Colorado Spruce

Colorado spruce is the blue-needled conifer that people either love or dismiss, the one with the stiff, sharply pointed needles in silver-blue to blue-gray, forming a dense, symmetrical pyramid that looks precisely landscaped even without pruning. It grows forty to sixty feet in the landscape, though it can reach one hundred feet in its native Rocky Mountain habitat. 'Hoopsii' and 'Fat Albert' are among the bluest selections, chosen for the intense silver-blue foliage that reads as nearly white from a distance.

In Western Washington, Colorado spruce grows but does not thrive the way it does in the interior West. The wet winters and moderate summers of the Puget Sound lowlands promote needle cast diseases, Rhizosphaera and Stigmina, that cause needles to discolor and drop from the inside out, often leaving the tree thin and ragged over time. If you plant one, site it in full sun with excellent air circulation. The blue color is best in full sun; shade produces greener, less striking foliage. For a properly blue specimen that stays healthy long-term in this climate, Serbian spruce or some of the blue-toned Atlas cedar cultivars may be more reliable alternatives.