Black Hills Spruce

Black Hills Spruce (Picea glauca ‘densata’)

Black Hills Spruce is closely related to the White Spruce, but stays smaller.  The tree’s form has blue-green needles and serves as a slower-growing alternative to the blue-needled Colorado Spruce or the dark green-needled Norway Spruce, functioning either as a solitary specimen or as a group windbreak.  Black Hills Spruce trees are noted for their vibrant, dark green foliage and attractive, conical form. The density of its foliage will be a welcome addition to your landscape in those places where a little natural privacy is needed.

Its dark green tone will lend some life to your dull, winter landscape.

Mature Height: 40′

Mature Spread: 15′

Zone: 2

Sunlight: Full sun

Soil Preference: Black Hills prefers moist, acidic 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: Black Hills Spruce gradually reaches 40 feet in height by 15 feet in spread with a slow growth rate, and adapts to a variety of harsh soil and sparse moisture conditions. 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. Its needles are noticeably shorter, as compared to Norway Spruce or Colorado Spruce.