Picea glauca 'ECHINIFORMIS'

White spruce is a North American species whose other name Alberta spruce aptly honours its origin. It belongs among the hardiest spruce species with distribution up north to the Arctic Ocean. The species is a very tall tree reaching 30 meters in height, rarely more, but in Europe it is smaller and rarely cultivated. It used to be a popular Christmas trees while spruce was in fashion, but Europe has plenty of its native spruce species, and in the new millennium, fir trees with non-prickly and glossy needles have overwhelmed the Christmas trees market. However, there are attractive forms of white spruce, often dwarf, especially the albertiana variety, which was discovered at the turn of 19th and 20th century in Alberta, Canada, as a witch’s broom and introduced in 1903 named Conica. Since then, several varieties of different needle colour and habit, mostly of low growth, have been developed.

Echiniformis is a very slow growing variety of white spruce. It bears evergreen needles that are short, only about 7 mm long, they are blue-green and look great when there is a deep green background and dark brown mulch underneath. Being a dwarf plant it will fit even the smallest of gardens. 25 year old plants are some 50 cm tall and twice as wide. Pruning is not needed but can be done in early spring if you want to shape the plant or make a groundcover of it.

This spruce is not picky about soil type but hates extremes: too wet or too dry location will mean a slow death of the plant. And avoid too chalky soils. But grown in equally moist soil it will make a beautiful specimen plant or a nice feature in a small border. It is a great pot plant as it can withstand hard frost it can be placed outside in a container all year round. Hardy to about -40°C (USDA zone 3).

Last update 19-02-2011