About

Picea pungens, the Colorado spruce, is a conical to columnar evergreen tree to about 15 m with scaly, grey bark and orange-brown shoots. Needles are stiff, pointed, bluish-grey-green, curving upwards and covered in wax. Cylindrical cones are green at first, ripening to pale brown, to 12 cm long. A popular and ornamental conifer for a sheltered, sunny garden, especially in glaucous-needled blue-spruce forms.

About the genus

Picea, the spruces, are evergreen trees with rigid, needle-like leaves arranged singly all round the shoots and narrow, leathery-scaled cones borne near the ends of the shoots. A large genus of ornamental conifers ranging from large trees to compact dwarf cultivars.

Growing conditions

Plant details

Care notes