Atrovirens Oriental Spruce
$111.00 Original price was: $111.00.$33.30Current price is: $33.30.
1000 in stock
SKU: NK4IanoB7l
Category: In Martha Stewart's Garden
LIGHT: Full sun, Partial sun
WATER: Water when top 2 inches of soil is dry.
SIZE: Moderate growing; reaches 60 to 80 ft. tall, 20 to 30 ft. wide.
| Description | This truly elegant conifer has exceptionally dark green, shiny needles that adorn the pyramidal form with dense, pendulous branching from the ground up. One of the last spruces to break bud in spring. An excellent specimen tree. Produces showy female cones that have a lovely purplish coloring before maturing to brown. Evergreen. |
|---|---|
| Bloom Time | Conifer; prized for foliage. |
| Deciduous/Evergreen | Evergreen |
| Special Features | Easy Care, Showy Fruit, Waterwise, Benefits Birds |
| Problems/Solutions | Deer Resistant, Rabbit Resistant |
| Growth Rate | Moderate |
| Growth Habit | Pyramidal |
| Landscape Use | Privacy Screen, Windbreak |
| Design Ideas | This is a rare dark, rich-green Spruce that is remarkably beautiful when planted in groves. As a single specimen, its purplish cones stand out like berries. Excellent choice in lawns or use columnar form to flank driveway entries or access roads. Contrast groups of dark-green Spruce with blue-tinted evergreens. |
| Foliage Color | Green |
| Companion Plants | Beech (Fagus); Flowering Dogwood (Cornus); Weigela (Weigela); Variegated English Holly (Ilex aquifolium); Sedge (Carex); Shasta Daisy (Chrysanthemum) |
| Care Instructions | Grows easily in moist, slightly acidic, loose, sandy or gravelly loam to fine clay soils. Water deeply, regularly during first few growing seasons to establish an extensive root system; once established, tolerates drier soils. Feed with a general purpose fertilizer before new growth begins in spring. |
| History | This spruce is native to a large range that includes the Caucasus and Asia Minor. It was originally classified as Pinus orientalis by Carolus Linnaeus in the 18th century, but it soon became clear this was no pine . It was first introduced in 1839 by Elie Abel Carriere, 1816-1896, in his publication Revue Horticole in France. The genus Picea, classified by German botanist Fredrich Dietrich 1768-1850 includes about 35 species of cold resistant conifers distributed through temperate zones of North America and Europe. |
| Lore | The genus was named from the Latin for pitch, a sugar rich gum extracted from spruce trees. It was brewed into beer and even used as chewing gum by Native Americans, then settlers and was a valuable commodity in ancient Europe. |