PlantFiles: Colorado Spruce, Blue Spruce
Picea pungens

I loved my 4 C. blue spruce, but over time I noticed the inner branches turning brown and when I looked up the trunk, I noticed a dripping goo coming from the branches. I went to a U of M horticulture extension office and was told that my trees are suffering cytospora canker which is fatal. The Colorado Blue Spruce is not native to Minnesota and was told that eventually most of them will succumb to this disease My beautiful trees are now turning into brown skeletons and I am so sad. My trees are probably 25 years old and gorgeous. When they are cut down, I will shop for a conifer nativer to Minnesota. Here is a fact sheet for this fungus: http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/cytcankspruce.html

Colorado Spruce is the state tree of Utah...go figure. The largest one that I have seen was near the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon, east of Salt Lake City, Utah. As near as I could estimate, it was about 120 feet tall; certainly over 100 feet. Sadly, it is no longer there. It was in a Forest Service campground called "Redman". There are many magnificent trees in that area, mostly Douglas Fir and Englemann Spruce. The microclimate is subalpine to alpine and the trees love it; they will not grow nearly so large in the valley, although they do well enough.

This Spruce tree has been known to reach 80 ft. high and the trunk to reach 2 ft. thick. The thick and rough bark is dark gray or brown and furrowed into ridges. The 4" cones are chestnut brown with the scales being more or less straight across which are not thinner at the tip. The silvery-blue needles are stiff and radiate in all directions from the branch. They are shaped like a diamond in the cross section and are about 1.5" long. This Spruce tree occurs in nature at about 7000-11,000 ft elevation in mixed conifer forests. The twigs are not hairy. The bluish crown on the young trees are cone-shaped. This tree is the state tree of Utah and Colorado.
Compared to the Engelmann Spruce, this tree is smaller and less widely distributed in the state of Arizona. It has longer cones that have scales of even thickness and the needles are stiff.
This Spruce is native to AZ, CO, ID, MA, MD, ME, NM, NY, PA, UT & WY in the U.S.A. and is also native to NS & ON in Canada.

I have one in the yard. It is rather small to medium sized, having been planted 10 years ago but is close to a Red pine so it's slow growing. From my observation, spruces are the trees you most likely to see fallen after strong winds move through the area. They have very shallow roots spreading over a rough circular area a certain distance from the tree so they fall down more frequent that some other tree species.

The State Tree of Colorado, fittingly.
It is true that mixed sedlings of Blue spruce exhibit a mix of blue and green forms. The blue trees are saved and the green are culled or used for root stock in the green industry.

They do indeed tolerate Alkaline soil, even 8.0 with little difficulty. The blue color is often more pronounced in trees that are not overwatered. Birds prefer them over most other trees for the dense evergreen cover.

These trees have the most formidable impact when they are not trained to have trunks, leaving the lowest branches to hover just above the ground. Cutting these off only exposes the bare spot underneath! If weeds are a problem underneath, consider mulch.

When I first bought this land many years ago, I knew these two acres needed some character added to supplement the native white oaks, hickories and scrubs. It was then I began thinking evergreens/conifers, but could not visualize what effect they would have 20-25 years down the road. So I put my imagination to work, and began a five-year collecting/buying program to include different species. The fabled blue spruce was a natural for me since a friend had ordered several, overplanted many, and was asking me to take a few off his hands. I took three and transplanted them around the property at a tiny height of barely 15-18". I faithfully watered and fertilized the first year, and drove marker stakes around them to protect against hungry lawn tractors. After all these years, what I couldn't visualize then has materialized into gorgeous trees with an average height of 25-30 feet. They are especially nice in snowy winter months, and of course at Christmas. Birds use them as protection and nesting habitat.

Blue spruce do well in this area and are commonly used in large yards where they have space to mature. Fully grown they can attain a height of 60 feet. Newly planted trees need adequate water and protection from the wind for the first 3 to 5 years until they become established. After that, they are reliable, drought-tolerant conifers. Their dense foliage can shield a house from cold winter winds, reducing heating costs. In a rural setting, they are valuable as windbreaks or shelterbelts.

tends to tolerate drought, once established, as well as white or black hills spruce, and better than norway. adapts to any ph below 7 (i have heard it even tolerates alkaline soil). can take all the cold wind nature can blow on it and not burn. aslo takes 100 degrees with little irritation but needs cold periods in winter to live long.

deer dont like older trees because the needles are stout, but they will eat off seedlings; and deer will eat anything if they are hungry enough.

older trees are suseptable to defoliation due to spruce epizeuxis. blue spruce tend to be hit the worst. it will defoliate the tree from the ground up and leave it looking horrible, even kill it. we are having a bad problem with that in west virginia and virginia now (2005). lime sulphur can control problem if sprayed early enough.