Coniferous spruce plant grows almost everywhere. There are a considerable number of species of this evergreen tree. One of the most beautiful is Engelman spruce. About its varieties, about when to plant and how to care for it, read the article.
General information
Spruce Engelman from the genus Spruce of the Pine family. In the natural environment, the range of its growth covers the rocky mountains of the forest belt of North America. It grows in the shade of mountain slopes and valleys at high altitude, 1500-3500 meters above ground level in vast areas of clean and mixed forests.
Its neighbors of the lower zone at the place of growth can be monochromatic and pretty firs, western tsugs, larches, twisted broad-tailed pines, and the upper ones - subalpine firs, mountain tsugs, Lyell larch, blond, soft pines.
As a decorative conifer in Europe, cultivated for a long time, from the middle of the 19th century, and in Russia - from the end of the same century. Engelman spruce is a fast growing tree. It is not widespread, since few regions are suitable for its growth. On average, lives three hundred or four hundred years, but in some cases, her life span reaches six hundred years. It has high frost resistance.
View characteristic
This is an evergreen plant with high decorative qualities. Despite the fact that each form of this plant has properties that distinguish it from other spruces, they all fit the description of "large". Indeed, this plant reaches twenty meters and more in height and ninety centimeters in diameter. Its powerful coniferous cover is measured three centimeters in length and two millimeters in width.
In addition, Engelman’s spruce, no matter what its appearance, is characterized by the special position of the branches: they are all slightly tilted down, as if they were crying. The dense crown has a conical shape and is often asymmetric. A thin crust with numerous cracks is covered with scales. It has a reddish brown color. Young shoots have a yellowish tint.
The buds have a cone shape, and the needles are tetrahedral. It is sharp, on each of its sides two to four stomatal lines are visible. The color of the needles of the young spruce is gray-green, and the color of the old tree is green. Growing in places of their origin, spruce do not drop needles from branches for fifteen years.
Fruit Description
Cones have an ovoid-cylindrical shape. On the branches are in a hanging position. Their length reaches four to seven centimeters, width - two and a half. Unripe cones have a burgundy color, and mature cones have a light brown tone. Toothed scales located on the surface of the loose. Ripening period is August or September. Cones fall in the spring of next year, while they do not crumble.
Seeds are located in the sinuses of the scales. Their length is three millimeters. They are painted in brown color and have one wing twelve millimeters long. The seeds are very small. For comparison: one thousand pieces of seeds weigh only three grams.
Using
Spruce is often a guest in foreign gardens. It looks better in single landings, although it does not lose its decorative effect in group landings from a small number of copies. It is planted in squares, along the roads of city streets, in squares. Used to create alley zones.
This variety of conifers has several varieties. The most popular is Spruce Engelmann Glauck. Some trees are dwarf, with a small growth and the color of the needles that is unusual for us, which happens to be white.
Canadian Spruce Glauka
The name speaks for itself: this species of coniferous trees is American. Spruce is the main species in Canada's taiga formation. A tree can grow at an altitude of one thousand five hundred meters. According to climatic conditions, it is an analogue of Siberian spruce. Therefore, Siberia for Glauka is the second home.
Translated from Latin, the name spruce means "gray." Although decorative bluish forms have many spruce. But for the Canadian species, such a color of needles is the norm. Growing in a natural environment, spruce has a less bright color of needles than cultivated trees, and a large height, up to thirty meters. The crown is thick, cone-shaped, in diameter reaches two meters. In young trees, the branches are directed tangentially upward, and in old spruce trees they are lowered downward.
He lives a long time, three hundred to five hundred years. It grows on soils of any composition, but prefers loamy, with good drainage, soil. Engelman spruce glauca is resistant to Siberian frost. Garden forms and varieties of Canadian spruce (there are many) propagate vegetatively. The main way is rooting cuttings.
Low-growing varieties are called snowy. Their growth in Siberia does not cause problems. But other varietal varieties need shading during the period of bright winter and early spring rays of the sun. This is especially true of conical trees.
Fir Pendula Serbian
This is the most beautiful plant of tree species, characterized by a weeping form . Engelman Pendula spruce reaches a height of twelve meters at the age of twenty years. For a year it grows by ten to fifteen centimeters. And after ten years, its height is fifteen meters. The crown is wide, its diameter is one and a half meters. Flexible shoots hang down. Flat needles have a green color, with a whitish coating on the bottom, and a length of up to two centimeters.
Spruce prefers neutral soils and moderate moisture. It does not tolerate compacted soils and stagnation of water. Therefore, it must be planted away from the accumulation of a large amount of groundwater. At the bottom of the landing pit should be a drainage layer with a capacity of twenty centimeters. For this, you can use broken brick or sand. In group plantings, the distance between the fir trees should be two to three meters. Planting pits are deep, fifty to seventy centimeters. When planting, the neck of the root does not go deep into the ground, it should be at the same level with the surface of the earth.
For better survival of seedlings, you can independently prepare the soil from turf and leaf soil, sand and peat. It mixes in two parts of the first two components and in one - the last. As soon as the planting is over, the seedlings are watered with plenty of water: forty-fifty liters in each pit. Fertilizers are introduced at the same time as watering: nitroammophoskos and root root, respectively one hundred and ten grams per bucket of water.
Engelman spruce, photo of which is presented for review, does not tolerate dry weather. In extreme heat, she needs watering, which should be carried out weekly, just once. Each tree is watered with ten buckets of water. The soil in the near-stem circle should be regularly loosened to a depth of five centimeters, to prevent crusting, and mulched with peat six centimeters thick for the winter. After a cold period, the mulch is not removed, but mixed with soil.
During the growing season, fertilizers are applied twice. Spruce trees are pruned in exceptional cases when their overgrowth forms a hedge. It is better to leave this procedure at the end of May or the beginning of June, since at this time the active movement of juice stops. Healthy branches are not deleted. The tree eliminates dry and diseased branches.
Spruce Bush Lace
The name of this species variety is translated from English as “Bush lace”. This tree is seven meters high, about two in width. At the age of ten, its height is two and a half meters. For a year, grows thirty centimeters in height.
Spruce Engelman Leys is unusually beautiful. The central conductor is strong, the branches are distinguished by an interesting feature. At the base they are raised, and their tips are dangling. Around the trunk, the branches form a wide skirt. The narrow crown of the spruce is vertical, with a rich blue color of needles. The unusual shape and unusual color of the needles attract beauty connoisseurs. Spruce is used for landscaping as a tapeworm and in group plantings.