Gardening: Sprucing it up (Part I)

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A small blue Colorado spruce in a nursery pot is very much like a puppy at the SPCA — cute and begging for adop­tion. But a mature Colorado spruce takes space! If your yard is relatively small, you may want to think twice about the species and instead consider one of the smaller varieties.

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Spruce are stately and handsome and provide exceptional shelter from winter winds. Some varieties are at home in a rock garden or mixed border, while others are ideal for shelterbelts. Their colour ranges from silver blue to dark green, and drought tolerance from moderate to extreme. Three prairie species and their cultivars do well in prairie gardens.

Large spruce are used as screen­ing, specimen trees and in shelterbelts. They provide food and excellent winter cover for birds. Smaller selections are good for mixed borders, foundation plantings and even rock gardens.

Spruce needles are four-sided (square in cross-section) and feel “bumpy” when rolled between your fingers. Singly and spirally arranged on the branches, the newer growth always appears brighter and more deeply coloured because of the waxy bloom or coating on the needle surface. This is eventually worn away by wind, rain and grit. Branches are arranged in whorls with a single whorl produced each year. New growth ceases by early summer.

Prune spruce as little as possible, allowing the lower branches to extend to the ground as nature intended. “Shaving the legs” of a spruce is unsightly, unnecessary and humiliating to the tree. To control weeds and conserve moisture, mulch with grass clippings, chopped straw, post peelings, leaves or other organic material and allow the needles and cones to add to the mulch as they fall. Avoid tilling as it damages the roots as well as the lower branches.

Below are some of the species and varieties of spruce which have done well on the prairies:

Colorado spruce (P. pungens) is a large (up to 18 metres/60 feet) and somewhat formal evergreen with a lifespan of over 100 years. Native to the Rocky Mountains, it has a pyra­midal form and needles that vary from green to blue-grey. The species name, pungens, means sharp-pointed, a refer­ence to the needles. This is not a huggable tree. Those sold as “blue spruce” are usually budded or grafted selections and therefore somewhat more expensive than trees propagated from seed.

Its root system is shallow, spreading and close to the soil surface, making it difficult to grow other plants or a lawn under or immediately adjacent to it.

Male cones are small, yellow and located on the lower branches. Once they have shed their pollen in spring, they disintegrate. The female cones, found on the ends of branches in the upper part of the tree, are much larger. They mature, disperse seeds and fall within a year.

Fully hardy and adaptable to a wide range of soils as long as they are well drained, Colorado spruce are drought tolerant once established. They require full sun. In areas with poor air circulation, they are sometimes infested with spider mites which can be controlled by spraying the interior of the tree with a strong jet of cold water from a garden hose. Removing dead branchlets from the interior is a dirty job but reduces spider mite habitat and improves the appearance of the tree.

The following varieties have done well on the Prairies. Their size is more propor­tional to smaller urban lots than the species and some are suited to shrub and mixed borders.

‘Bakeri’ has a compact, pyramidal form with a height and spread of 3.7 x 1.8 metres (12 x 6 feet) and intense blue needles.

‘Fat Albert’ has dense blue foliage, an irregular, pyramidal form of 4.5 metres (15 feet) in height with a 2.7 metre (9-foot) spread.

‘Glauca Globosa’ is globe shaped (1.5 metres/five feet in height and spread), slow growing and an intense blue. Its size suits mixed borders.

‘Glauca Pendula’ is graceful, eye-catching, extremely ornamental and a lot tougher than its weeping appearance would suggest. The main stem is generally staked to a height of one to 2.7 metres (three to nine feet) and then allowed to weep, giving it a variable height and spread.

‘Hoopsii’ has a dense, irregular but pyramidal form and silver-blue foliage. About half the size of the species (nine metres/30 feet in height with a spread of 1.8 metres/six feet), it is a good compromise for smaller spaces.

‘Montgomery’ has dense silver blue foliage and a rounded bottom, spreading to 1.8 metres (six feet) and a more upright top reaching 3.7 metres (12 feet).

Retired from the University of Saskatchewan, Sara’s most recent book is Growing Fruit in Northern Gardens with Bob Bors. She’s been hosting garden tours for over 20 years — to Great Britain, Ireland, Europe, Turkey and Iceland. Join her for a tour of French gardens this September [Contact Ruth at 1-888-778-2378, worldwideecotours.com]

This column is provided courtesy of the Saskatchewan Perennial Society. Reach the society by email at saskperennial@hotmail.com or visit their website at saskperennial.ca. You can find them on Facebook at facebook.com/saskperennial.

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