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The neighborhood 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, is uplifting and pleasing to the eye. Unfortunately, not all conifers are comfortable in Our Country. Prickly Spruce is just the culture that tolerates frosts well, requires minimal maintenance, and is also considered the most beautiful representative of the Picea genus.
Description of Spruce Prickly
Prickly spruce (Picea pungens) is native to western North America. It grows at an altitude of 2-3 thousand meters in sparse plantings, often together with Engelman’s Spruce, Yellow and Twisted Pine, pseudo-hemlock.
The wood of the culture lends itself well to processing, but is rarely used, since it is difficult to extract it in the mountains, transporting 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 by another name: Blue Spruce.
Due to the variety of varieties, the culture can be found on small and large private plots, in parks, near administrative buildings. They decorate avenues, embankments, places of public leisure. Landscape designers like to plant medium-sized varieties of blue spruce near the house. Most upright varieties are well propagated by seeds, so they live a long time. They can be used as a “family tree”, and on New Year’s Eve dressed up with toys and electric garlands.
With beautiful blue needles, the prickly spruce differs from other representatives of the genus in its deep root system, which makes it resistant to branching, which allows 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, better than other types, withstands smoke, air pollution, is the least demanding on soils and can withstand a short 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 as 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 conical crown.
The needles are tetrahedral, sharp, with a wax coating, directed in all directions, 2-3 cm long. Under natural conditions, it stays on branches for up to 5 years. When growing prickly spruce as an ornamental plant, its health can be determined by the time when the 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.
The prickly spruce blossoms in June. At 10-15 years, female cones appear, after 20-25 – male ones. 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 are light, have good germination.
Spiny spruce has thin, rough, grayish-brown bark. It grows slowly, tolerates a haircut well.
Variety of thorny spruce
There are many varieties of prickly spruce, and they differ in variety:
- Hupsi, Koster and Glauka are traditionally considered the most popular, although, perhaps, not everyone knows their names and is simply called “blue spruce”;
- the dwarf variety Mr. Kesarini is distinguished by its cushion shape and blue-green needles;
- compact Thume with blue needles and a dense, unusually beautiful crown;
- variety Baldbrun – a dwarf that looks good on rocky hills;
- Glauca 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.
Prickly spruce Arizona
The variety at a young age is distinguished by an asymmetric crown, adding 8 cm in height and 10 cm in width. Over time, Arizona Kaibab prickly spruce grows faster, the crown becomes narrow-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 sickle, thick, 10-12 mm long. The color in the sun is blue, if the tree is planted in the shade, the needles will change color to green.
Sometimes there are inconsistencies in the descriptions and photos of the prickly Arizona spruce. It seems that the authors filmed different varieties of conifers. But this is just a feature of Arizona spruce – in young plants, the needles may be green, but the older the tree becomes, the more clearly the blue color appears.
Spruce Pungens Misty Blue
The variety of prickly spruce Misty Blue (Blue Mist) belongs to the Glauka series, combining forms with a pronounced blue color of the needles. It grows rather big – 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 wax 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 conifers, Misty Blue is ideal – the trees practically do not have to be cut to give them a uniform shape.
Prickly spruce Glauka Compacta
The variety Glauka Kompakta belongs to slow-growing forms. It is very similar to Glauka Globoza, only small: an adult tree (after 30 years) reaches a height of 5 m.
It differs by a conical crown of the correct form, a tiered arrangement of branches and bright blue hard needles 2-3 cm long. The color of the needles appears completely only in the sun, in partial shade it becomes dull.
Spruce Pungens Majestic Blue
When describing the Canadian spruce Majestic Blue, it should first of all 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-gray. An adult tree reaches a height of 15 m with a crown diameter of 5 m. During the growing season it gives an increase of 15-20 cm.
The needles are prickly, hard, with a steel wax coating, up to 3 cm long. Oval cones 6-15 cm long often appear at the ends of the branches of adult trees.
This variety is well propagated by seeds, produces few failures (marriage) of inappropriate color, but is expensive due to high demand.
Prickly spruce Glauka Prostrata
Perhaps this is the most unusual variety. Its height cannot be named. If a tree is constantly tied to a support, it will grow like a weeping spruce with a narrow pyramidal crown up to 30 m. But, giving it freedom, you can get a beautiful ground cover that develops an increasing area every year.
Applying pruning, an almost horizontal prickly carpet is obtained from Glauka Prostrata. Without outside interference, it will take a fantastic shape – the branches either rise above the ground and stick out, then creep, take root, and grow further.
The needles are thick, hard and sharp, up to 1,5 cm long, blue. Young cones are raspberry colored. Maximum decorativeness can be achieved only by planting a tree in a sunny place.
Conclusion
Prickly spruce combines high decorativeness 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.