Serbian Spruce

Serbian Spruce (Picea omorika)

Serbian Spruce is not native to the Midwest, but is found throughout Indiana and much of the United States and Canada as a planted ornamental. Serbian are elegant and even smaller trees have character.  Serbian have a more slender trunk than other evergreens and short, ascending or drooping branches on a narrow-pyramidal framework.  A formal evergreen best reserved for specimen use, but also quite good in groupings of threes and fives.

Mature Height: 60′

Mature Spread: 25′

Zone: 4

Sunlight: Full sun

Soil Preference: Serbian Spruce prefers moist, basic soils that may be organic, sandy, or loamy; the soils may be well-drained or moderately drained, but not wet. It is also adaptable to a variety of less favorable conditions, including poor, clay, rocky, dry soils of acidic, neutral, or alkaline pH. It survives under seasonal drought once it is established, and takes fairly well to city pollution.

Nurseryman’s Notes:  Serbian Spruce gradually reaches 60 feet in height by 20 feet in spread with a slow to moderate growth rate, and is my favorite evergreen to grow. Its growth habit is upright pyramidal and it often remains branched and foliaged to the ground, unless it is limbed-up into a more stately tree form.  Needles have an underside that is silver banded, which makes this spruce unique.