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Canadian Spruce Sanders Blue is a new dwarf variety derived from a mutation of the famous Konika in 1986. It quickly gained popularity not only due to its attractive appearance, but also due to the fact that it burns much less than other dwarf cultivars. This simplifies maintenance and provides more options for using Sanders Blue in landscape design.
Description of the Sanders Blue spruce
Spruce Gray Sanders Blue grows taller than other dwarf varieties. By the age of 10, it reaches 0,7-1,5 m with a crown width of 35 to 80 cm. This difference is due to the fact that Canadian spruce and its varieties in Our Country often grow much lower than at home.
In the first years, the tree adds from 2,5 to 5 cm per season. After 6-7 years there is a jump, and the annual growth reaches 15 cm. An intensive increase in crown size continues until 12-15 years, then it slows down again and amounts to 1-3 cm per season. The height of an adult Sanders Blue spruce tree, the photo of which is presented below, after 30 years is 2-3 m, the crown diameter is 1,5 m.
As you can see, the crown of the tree is conical. But if the young Canadian spruce Sanders Blue has the correct shape, then it deforms a little with age. In regular gardens, where clear outlines are the basis of style, this is corrected by pruning.
Sanders Blue is distinguished by the fact that its young growth is colored blue. Over time, it turns green, but not evenly, but in spots. This feature is clearly visible in the photo of the Canadian Sanders Blue spruce, and is rarely found in the descriptions of the variety. Mature needles go green in winter with a faint bluish tinge.
The tree forms a dense crown due to short internodes of uplifted branches. Young needles are soft, with age the needles become sharp and stiff, but not as much as that of Prickly Spruce. The root system first grows in depth, then goes horizontally and eventually spreads far beyond the crown projection.
Sanders Blue Canadian Spruce is expected to live at least 50 years. While this is not known for certain, since the variety is quite young. Bumps are extremely rare.
Canadian spruce Sanders Blue in landscape design
The Sanders Blue variety is still not widespread enough, but it has great prospects for use in landscape design. It burns less in the sun than other dwarf Canadian spruces.
Competent designers do not use Sanders Blue as a tapeworm. If one sees a beautiful photo of a single tree in a rock garden, next to a fountain, a statue, or in front of a monument, it should be called a garden arrangement, not a single focal plant.
Canadian spruce Sanders Blue looks good in rockeries, rock gardens, flowerbeds and discounts. It is planted next to heathers and other conifers with green needles as an accent. Spruce Sanders Blue will decorate in regular plantings the front entrance to the house, placed along the garden path, and as a lawn frame.
Spruce Sanders Blue can be planted in containers. But when the tree grows, it becomes difficult to move it from place to place. Shelter for the winter will become a mandatory and not so simple procedure.
Planting and caring for Sanders Blue spruce
Although in the description of the Sanders Blue glauca spruce it is always noted that the variety suffers from sunlight less than other low-growing varieties, caring for the tree does not become easier. This only gives more freedom when placing it on the site.
Seedling and planting preparation
Sanders Blue canadian spruce can be grown in full sun, but will do well in partial shade. The complete absence of light will weaken the tree and make the color of the needles faded. The best soil is loam or sandy loam with an acidic or slightly acidic reaction, loose, well permeable to water and air. If there are stones in the soil, it is not necessary to choose them, Canadian spruce is a typical mountain plant. Groundwater should not come closer to the surface than 1,5 m.
A landing pit is dug with a depth of at least 70 cm, a diameter of 60 cm. A drainage layer is made of expanded clay or red broken brick of 20 cm. If there is brick chips, it is added to the substrate.
Imported seedlings need to be bought only in a container, grown in domestic nurseries can be sewn into burlap. An open-rooted Sanders Blue spruce can only be taken if it is dug up in the presence of buyers. The root system immediately needs to be wrapped with a damp cloth, and if the tree is without an earthy clod, it should be lowered into a clay mash and wrapped with cling film.
Rules of landing
It is best to plant conifers at the end of autumn, in the south they do it all winter. Spruce grown in a container can be placed on the site at any time except during the hot summer months. In Siberia, the Urals and the North-West, even the planting of spruce with an open root system can be postponed for spring. To do this, choose a cool cloudy day.
Before planting the Sanders Blue Canadian spruce, the hole is covered with 2/3 of the nutrient mixture, completely filled with water, left for at least 2 weeks.
Landing algorithm:
- Part of the soil is taken out of the pit.
- A tree is placed in the center. The position of the neck should be at ground level.
- Cover the root with soil, compact it.
- Check if the root collar has moved.
- Along the perimeter of the crown, a roller is made from the remaining soil.
- Sanders Blue Canada Spruce is watered abundantly. Water should reach the edge of the earthen ridge enclosing the near-trunk circle and be absorbed.
- The soil under the seedling is mulched with fungicide-treated pine bark or acid peat.
Watering and top dressing
After planting, the soil under the Sanders Blue Canadian Spruce should be moist without drying out. In the future, watering is reduced. Spruce tolerates short-term waterlogging of the soil, but constant stagnation of water will cause the death of the tree. The root neck should not be allowed to get stuck either. Hot summers may require weekly watering.
Canadian Spruce Sanders Blue is sensitive to lack of moisture in the air. It is necessary to regularly sprinkle the crown, in the heat – daily early in the morning or at 17-18 pm.
Up to 10 years, spruce must be fed regularly, after – it is desirable. It is better to use special seasonal fertilizers for coniferous plants – there all substances are balanced and selected in accordance with the requirements of the culture. Nitrogen predominates in spring top dressing, phosphorus and potassium predominate in autumn.
Foliar top dressings are of great importance. It is better to give them in a chelated form together with epin or zircon alternately. Starting from the second half of summer, magnesium sulfate is added to the balloon.
Mulching and loosening
Canadian spruce Sanders Blue does not like soil compaction, but it needs to be loosened only in the first 2 seasons after planting. Then the root system will grow and thin sucking processes will come close to the surface, you should not disturb them without special need. Loosening is replaced by mulching using high-moor peat or processed bark sold at garden centers.
Trimming
Canadian spruce Sanders Blue at a young age has a symmetrical crown that does not require formative pruning. Over time, it becomes not so smooth, but still remains beautiful. Spruce tolerates shearing well, but it should be carried out only if the design of the site requires strict symmetry of the tree.
Sanitary pruning is difficult to carry out – the numerous branches inside the crown, having lost their needles, quickly dry out. You can remove them only by pushing the dense, densely covered with needles shoots. It will take a lot of time, so sanitary pruning is replaced by cleaning.
Crown cleaning
Inside the dense crown of the Canadian spruce Sanders Blue, the sun’s rays do not fall, and if you do not push the branches apart, then moisture during sprinkling and processing. It is dry and dust accumulates there, which is fertile ground for the appearance and reproduction of ticks. Such a spruce no longer purifies the air in the area, but pollutes it itself.
To correct the situation, crown sprinkling is carried out, but this is not enough. At least three times a year, you need to clean the dwarf Canadian spruce on dry needles:
- the first two times in the spring before the opening of the kidneys with an interval of 14 days;
- the third – late in the fall, before the last treatment with fungicides.
Cleaning should be done only by taking protective measures so that small particles of dry needles and bark do not get into the eyes or nasopharynx – they can cause irritation of the mucous membrane. A respirator, goggles and gloves are the minimum required, it is advisable to remove hair and put on armlets.
The branches of the Sanders Blue Canadian spruce are gently parted by hand and the dried shoots are broken off, if this can be done without effort. Needles are simply removed from unyielding shoots. You can not leave them on the lower branches or the ground. Dry needles and dead shoots are carefully collected and destroyed.
Preparation for winter
Jan van der Neer recommends growing Canadian Spruce Sanders Blue without shelter in hardiness zone 4. Foreign nurseries claim that it overwinters without problems in the third. In any case, in the year of planting, the seedling must be protected with spruce branches or wrapped with non-woven white material, and the soil should be mulched with sour peat. In the spring it is not removed, but shallowly buried in the soil.
In subsequent years, mulching is necessary, and gardeners build shelter in accordance with their own climatic conditions. It should be done not from autumn, but when the temperature reaches about -10 ° C.
Moisture charging, top dressing with phosphorus and potassium at the end of the season will help to survive the winter of Canadian spruce.
Sun protection
Despite the fact that the needles of the Sanders Blue Canadian spruce suffer from the sun much less than other varieties, in late winter and early spring the tree still needs to be covered. The rays reflected from the snow fall on the crown and contribute to the evaporation of moisture, and the root is not yet able to replenish its shortage, as it is in the frozen ground.
In summer, crown sprinkling should be carried out – Canadian spruce Sanders Blue, even if it does not burn (which is not excluded), it still feels uncomfortable in the heat. In addition, it is useful for hygienic reasons, and is the best prevention for the appearance of ticks.
Reproduction
Cones appear very rarely on Sanders Blue Canadian Spruce, species plants grow from their seeds. The variety is propagated by grafting, which can only be done by specialists, or by cuttings throughout the season.
For amateurs, the best time for this operation is spring. This makes the cuttings easier to control during the season, but they still root poorly. There will be many outbursts.
Cuttings 10-15 cm long are taken from the middle part of the crown along with the heel – a piece of the bark of the older shoot. The lower part is freed from needles, treated with a root formation stimulator and planted in sand, perlite, a mixture of peat and sand to a depth of 2-3 cm. The containers are kept in a cool, shady place and watered regularly, preventing the substrate from drying out even for a short time.
When the roots appear, the accustomed cuttings are planted in an individual container with a more nutritious mixture and a drainage layer. Young plants are moved to a permanent place when lateral shoots appear.
Diseases and pests
Sanders Blue, like other dense-crowned Canadian spruces, is particularly susceptible to mites. Acaricides work best against them. Insecticides will help to cope with such pests:
- caterpillars of butterflies Nun;
- Hermes;
- spruce sawmill;
- mealybug;
- gall aphids;
- spruce leaflet.
Fungicides are used when diseases appear:
- rust;
- shutte;
- alder vertuna;
- various rots;
- wound cancer;
- fusariosis;
- necrosis.
To start treatment in a timely manner, every week the Sanders Blue Canadian spruce should be examined with a magnifying glass.
Reviews of Canadian spruce Sanders Blue
Conclusion
Spruce Canadian Sanders Blue quickly gained popularity due to the original color of the crown and small size. You can place the tree in the shade and in the sun. Although the variety needs careful care, if everything is done correctly and on time, in practice everything will not be so difficult.