Picea Pungens Oldenburg Colorado Spruce

Picea Pungens Oldenburg (Colorado Spruce) is a dense evergreen conifer with striking steel blue foliage and long winter cones. It’s a neat and tidy grower that’s perfect as a windbreak or ornamental specimen tree.

Picea Pungens is native to the Rocky Mountains. It grows in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming at elevations between 1800 and 3,300 metres and is better known as the Blue Spruce or Colorado Spruce.

The cultivar Oldenburg was discovered as a seedling in 1955 in the Jeddeloh Nursey in Germany and it’s been popular ever since for its vivid steel blue foliage. Oldenburg is a strong grower that puts on 10-15 centimetres each year but manages to maintain its balanced uniform globose form. Its foliage is dense, with grey-blue needles on branchlets that produce cones up to 10 centimetres in length. Its cones are red-green when young, but mature to orange-brown when they are mature.

This is a well-shaped blue-needled conifer that’s stood the test of time, remaining popular for over 60 years.

Height and Spread of Picea Pungens Oldenburg
A medium-sized spruce, Oldenburg can reach four metres in height and one metre in width.

How Hardy Is Picea Pungens Oldenburg
Colorado Spruce Oldenburg is a hardy conifer more than capable of withstanding the coldest UK winters if it has well-drained roots and full sun. It also tolerates drought once it’s established.

How To Use Picea Pungens Oldenburg
Use Blue Spruce Oldenburg as a handsome ornamental tree in any sized garden to bring year-round colour and texture. Because it doesn’t grow too wide, Oldenburg is a good choice for compact spaces.
Oldenburg will also form an excellent windbreak and architectural privacy screen that’s gently scented and benefits many wild animals including all insects and bird species.

How To Care For Picea Pungens Oldenburg
Blue Spruce Oldenburg is easy to grow and care for. It needs very little maintenance beyond water until it’s established. Lack of water is the top reason why young trees die. Even if it’s raining, give it a can of water each day until you see new growth.
This spruce performs best in full sun with neutral or acidic soil including difficult sand or clay ground so long as it isn’t waterlogged. It will tolerate exposed and sheltered spots and doesn’t need pruning.
A thick layer of acidic (pine, bracken or ericaceous) mulch around the roots in early spring will keep it in good health, trap, moisture and keep weed competition to a minimum.