Picea pungens 'Fat Albert'Dwarf Colorado Blue Spruce
Uncle Bert is just mad about Conifers and rockery plants, perhaps partly due to his Austrian heritage and the fact that he lives in a region which can have snow and ice as a part of the winter scene. Conifers are very much part of the festive season and many a tree is being decorated with tinsel and lights at this very moment somewhere in the world.
The blue spruce is a native of the mountains of the western United States and can reach a height of 30 metres (100ft) The fine and brilliantly coloured foliage is thick and prickly and carried on stout orange branches.'Fat Albert' is one of the small growing cultivars which develops a perfect pyramidal form to 2 metres high by 1.2 metres wide after about ten years. You have to be patient when growing some of these and or be prepared to pay top dollar for advanced specimens. Although these conifers are tolerant of dry soils they are more prone to attack by Red spider mite under these conditions so giving it a bit of extra water during dry spells is recommended.
The blue spruce is a native of the mountains of the western United States and can reach a height of 30 metres (100ft) The fine and brilliantly coloured foliage is thick and prickly and carried on stout orange branches.'Fat Albert' is one of the small growing cultivars which develops a perfect pyramidal form to 2 metres high by 1.2 metres wide after about ten years. You have to be patient when growing some of these and or be prepared to pay top dollar for advanced specimens. Although these conifers are tolerant of dry soils they are more prone to attack by Red spider mite under these conditions so giving it a bit of extra water during dry spells is recommended.
Ian,
ReplyDeleteWe planted a 2 foot blue spruce in Ohio when I was a kid. That spruce is huge now and a haven to all the birds that visit my mom's bird feeders. Lovely plant but it needs lots of room.