Picea pungens Seeds | Colorado Blue Spruce

Categories：Tree

Colorado Blue Spruce seeds (Picea pungens)

LATIN NAME: Picea pungens

COMMON NAME: Colorado Blue Spruce

Plant Profile

Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens) is a tree. Needles hold cool, silvered blue through year, cones are pale and papery, and tree grows into dense, formal specimen of the garden. It stands cold, wind, and dry air well, and it keeps even, symmetrical habit. When it flowers, local bees and other insects make good use of it. Together these qualities explain its long-standing appeal to gardeners.

Science & Biotechnology

Within the Picea group, Picea pungens is of continuing interest to researchers working on plant diversity, seed biology and the selection of improved garden forms. Blue spruce has a recognised place in conifer research, and wax coating on needles has kept plant scientists interested for silvered colour. From a research perspective, species of this kind are valuable material for work on propagation and on the selection of uniform lines.

Uses & Benefits

Gardeners value Colorado Blue Spruce for its ornamental character, and the plant also fits naturally into herb, vegetable and cutting gardens. In open garden, the Colorado blue spruce anchors planting with steady blue. Silvered needles hold cool, formal shape through year, tree stands cold and wind well, and it makes fine windbreak and shelter belt. Timber serves construction and the paper. After the first season it asks for very little beyond a place that suits it.

Spruces gave the world spruce beer, a vitamin-C antiscorbutic of explorers, and their resinous bud syrups remain a folk favorite for coughs; the timber sings in violins.

Growing from Seed

Colorado Blue Spruce grows readily from seed. Use a fine, free-draining seed compost, scatter the seed evenly, cover it lightly and hold it just moist in good light. Grow the youngsters on steadily in pots until well rooted, then move them to their final positions.

Our Take

Part of this plant’s appeal is the long practical history summarized above. Once established, Colorado Blue Spruce largely looks after itself. Established seedlings need little beyond ordinary attention.

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