, which makes it resistant to wind blowing, allowing it to be planted in open areas. The culture loves the sun, especially forms with silver and bluish needles. It is distinguished by excellent frost resistance and can withstand smoke and air pollution better than other types, is the least demanding on soils and can withstand short-term drought.
In nature, an adult Prickly Spruce grows up to 30-35 m with a crown width of 6-8 m and a trunk diameter of 1-2 m. It lives 600-800 m. Naturally, in urban conditions, even grown from seeds, a tree will not last that long, but , with proper care, will delight several generations.
The branches of an adult species spruce are directed horizontally or droop at different angles. They form dense tiers and form a beautiful cone-shaped crown.
The needles are tetrahedral, sharp, with a waxy coating, directed in all directions, 2-3 cm long. Under natural conditions, they stay on branches for up to 5 years. When growing prickly spruce as an ornamental plant, you can determine its health by the time its needles fall off: if the needles live less than 3 years, something is wrong with the tree. Perhaps the plant simply does not have enough water or fertilizer. The color of the needles can be blue, dark green or silver. The color does not change depending on the season.
Prickly spruce blooms in June. At 10-15 years, female cones appear, after 20-25, male cones.Their shape is oval-cylindrical, often slightly curved, length - 6-10 cm, width at the thickest point - 3 cm. The color of the cones is beige, the scales are thin, with a wavy edge. They ripen in the fall of the year following pollination. Dark brown seeds 3-4 mm in size with a wing up to 1 cm, light, have good germination.
Prickly spruce has thin, rough, grayish-brown bark. It grows slowly and tolerates pruning well.
Variety of prickly spruce
There are many varieties of prickly spruce, and they differ in diversity:
- The most popular are traditionally considered to be Hoopsie, Koster and Glauka, although perhaps not everyone knows their names and simply call them “blue spruce”;
- the dwarf variety Mister Kesarini is distinguished by its cushion-shaped shape and blue-green needles;
- compact Thume with blue needles and a dense, unusually beautiful crown;
- variety Waldbrun - a dwarf that looks good on rocky hills;
- Glauka Pendula and its variations are a weeping form.
All of them are very beautiful, and compared to other spruce trees, they are quite undemanding to care for.
Spruce Arizona
The variety at a young age is distinguished by an asymmetrical crown, which adds 8 cm in height and 10 cm in width. Over time, Arizona Kaibab spruce grows faster, the crown becomes narrowly conical, with dense branches. By the age of 10, it reaches only 80 cm, but an adult tree stretches up to 10 m with a width of 3 m.
The needles are sharp, hard, curved like a sickle, thick, 10-12 mm long. The color in the sun is blue, but if the tree is planted in the shade, the needles will change color to green.
Sometimes there are discrepancies in the descriptions and photographs of the Arizona prickly spruce. It seems that the authors photographed different varieties of conifers.But this is just a feature of Arizona spruce - young plants may have green needles, but the older the tree gets, the more clearly the blue color appears.
Pungens spruce Misty Blue
The prickly spruce variety Misty Blue (Blue Fog) belongs to the Glauka series, which combines forms with a pronounced blue color of the needles. It grows rather large - by the age of 10 it can reach 4 m, and an adult tree stretches 10-12 m with a width of 4-5 m.
Misty Blue is a slender, neat tree with a regular conical crown and beautiful blue needles with a waxy coating. The color of the needles becomes more intense with age, the length is 2-3 cm.
Seedlings of the same age grown in the same nursery are very similar to each other - this is a feature of the variety. If you need to plant an alley of coniferous plants, Misty Blue is ideal - you practically don’t have to trim the trees to give them a uniform shape.
Prickly spruce Glauka Compacta
Slow-growing forms include the Glauka Kompakta variety. It is very similar to Glauka Globosa, only small: an adult tree (after 30 years) reaches a height of 5 m.
It is distinguished by a conical crown of regular shape, tiered branches and bright blue hard needles 2-3 cm long. The color of the needles is fully visible only in the sun; in partial shade it becomes dull.
Spruce Pungens Majestic Blue
When describing the Canadian spruce Majestic Blue, first of all it should be noted that, unlike other varieties of the species, the color of its needles changes throughout the season. In spring it is almost white, and by autumn it becomes bluish-blue.An adult tree reaches a height of 15 m with a crown diameter of 5 m. During the growing season it grows by 15-20 cm.
The needles are prickly, hard, with a steely wax coating, up to 3 cm long. Oval cones 6-15 cm long often appear at the ends of the branches of mature trees.
This variety reproduces well by seeds, produces few defects (defects) of inappropriate color, but is expensive due to high demand.
Prickly spruce Glauka Prostrata
Perhaps this is the most unusual variety. It is impossible to name its height. If the tree is constantly tied to a support, it will grow like a weeping spruce with a narrow pyramidal crown of up to 30 m. But by giving it freedom, you can get a beautiful ground cover that covers an increasingly larger area every year.
Using pruning, an almost horizontal prickly carpet is obtained from Glauka Prostrata. Without outside intervention, it will take a fantastic shape - the branches either rise above the ground and stick out, or spread, take root, and grow further.
The needles are thick, hard and sharp, up to 1.5 cm long, blue. Young cones are colored crimson. Maximum decorativeness can be achieved only by planting the tree in a sunny place.
Conclusion
Prickly spruce combines high decorative value with relative ease of care, which is rare among coniferous crops. Its popularity is well deserved, especially since it can grow in cold climates and tolerates urban conditions better than other species.
