Spruce: planting and care, growing in winter and autumn, types and varieties, photos

Author: Elena N. Category: Garden plants Published: April 28, 2018Last edits: January 20, 2021

Caring for spruce in the garden

Growing conditions

Transfer

Diseases and pests

Reproduction of spruce

Reproduction methods

Growing from seeds

Propagation by cuttings

Spruce on the site in winter

Preparing for winter

Wintering spruce in the garden

Types and varieties

Spruce (Picea ajanensis)

Brewer spruce (Picea breweriana)

Eastern spruce (Picea orientalis)

Korean spruce (Picea koraiensis)

Black spruce (Picea mariana)

Norway spruce (Picea abies)

Literature

useful links

Comments

Spruce (lat. Picea) is a genus of trees in the Pine family, which includes about 40 species. The Latin name of the genus comes from the word “pix”, which means “resin”, and the producing word of the Russian name belongs to the Proto-Slavic language and has the same meaning. The most common species in cultivation is the common spruce, or European spruce. In Fulufjellet National Park in western Sweden, there is a spruce of this species that is more than 9,550 years old. It is the oldest woody organism on Earth. Spruce is one of the most important symbols of Christmas and New Year.

Planting and caring for spruce

Planting: in the second half of April or late August-early September.
Lighting: bright sunlight.
Soil: to fill the planting pit, prepare a mixture of humus, forest soil, peat, turf soil and ¾ cup of Nitroammofoska.
Watering: Seedlings, as well as miniature and dwarf trees, require regular watering. Water consumption for each plant is 12 liters. Mature large spruce trees do not need watering: natural precipitation is enough for them, and they can easily tolerate drought.
Fertilizing: starting from the second season, complex mineral fertilizers for coniferous plants are applied to the spruce tree trunk.
Pruning: there is no need to shape the crown of the spruce, but sometimes the plant requires sanitary cleaning, which is carried out in early spring.
Reproduction: seeds and cuttings.
Pests: spider mites, spruce bark beetles, common spruce sawflies, false scale insects, needle beetles.
Diseases: rust, common chute, snowy chute, root sponge.

Norway spruce: description, varieties, selection, cultivation

Ordinary or European spruce is perfect for decorating a site and forming green areas. There are more than one hundred varieties of green perennials in the wild, but only a few species of conifers are used for gardening.

Norway spruce in landscape design

fits organically into any composition and also looks good in single plantings.
Conifers
used to form hedges, rock gardens, and are used as a background for colorful annual and perennial crops.
Often, designers use Christmas trees
in combination with
pine
, thuja or juniper.

Botanical description

The spruce plant is a slender monoecious evergreen tree up to 40 meters or more in height. The root system of spruce for the first ten to one and a half years is taprooted, then the main root dies off, and the plant lives off the roots located superficially in the soil within a radius of 15-20 m from the trunk. Due to its shallow root system, spruce is not a wind-resistant tree and even wind-fallen. Its crown is pyramidal or cone-shaped, the branches of the spruce are whorled, drooping or horizontally spread. The first few years the tree does not produce lateral shoots. The gray bark of the spruce peels off from the trunk in thin plates. The plant's needles are needle-shaped, the needles are short, sometimes flat, but more often tetrahedral, sharp and hard. They are arranged spirally, sometimes in two rows, and remain on the shoots for up to six years or more. Every year the tree loses up to one-seventh of its needles.

Spruces are gymnosperms. Male strobili, in the form of small catkins, grow from the axils at the ends of the previous year's branches and begin to release pollen in May. Female strobili are also located at the ends of the branches, but in the form of cones, which, after pollination by the wind, grow and hang. The pointed, oblong-cylindrical, leathery or woody cones fall off after the seeds ripen. Spruce cones consist of an axis on which the covering and seed scales are located. Spruce seeds, which do not lose germination for 8-10 years, ripen in October, spill out of the opened cones and are carried by the wind.

Depending on the growing conditions, spruce trees begin to bear fruit at the age of 10 to 60 years. These trees live on average from 250 to 300 years, but you can often find spruce trees that are more than half a thousand years old.

Tips for growing ageratum from seeds

Procurement and quality of raw materials

According to the Temporary Pharmacopoeial Article VFS 42-1190-82, whole raw materials must contain at least 0.2% essential oil; weight loss during drying should not exceed 13%; total ash is allowed no more than 8%; cones in which half or more of the seeds have spilled out, no more than 20%; other parts of spruce (needles, small twigs) no more than 5%; organic impurities (parts of other non-poisonous plants) no more than 1%; mineral impurity (earth, sand, pebbles) no more than 0.5%. Crushed raw materials (pieces of cones of various shapes passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 10 mm) must contain at least 0.2% essential oil; weight loss during drying should be no more than 13%; total ash should be no more than 8%; particles passing through a sieve with a hole size of 0.5 mm, no more than 30%; particles that do not pass through a sieve with a hole diameter of 0.7 mm, no more than 3.5%. Raw materials are packaged in 25 kg bags or in plywood boxes of 30 kg net. The shelf life of raw materials is 2 years. Pharmacies receive dry spruce cones and buds, packaged in boxes of 200 g.

Planting spruce

When to plant

Coniferous plants are considered unpretentious to environmental conditions and undemanding in care, while their decorative qualities are beyond praise. Thanks to these characteristics, spruce has recently been grown in household plots everywhere. The most difficult moment is planting a tree, especially if it is a large tree.

When purchasing planting material, give preference to seedlings with a closed root system, since spruce does not tolerate drying out of the roots: exposed spruce roots die in air in 15-20 minutes. It is better to purchase seedlings from a nursery or a well-established garden center, rather than from seasonal markets. A healthy seedling should have bright, shiny needles, without dry needles, and the roots should not protrude from the container. The earthen ball of a plant ready for planting, about 1 m high, should have a diameter of at least 50 cm.

It is best to plant a spruce in mid-late April; you can also do this at the end of August or early September: during these periods the root system actively grows, and the spruce will more easily take root in a new place. Spruce trees larger than three meters in height are recommended to be planted from November to March with a frozen earth ball.

A decorative Christmas tree of small size can be planted near the house, but a large one with its shallow root system will take away nutrition and moisture from neighboring plants, so it is better to plant it outside the site or you will have to trim its roots annually. As for lighting, decorative low-growing spruce trees and forms with colored needles need a lot of light, otherwise they quickly lose their decorative qualities. And even in large spruce trees, if they are well illuminated by the sun, the crown is formed evenly.

How to plant

The planting hole is dug to a depth of 50-70 cm. The upper diameter of the pit is 40-60 cm, the lower diameter is 30-50 cm. When planting a plant in heavy soil or in an area where groundwater lies high, a layer of drainage material (crushed stone or broken bricks, sprinkled with sand) 15-20 cm thick. Before planting the spruce, prepare a soil mixture with which you will fill the foundation pit: thoroughly mix deciduous and turf soil with humus, sand, peat and three-quarters of a glass of Nitroammofoska. It would be better to add forest soil to the soil mixture instead of leaf soil. The root system of the seedling should be immersed in water two to three hours before planting, without removing it from the container.

Pour the soil mixture onto the drainage layer, carefully, without damaging the earthen ball, remove the seedling from the container and place it in the hole on the soil layer. If you accidentally destroy a ball of earth, then hurry up: you have no more than 20 minutes to complete planting. The seedling placed in the hole is placed strictly vertically and the remaining space is filled with soil mixture, without trying too hard to compact it. The root collar after planting should be at surface level. Make an earthen dump around the seedling that will prevent water from spreading, and pour 10-20 liters of water under the tree, and when it is absorbed, mulch the tree trunk with peat.

If you plant large spruce trees, then the distance between them should be at least 2-3 m.

Application in medicine

An infusion of spruce buds and cones has an antimicrobial, antispasmodic and desensitizing effect. Infusion. Crushed buds and cones of spruce are poured with five times the volume of boiled water and boiled for 30 minutes, stirring. Then cool for 15 minutes and filter through 3 layers of gauze. The infusion is stored in a dark glass container at a temperature of 1–4 ° C, in a place protected from light for no more than 2 days.

Caring for spruce in the garden

Growing conditions

An adult plant normally tolerates drought lasting two weeks, however, dwarf and miniature varieties of spruce, as well as seedlings and young plants, especially if they are planted in winter, require a more responsible approach to watering. Spruce trees planted in winter, for example, are watered weekly throughout the first season, using at least 12 liters of water each time. When watering, do not allow water to get on the needles. To prevent rotting of the superficial root system and rapid evaporation of moisture from the soil, the root area of the spruce must be mulched with a 6 cm thick layer of bark, pine needles, sawdust or shavings of coniferous trees. You can also pour expanded clay around the tree or lay decorative stones. If for some reason the area is not mulched, you will have to regularly loosen the soil around the spruce trees to a depth of 7 cm and remove weeds.

Like any ornamental plant, spruce needs feeding, but in the year of planting, if you applied fertilizer to the pit, the tree is not fed. In the future, once a season, complex fertilizers for coniferous plants are applied to the soil under the spruce. Newly planted or transplanted Christmas trees are first watered with solutions of a growth stimulant (Epin, Heteroauxin or Herbamine) and their needles are sprayed with Ferravit. Adult spruce trees do not need fertilizer.

Sometimes a tree may need sanitary cleaning: branches that are dried or affected by some disease are removed. But keep in mind that severe pruning can destroy the plant, and only prickly spruce is pruned, like lilac, forming it, for example, into cypress.

Transfer

For the first 15 years, spruce grows very slowly, so for the purpose of quick greening, they use transplantation of mature trees onto the site. Sometimes the height of the spruce that needs to be replanted can reach 15 m. It is best to replant such large trees at the beginning of winter, when the ground is already frozen, but the air temperature does not drop below -8-12 ºC. You can replant spruce trees at the end of winter, while the soil is still frozen. In such conditions, the soil adheres well to the roots, and they are minimally damaged.

The spruce is prepared for replanting in advance: in the spring, a trench 20-30 cm wide and 1 m deep is dug along the projection of the perimeter of its crown, carefully cutting off the roots of the spruce with a shovel. Humus or peat is poured into the trench, fertilizers are added to stimulate root formation and watered well. It is necessary to moisten the substrate in the trench several times during the summer, especially during drought. By autumn, many thin roots will form in this pillow.

A planting hole with steep walls 1 m deep and a diameter 1 m larger than the diameter of the crown is dug in the fall. The soil mixture prepared for embedding is stored in the basement so that it does not freeze and remains soft. It is also necessary to make a supply of sand, bedding from under spruce trees and dry leaves. Spruce up to 2 m high can be dug up independently along the radius of the trench, cutting off the remaining roots. They dig up a tree to 60 cm - this is the depth to which the roots of a tree of this height go. They put burlap under the roots of the spruce, wrap it around an earthen ball, pull out the seedling and transport it to the planting site. Taller trees are removed with an uprooter, which holds both the crown and roots with the ground without damaging them.

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Drainage, forest litter, a layer of sand and dry leaves are poured into the bottom of the planting pit, and then the seedling is placed in the pit so that its root collar is 5-7 cm above ground level. When placing, it is very important to maintain the orientation of the tree in the south-north direction. The space between the walls of the pit and the earthen ball is filled with soil mixture, only slightly compacting it. Along the perimeter of the pit, several strong stakes are driven in at an equal distance from each other and the spruce is tied to them with guy wires so that it does not fall from the wind. The tree trunk circle is covered with humus, peat, spruce branches or fallen leaves. When the soil in the hole settles, the root collar of the tree will be at surface level.

Diseases and pests

Conifers have many enemies among insects, and they are also affected by many diseases. For example:

Pine needle rust is a fungal disease that, when infected at the beginning of summer, produces numerous golden cylindrical bubbles with a diameter of 2-3 cm on spruce needles. When the spores contained in them mature, the shell of the bubbles ruptures, the spores disperse and settle on neighboring plants. Young spruce trees suffer the most from rust, in which the disease causes premature death of the needles. For preventive and therapeutic purposes, spruce in early June should be treated with a one percent solution of Bordeaux mixture or another fungicide with a similar effect. Fallen needles must be promptly removed and burned. It is also very important to regularly control weeds. In addition to needle rust, spruce can also be affected by cone rust. Diseased cones must be removed immediately, but otherwise the measures to combat this type of rust are the same as for pine needle rust;

Schütte spruce appears in the spring on last year's shoots: the needles on them turn brown, die, but do not fall off, but remain in place until next spring. Then, on the underside of the needles, apothecia of the fungus will begin to appear in the form of black, shiny and convex formations. Diseased trees are stunted in growth and sometimes even die. At the first signs of the disease, it is necessary to remove the affected branches and treat the spruce with a fungicide solution. To destroy the infection, 3-4 treatments will be needed;

Schutte brown - from this disease, the needles on young spruce trees become brownish-brown and dry out, but do not fall off, and remain on the tree for a long time. Affected branches need to be pruned and the plant treated with a fungicide.

Schütte snow spruce appears on the needles in the fall with reddish-brown spots, on which a white coating forms in the spring. As the disease progresses, the plaque darkens and becomes covered with black fruiting bodies of the fungus. Like the common or brown shutte, the snow shutte causes the needles on the spruce to turn brown, dry out and die. Diseased branches need to be pruned and burned. The pathogens are destroyed by repeated treatment of the tree with a fungicide solution;

Root sponge is a widespread disease that causes rot of the roots of not only coniferous, but also deciduous trees. The fruiting bodies of the fungus form in the voids under the roots and on their lower surface, at the root collar, and sometimes on the litter around the tree. These are leathery formations of different shapes and sizes, brown or brown on the outside, and white or light yellow on the inside. Their texture is like soft cork. This disease destroys spruce wood. If signs of the disease are detected, the lesions must be removed and the affected areas treated with fungicidal preparations.

Of the pests, the most dangerous for spruce are spider mites - not insects, but arachnids, whose main activity is manifested in hot, dry weather. Ticks feed on cell sap. Evidence of their presence are numerous small dots on the needles and cobwebs. With a large number of pests, the spruce turns yellow, and the needles affected by mites become light, almost white. For preventive purposes, it is necessary to spray the needles in the evenings in dry and hot times, and to destroy ticks, acaricides are used: Apollo, Flumite, Floromite, Borneo. Insectoacaricides Actellik, Agravertin, Akarin and Oberon are also effective against ticks. Keep in mind that you will need to carry out more than one treatment to control these pests.

Common spruce sawflies are small dark or yellow insects no more than 6 mm long, damaging mainly young trees, but they multiply en masse on ten- to thirty-year-old spruce trees, slowing down their growth, exposing the ends of the shoots and causing the crown to round off. Young needles on trees infected with sawflies acquire a red-brown tint and remain on the tree for a long time without falling off. As a preventive measure, it is necessary to dig up the soil in the tree trunks and destroy nests of pests, but if the plant is heavily infected, they resort to treating younger larvae with insecticides, among which the drugs Actellik, BI-58, Decis and Fury have proven themselves well.

The spruce bark beetle makes passages in the bark of the spruce, and if these insects colonize the entire tree, the spruce will die. Bark beetles are especially dangerous for decorative plant forms. The best drugs in the fight against bark beetles are Crona-Antip, Clipper, BI-58 and Bifenthrin, but you need to keep in mind that it is very difficult to fight these beetles.

The spruce leaf roller is a brown butterfly with a wingspan of 13-14 mm. The danger for spruce is its light yellow-brown caterpillars with two dark stripes along the back. If you find clusters of rusty needles on spruce shoots, connected by sparse, delicate fibers, then this is the work of a needle-eating leaf roller. Caterpillars mine spruce needles by making round holes at their base. If the damage is minor, the damaged shoots are cut off and burned, and the tree is treated with a solution of green soap.

The spruce moth is protected by a smooth, shiny brown carapace, so spraying spruce with insecticides is unlikely to be effective. The false scale insect lays about 3,000 eggs under its shield, from which pinkish larvae emerge in July. Their food is spruce juice. As a result of the activity of the larvae, the ends of the shoots bend and die, the needles become shorter, turn brown and fall off. The growth of the entire plant slows down. In addition, fungi settle on the honeydew of pseudoscale insects. Trees growing in the shade and on dry soils are especially affected by these pests. Infestation of spruce by false scale insects can be prevented by following correct agricultural practices and preventive treatment of young trees with insecticides, especially when larvae hatch from eggs.

In addition to the pests described, spruce-fir hermes, longhorned beetles, aphids can annoy spruce trees, and among diseases, gray mold can also harm the plant. It is worth saying that diseases and pests mainly affect weak and poorly developing plants that are grown in inappropriate conditions, or spruce trees that are poorly cared for. Strong and healthy plants are quite resistant to both diseases and pests.

Distribution area

Almost the entire territory of Russia is covered with forests in which spruce can be found.
It is included both in spruce forests - pure forests, and mixed plantations. In all coniferous forests, which occupy 78% of the area of all forests in Russia, you can find spruce varieties. In the northeastern regions there are hybrids of common and Siberian spruce that develop in the more severe conditions of the taiga. Spruce is resistant to shade and low temperatures, so it actively reproduces in temperate and cold climates. While dense lowland spruce forests are widespread in our country, in Central Europe the tree grows better in mountainous areas.

Reproduction of spruce

Reproduction methods

Professionals know how to graft cuttings of decorative varieties of spruce onto frost-resistant rootstocks of other coniferous trees. However, for amateur gardeners, the most accessible methods of propagating spruce are seed and cuttings.

How to root a rose cutting from a bouquet

Growing from seeds

Generative (seed) propagation of spruce is a long and labor-intensive process, but for those who are not in a hurry and are not afraid of difficulties, growing a Christmas tree from a seed will be interesting.

Seeds for sowing must be freshly harvested. They are obtained from ripened but not yet opened cones, which must be dried in order to remove the seeds from them. The extracted seeds are stratified before sowing: they are placed in dry sand or a mixture of sand and peat and kept for at least 4-6 weeks in the refrigerator at a temperature of 2-3 ºC. Then, at the end of winter or beginning of spring, the seeds are sown in the ground, the crops are placed in a warm, bright place and watered abundantly. As soon as sprouts appear, watering is reduced slightly. Young fir trees are planted in open ground in the second year, and it is desirable that they immediately end up in a permanent place.

Spruce seedlings grow very slowly, and in addition to pests and diseases, their enemies can be rain, sun and strong wind.

Propagation by cuttings

The best results are obtained by rooting cuttings in the spring, before the buds begin to swell on the trees. Shoots 6-10 cm long with second-order branches are cut with pruning shears, the cut is dipped in a solution of a growth stimulator for a couple of minutes, after which the cuttings are planted at an angle of 20-30 º in a layer of substrate consisting of sand and fine perlite (3:1) or sand with peat (3:1) and laid on top of a drainage layer 5 cm thick and a layer of turf soil 10 cm thick. The cuttings are sprayed with a fine spray and covered with a transparent film cap to retain moisture. The distance between the cuttings should be at least 5 cm, and the distance from the tops of the cuttings to the film should be at least 25-30 cm. It is best to spray the film rather than the cuttings in the future, and this should be done often. It is not advisable to humidify the air in the evening. Make sure that the temperature in the greenhouse does not rise above 25 ºC, otherwise the cuttings may burn. To prevent this from happening, you need to make small holes in the film for ventilation. After the cuttings have developed a root system, they are planted for growing, and after a year they are planted in a permanent place.

Use in landscape design

Norway spruce has been used for landscaping for centuries. Landscape designers use evergreen conifers to create all kinds of compositions, form “living” fences, and zoning areas.

Alleys of tall perennials are often found in recreational areas such as parks, sanatoriums, and resort areas.

Gardeners are happy to create small green compositions from dwarf varieties on their plots, plant single tall species and combine spruce trees with flowering plants.

Spruce on the site in winter

Preparing for winter

When choosing spruce seedlings, you should purchase those that were grown in your region, and then the problem with the winter hardiness of the trees will not arise. But exotic heat-loving crops can freeze out in the first snowless winter. Actually, the coniferous spruce tree is a fairly winter-hardy plant, except for species such as Brever spruce and oriental spruce, but even winter-hardy spruce species need preparation for winter.

Before the first November frosts, you need to carry out the last, moisture-recharging watering: 2 buckets of water are poured under spruce trees below 1 m in height, and from 3 to 5 buckets for plants above 1 m. Watering is especially necessary for one-year and two-year-old seedlings with a still undeveloped root system, conifers with poor winter hardiness, and those trees whose crown was formed by pruning this season.

To prevent young spruce shoots from dying in winter, it is necessary to stop applying fertilizers containing nitrogen from August: this element provokes rapid growth of green mass, and meanwhile in the fall the tree needs to direct all its efforts to the ripening of already formed shoots. You will help the plant if in September you add potassium-phosphorus fertilizers to its tree trunk circle - they will accelerate the lignification of branches and strengthen the root system.

A very important point in preparing spruce for winter is to insulate the soil in the tree trunk circle with tree bark - this is the best material for mulching spruce for the winter. Under such mulch, oxygen easily penetrates to the roots, while the bark does not prevent the evaporation of excess moisture, and the roots of the plant will not dry out, as can happen under cover of leaves or sawdust. Mature spruce trees, as well as seedlings grown in a local nursery, do not need mulching of the root zone.

Wintering spruce in the garden

Winter time brings many unpleasant surprises that you will have to confront. If there is a winter with heavy snowfalls, and wet snow settles heavily on the spruce trees, this can cause fractures of skeletal branches and breaking off thin branches. Do not try to shake the tree to shake snowdrifts off it: the branches of the plant at this time are so fragile that they can crack. Remove snow from branches that you can reach with a brush or broom, moving from the end to the trunk. To clear snow from high-lying branches, wrap the end of a board with a soft cloth, lift each branch with the board, and swing it up and down. Columnar or spherical crowns can be slightly tied with twine in the fall: the branches should be pulled tightly to the trunk, but under no circumstances should they be pinched. This measure will protect the branches from cracking.

In winter, with a sharp contrast between day and night temperatures, spruce branches can become covered with an ice crust, which, having a decent weight, can strongly tilt the spruce paws and lead to the formation of cracks. Place supports under the branches that you used in the summer to support the branches of fruit-bearing trees, and as soon as it gets warmer, the crust will melt and slide off on its own.

A strong winter wind can cause trouble for spruce trees. It is not dangerous for low-growing species, but it can uproot a tall tree. Stretches will help you minimize the risk: on four sides, at the same distance from the spruce, you need to drive strong stakes with a height slightly more than half the height of the tree. One end of the twine is tied to each stake, and the other end is secured to the tree trunk, having first wrapped the trunk with a piece of roofing material. Since it is very difficult to drive stakes into frozen ground, you can do this in advance in the fall. This is exactly what prudent owners do.

Diseases and pests

Properly planted plants are rarely attacked by pests and practically do not get sick.

Common problems:

Fir hermis: yellowing of needles, white formations similar to mold or cotton wool.
Common sawfly (caterpillar): shoots look burnt.li>
Schütte: the needles become brown, yellow or reddish.
Rust: small spots on needles that grow over time.

If pests or diseases are detected, it is necessary to immediately begin treating the plants. If you leave everything to chance, the spruce tree will lose its decorative

the species will die.

Types and varieties

There are about forty types of fir trees, and many of them have a number of decorative forms.

Spruce (Picea ajanensis)

Or Hokkaido spruce , an ancient species that grows naturally in the Far East. This is a slender tree 40-50 m high with a regular conical peaked crown, dark gray bark, smooth in youth and peeling off in plates in adulthood. The shoots of this spruce are yellow-green, yellow-brown or pale yellow. The leaves of Hokkaido spruce are flat needles up to 2 cm long, dark green on top and bright bluish below. Decorative and slightly glossy, light brown, oval-cylindrical spruce cones up to 6.5 cm long. The species is shade-tolerant and winter-hardy, but is demanding on soil composition and does not tolerate marshy soil. The age limit for Ayan spruce is 350 years. A subspecies of Hokkaido spruce is known in cultivation - Hondka spruce, which is less tall, more resistant to late spring frosts, with more swollen leaf pads and buds with a purple tint.

Brewer spruce (Picea breweriana)

Comes from North America. This is a tree 20-25 m high, with a trunk with a diameter of 45-75 cm and weeping branches of the second order. The buds of plants of this species are resinous, fusiform or elliptical, young shoots are deeply furrowed, pubescent, red-brown, but with age they become silver-gray. The needles are flattened, 15-30 mm long, blunt at the top, green above, with white rows of stomata below. The cones are narrow-cylindrical, 6-10 cm long, with a cut off upper edge and very thick scales that open wide when ripe. This species is rare in European culture.

Eastern spruce (Picea orientalis)

One of the forest-forming species of the Caucasian forests, also growing in the northern countries of Asia Minor. Eastern spruce can reach a height of 35-50 m, and a diameter of 2 m. It has a dense and branched conical crown, brown or dark gray scaly bark. Young shoots are yellow-gray or reddish, densely pubescent, old shoots are gray or light gray. The needles are short, tetrahedral, slightly flattened, blunt at the apex, very shiny. The cones are fusiform-cylindrical, up to 10 cm long, purple, but with age they become light brown. The species was introduced into culture in 1837. Eastern spruce is not particularly winter hardy. The species has several decorative forms, of which the most interesting for gardeners are the following large varieties:

Aurea (Aureaspicata) is a spruce with a narrow conical crown and asymmetrical drooping side branches. Plant height is 10-12 m, crown diameter is 4-6 m. On young shoots the needles are light golden, but later they become dark green, hard and shiny;
Early Gold is a form similar to Aurea, but its needles do not turn green, but become greenish-yellow;
Skylands (Aurea Compacta) is one of the most popular varieties of eastern spruce up to 11 m in height with a pyramidal crown and short dense needles that do not change their golden hue throughout the year;
Nathanz is a tree up to 20 m high with a dense crown of weeping hanging branches. The needles are thick, short, hard, shiny, dark green. The young buds are purple but turn brown when ripe.

Of the miniature forms of oriental spruce, the following are interesting:

Bergman's Jam is a plant with dark green needles no more than 60 cm high with a crown diameter of 90 cm. At a young age, the spruce crown is elongated, then it becomes spherical, and then takes on the shape of a pillow;
Professor Langner is a Christmas tree up to 30 cm high and the same diameter with a very dense spherical crown and dark green short needles.

Korean spruce (Picea koraiensis)

A plant from the Far East and North Korea, protected in nature reserves. The Korean spruce reaches a height of 30 m, it has a pyramidal crown with drooping branches, reddish-brown bark, yellow or brownish young shoots, which over time acquire a reddish-brown color. The needles are relatively long - from 9 to 22 mm, green, the cones are oblong-ovate, 8-10 cm long. The species is promising for landscaping due to its high resistance to adverse environmental factors, however, planting and growing Korean spruce in the middle zone is still in the future.

Black spruce (Picea mariana)

Grows in North America. This tree is 20-30 m high with a trunk girth from 30 to 90 cm. The crown is narrow, irregularly conical. The bark is scaly, fissured, thin, reddish or grayish brown. Young shoots are also reddish-brown, covered with glandular pubescence. The needles of this species are thinner than those of all other spruce trees, with stomatal lines on the upper side and a dark bluish-green underside. The cones are small, ovoid or spherical, purple-brown when young, and dull brown when mature. The plant is shade-tolerant, winter-hardy, and undemanding to soil composition. Cultivated in Europe since 1700. In terms of decorativeness it is slightly inferior only to Canadian spruce. The following forms of black spruce are known:

Baisneri is a cultivar up to 5 m high with the same crown diameter, the needles are silvery-bluish. There is a compact variety - Baisneri Compacta, which grows no higher than 2 m;
Doumeti is a winter-hardy plant up to 6 m high with a dense, wide-conical crown and numerous ascending branches. The needles are thick, light blue, the cones grow directly on the trunk;
Kobold is a hybrid between the Doumeti form and Serbian spruce, reaching a height and width of 1 m. The crown is dense, spherical, the needles are dark green;
Nana is a frost-resistant graceful dwarf form about 50 cm high with a round, uniform crown and thin, light bluish-green needles.

Black spruce also has the varieties Aurea, Erikoides, Empetroides and Pendula.

Norway spruce (Picea abies)

Or Norway spruce, native to Europe. This species can reach a height of 50 m, although on average it does not grow above 35 m. The diameter of the trunk is 1-1.5 m. The crown of the Norway spruce is cone-shaped, with drooping or spaced branches rising at the ends. The bark is gray or reddish-brown, fissured or smooth, relatively thin. The shoots are bare, rusty yellow or light brown, the buds are ovoid-cone-shaped, light brown, the needles are 8 to 20 cm long, tetrahedral, pointed at the apex, shiny, dark green. The needles stay on the branches from 6 to 12 years. The cones are oblong-ovate, 10-16 cm long, at first dark purple or light green, turning brown with age. Norway spruce lives up to 500 years, although the average age is 250-300 years. According to the types of branching, the forms of Norway spruce are divided into comb (branches of the first order are horizontal, and the second are thin, arranged like a comb and hanging down), irregularly comb (branches of the second order are located like a comb, but not quite correctly), compact (branches of the first order are of medium length, densely covered with branched branches of the second order), flat (branches of the first order are widely branched in the horizontal direction), brush-like (branches of the first order have short thick branches with small branches hanging brush-like). In addition to those described, the following forms of Norway spruce are often grown in culture:

Akrokona is a moderately frost-resistant variety bred in Finland, 2-3 m high with a wide-conical crown with a diameter of 2-4 m. The bark is brownish, smooth, red-brown, and rough with age. The needles are tetrahedral, pointed, dark green. The cones are large, cylindrical;
Remonti is a low-growing form up to 3 m high with a dense conical or ovoid crown. The buds are ovoid, orange, the needles are green;
Pumila Glauka is a dwarf variety up to 1 m high with a rounded-flattened crown with a diameter of 5-6 m and with shoots overlapping each other, slightly drooping at the top. The needles are dark green with a blue tint.

Also popular are the varieties of Norway spruce Aurea, Aurea Magnifica, Berry, Clanbrassiliana, Columnaris, Compacta, Konica, Cranstoni, Kupressiana, Echiniformis, Redfruited, Formanek, Gregoriana, Inversa, Little Gem, Maxwelly, Microphylla, Nana, Nidiformis, Olendorffy, Pyramidata, Pygmy, Procumbens, Pumila, Reflexa, Repens, Tabuliformis, Viminalis, Virgata, Will Zwerg and many others.

You can write a separate article about the types of spruce, but we can list some of the most popular ones. In addition to those already described by us, the following spruce trees are grown in cultivation: Glena, Canadian (or gray or white), prickly, Koyami, red, Litsian, Lutz, Maksimovich, Meyer, budded, Serbian, Siberian, Sitka, Finnish, Tien Shan ( Schrenk), rough, Engelmann and other species, as well as their numerous varieties.

Unusual varieties of fir trees - the highlight of any composition

Original conifers are my weakness and a collector's item. If we talk about weeping forms, we cannot fail to mention the well-known varieties of common spruce “Inversa” and “Acrocona” with hanging branches and elongated cones. The Serbian spruce “Pendula Bruns” (“Pendula Bruns”) is unique in its habit with short branches hanging along the trunk; over time it turns into a twisted dense column. The appearance of these varieties depends on the height of the graft and on the method of tying the central conductor to a strong support. Although these spruce trees can be kept without shaping, then they will look like a luxurious green wig. I restrain the powerful wide-conical spruce “Cranstonii” by pruning, which makes it look like a funny spider. It’s a shame, but I can’t yet place in the garden the large varieties of Norway spruce “Viminalis” and “Virgata” with serpentine curved branches.

I consider the real pearl of my collection of conifers to be the common spruce “Vermont Gold”, which is unrivaled in its decorative qualities. Knowing that the variety needs high air humidity, I initially planted it in partial shade, but the Christmas tree became dull and expressionless. After transplanting to a sunny place, it produced canary-yellow growths in the spring and in a couple of years turned into an elegant rug that retained the yellow color of the needles in the summer. True, I have to sprinkle in hot weather, otherwise some needles may dry out. To enhance the decorative effect, I change the composition every year and plant blue-flowering annuals (low-growing asters, violas, lobelias) or herbaceous perennials (salvias, speedwells) next to the beauty. In general, I’m never afraid to replant conifers, because sometimes you can only determine the best place experimentally. Moreover, this also applies to the conditions for successful growth and composition of expressive compositions. In my opinion, if a plant is actively growing and it is clear that it will soon begin to grow on its neighbors, it is better to move it to another place in time. The most favorable time for replanting is September, when the weather is cool and there is still enough time for rooting. While hunting for new conifers, I found a real masterpiece - Serbian spruce “Aurea”. This is a variety with drooping branches and a peculiar 3D effect: if you look from above, the needles are coated with gold, from the side - the needles are green, and if you lift the branch - they are silvery-white! This miracle was too big and I couldn’t buy a seedling, but now the 3D Christmas tree tops the list of desirable varieties.

When you fall in love with a certain type of spruce from a photograph, and then after a long search you find it on sale, it is important not to lose your head and be careful when purchasing. The seedling must be provided with a label with the name of the species in Latin and the variety in the language of the originator. You should inspect the grafting site and make sure there are no large (more than 2 mm) cracks. Pruned or exposed lower branches plus shedding needles are warning signs that the root ball is drying out. A high-quality seedling should not have dull or brownish-brown needles, its color should correspond to the description of the variety, but do not forget about seasonal color changes. When purchasing conifers in early spring, you must keep them dormant until planting and do not forget to water the plants. The temperature suitable for overexposure is –3…+3ºС, so it is convenient for me to store seedlings in the refrigerator (standard P9) or in an unheated garage in a large box.

Growing conditions and reproduction

For a spruce to grow well, it needs the following conditions:

Shadow. This tree does not really like the sun; young trees often get sunburned in open areas.
Sufficient hydration. The Christmas tree does not tolerate drought well.
Temperate climate. The tree is cold-resistant, not afraid of frost, but it does not grow well in the southern regions, where summers are too hot and long,
The soil should not be too dense, but moderately fertile.

Spruce is a monoecious plant. This means that male spikelets and female cones grow on the same tree. Propagated by seeds, the germination rate of which is very good. The cones open in late November - early December, the seeds fall out, are picked up by the wind and carried far around the surrounding area.

In early spring, the seed awakens and begins to grow. The main condition for the sprouts to take root and begin to develop well is a warm spring, because they die during spring frosts.