Dwarf Alberta spruce
Picea glauca 'Conica' · Pinaceae Popular
A perfect, dense cone of soft, bright green needles that keeps its formal shape without any pruning. It grows very slowly.
- Size
- 8 ft tall, 4 ft wide
- Zones
- 3 to 6
- Light
- Full sun
- Flowers
- Grown for its leaves
- Pets
- No toxicity recorded
- Job in a bed
- Accent
A bed built around dwarf Alberta spruce
The planner designed this bed around dwarf Alberta spruce when this page was made: a 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) English border in zone 6, full sun. It chose the other plants from the 966 that suit those conditions, and says below why dwarf Alberta spruce stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Dwarf Alberta spruce × 1, green leaves
- 2 Verbena 'Homestead Purple' × 4, purple
- 3 Cheddar pinks 'Tiny Rubies' × 53, pink
- 4 White mugwort × 4, cream
- 5 False sunflower 'Summer Sun' × 3, yellow
- 6 Prairie dropseed × 4, tan
- 7 Spring starflower × 12, blue
- 8 Easter lily × 4, white
- 9 Snowdrop × 7, white
Why this plant
- The only plant grown for its leaves. Leaf lasts all season, where a flower lasts a few weeks.
- Part of the bed's structure. Shrubs and grasses keep their shape when the perennials die down. So does prairie dropseed.
Why here
- Anchors a back corner. At 8 ft it is the tallest plant here, and the tallest close the ends of the bed, where they stand in front of nothing.
- A step in the back row. Next to white mugwort (5 ft): no two neighbours there are the same height, so the back steps up and down like a skyline.
- One plant, alone. A shrub is seen as an object, and needs clear ground around it.
Why now
- Here for its leaves, all year. They cover the 9 weeks between early March and late November when nothing on the plan is in flower.
- One of two evergreens. They are what the bed has to show from November to March.
Planned as an English border: 5 of the 6 groups (83%) are drifts, longer along the bed than they are deep. White mugwort and dwarf Alberta spruce anchor the back corners of the bed: the tallest plants on the plan stand there. Neither end outweighs the other: the visual weight is split 51 to 49, left to right.
The planner's own design check: 12 Excellent, 4 Good, 1 Needs revision. Its weakest point is height and scale: Heights average about 8 in at the front, 18 in in the middle and 5 ft at the back. Along the back row the heights step up and down, between 3½ ft and 8 ft, and no two neighbours are the same height.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where dwarf Alberta spruce goes in a border
At 8 ft it belongs at the back of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is super tall (over 6½ ft).
Its job: accent. An upright plant used singly, like a punctuation mark, and repeated at intervals to give the bed rhythm.
A natural topiary. It needs cool summers, air movement and shelter from winter sun; in hot, dry sites spider mites turn it brown.
- Formal accents and entrance planting
- Containers
- Evergreen punctuation in a border
What to plant with dwarf Alberta spruce
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Boxwood 'Green Velvet': low enough (3 ft) to stand in front of it.
- Catmint 'Walker's Low': adds the flowers, mid May to mid September; low enough (24 in) to stand in front of it.
- Cranesbill 'Rozanne': adds the flowers, early June to early October; low enough (18 in) to stand in front of it.
Choosing between it and a look-alike? Dwarf Alberta spruce vs Dwarf Hinoki cypress.
Questions about dwarf Alberta spruce
Does dwarf Alberta spruce need sun or shade?
Dwarf Alberta spruce grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day).
It wants ordinary well-drained soil, of average fertility, and a good soak in dry spells. Once settled in, it stands drought.
What zones does dwarf Alberta spruce grow in?
USDA zones 3 to 6. It is hardy to zone 3, which means it survives winter nights down to about −30 °F (−34 °C).
Above zone 6 it struggles: the zones measure winter cold, but a plant's top zone usually means the summers are too hot or the winters too mild for it to rest.
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
How far apart should dwarf Alberta spruce be planted?
3½ ft (100 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 4 ft (120 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 8 ft (250 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many dwarf Alberta spruce plants do I need?
At 3½ ft apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 1 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 4 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 3 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as one at a time, repeated along the bed at intervals; a slender one reads better as a clump of three.
In the bed above, the planner used one in one group.
Is dwarf Alberta spruce poisonous to dogs and cats?
No toxicity is recorded for dogs, cats, horses or people, according to NC State Extension.
"Not toxic" is not "edible": a pet that eats a lot of any plant can be sick.
Do deer eat dwarf Alberta spruce?
Mostly not. NC State lists it as resistant to deer. No plant is proof against a hungry deer in a hard winter, but this one is low on the menu.
What does dwarf Alberta spruce look like in winter?
Dwarf Alberta spruce keeps its green leaves all winter, so it is one of the plants that hold a bed together from November to March, when the perennials have gone.
Is dwarf Alberta spruce good for bees and butterflies?
Dwarf Alberta spruce is visited by butterflies and songbirds.
It is native to the United States and Canada (this is a named variety of the native plant).
More Picea
- Bird's nest spruce Picea abies 'Nidiformis'
- Dwarf blue spruce Picea pungens 'Globosa'
- Norway spruce 'Little Gem' Picea abies 'Little Gem'
In these guides
Every fact on record
- Type
- Shrub
- Size
- 8 ft (250 cm) tall, 4 ft (120 cm) wide
- Plant
- 3½ ft (100 cm) apart
- Height class
- Super tall (over 6½ ft)
- Place in the bed
- Back
- Flowers
- None: grown for its foliage
- Leaves
- Fine texture, evergreen; green
- Shape
- Upright, clumping
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 3 to 6
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil
- Average, well-drained
- Water
- Moderate
- Feeding
- Light, in spring
- Family
- Pinaceae
- Comes from
- Canada, northern United States
- Attracts
- Butterflies, songbirds
- Stands up to
- Deer, drought, heat
Checked against NC State Extension. Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.