Uses

Dwarf Alberta Spruce is one of the most versatile evergreens you can use in your landscape. It is the perfect evergreen to use around the foundation of a house with its slow growth rate, formal, tight pyramidal shape and its ultimate height of 6 to 8 feet. Because of its compact size and slow growth rate, many people will plant this selection in groups to create a short hedge or border planting in small space areas. Its size, growth rate and form also make it one of the best shrubs to use in a planter on a deck or patio. With its deep green color, it is the perfect backdrop for blooming annuals and perennials during the summer months while it will shine at holiday time when strewn with lights and holiday décor!

Care

Dwarf Alberta Spruce thrives in half (5 to 6 hours) to a full day of sun. It is one of the most durable, easy care plants for the landscape and, once established, is quite drought tolerant. It is also tolerant of most well drained soil types. It is not a fan of heavy, wet, poorly draining soils so be sure to avoid planting it that type of location.

This plant should be watered thoroughly once a week after you install it to assure it gets established in your landscape. The best way to do this is to stretch your hose to the base of the plant and let a slow trickle of water come out the end. Leave the hose running in this fashion for an hour. This slow delivery will allow the water to seep into the ground where it will slowly work down the soil profile to the establishing roots without running off the soil surface.

If you are planting a hedge, you can deliver the same type of watering through the use of a soaker hose that slowly weeps water out its length providing that slow, deep watering that is so important to the successful establishment of a new plant. Dwarf Alberta Spruce will perform even better with a yearly application of slow release evergreen fertilizer in the spring. This type of fertilizer will provide a steady feeding throughout the growing season which is ideal for maintaining this plant’s optimum health.

Pruning

Because of it slow growing nature and its tight, pyramidal from, Dwarf Alberta Spruce requires very little pruning making it an even lower maintenance plant! You can do some very light shaping if you feel it needs it during the winter months but, during the growing season, just sit back and watch it thrive in your landscape.

One of the most interesting aspects of Dwarf Alberta Spruce, if you are daring and love the ability to create unique geometric shapes in the landscape, is its ability to be contoured and formed into a myriad of different forms through pruning. It is a plant that is often pruned precisely to create upright garden spirals or poodle cut shapes in more formal gardens or containers.

Color

Dwarf Alberta Spruce is an evergreen shrub and does not bloom but its medium to deep green needles make it the perfect backdrop for blooming annuals and perennials in containers or in the landscape. It also adds a fine texture to the landscape with its small needles that can soften or provide contrast and interest in your landscape.

Hardiness

Dwarf Alberta Spruce is quite hardy tolerating temperatures below -30 Fahrenheit with ease. It is a true, northern climate evergreen and tends to struggle in the landscape if planted too far south in hot, humid locations of the country. It is ideal in areas from the mid-Atlantic states north.