winter peals of the blue in a sense.

odds are the second pic is from the PNW. Also you get better color with better soil.

The plant I had looked like the first pic

Professional photographers will use filters on the lenses of their cameras, to enhance and get dynamic images of a product.

I am in no way accusing anyone of false advertising, it's just a fact of our modern way of life.

I think mine also looked like the first pic.

Pic taken last year in early June.

the other word for will's suggestion of filtered.. is photoshopped ... as in.. the second pic ...

as noted.. location matters... this is one reason a visit to a local conifer collection.. can give you a better idea how plants grows in a closer area ...

blueness is a waxy coating on an otherwise green leaf ... simply put.. is wears off for a multitude of reasons ... thunderstorm on a hot august afternoon ... WINTER for us colder zone peeps.. etc ...

you should see the same effect on picea pungens in the area ... since you wont be seeing hundreds of TB around ...

ken

Josh,

Your cultivar and garcanad's tree *is* a lot more blue than an Abies balsamea species tree. Just not as blue as it shows in a touched up picture.

Here's my Species Ab tree in June. Look how almost lime green the new growth is compared to your tree.

Garcan, yours looks pretty blue to me! Even the prior year is blue

It is in a shady spot. That probably helped (as Ken said above). I like the unique dark greenish blue mature foliage in contrast to most other silvery blue conifers (like in Picea pungens and Abies concolor etc.)

Hmm, it's interesting to think about the climate affecting this. (That second pic above may have be enhanced, but of course I don't know). In the RHS encyclopedia, though, there is this pic (taken at Iseli), and I doubt it's enhanced:

So, is it possible that the colder winter temps here in the East make the older growth darken?

If so, another benefit those folks in the PNW have to make us envious!

Josh

Actually the lowlands here in the Pacific Northwest - while full of planted true firs and spruces - are not good for them as they are prone to sucking pests. Resulting in shabbiness of examples of some age in particular. Even the locally native grand fir and Sitka spruce may often look terrible, when not experiencing optimal circumstances.

And I suspect wholesale growers in the Willamette Valley use regularly applied pesticides to produce all of that fine looking stock of Abies and Picea they ship out.

Another thing that varies with site conditions is how blue a blue cultivar may look. The same kind of purple-leaved tree will also vary - to a certain extent - in how purple it is from one situation to another.

Interesting. And in this photo, the older growth doesn't look much different, to me.