| Plant of the Month - April, 2005 |
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by Alan Craig
Picea glauca Weeping White Spruce (Picea glauca 'Pendula') is my pick for April's Plant of the Month. Weeping White Spruce is a very unique and somewhat paradoxical tree. A description of the habit, which is upright pendulous, sounds like an oxymoron. I'll explain. If you are familiar with many weeping, or pendulous, plants, you will know that most have a mounding or spreading form with branches arching outward before drooping. Weeping Norway Spruce (Picea abies 'Pendula') and Weeping White Pine (Pinus strobus 'Pendula') are coniferous examples. Deciduous trees with a pendulous, spreading habit include 'Louisa' Weeping Crabapple (Malus 'Louisa'), Weeping European Beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Pendula') and Young's Weeping Birch (Betula pendula 'Youngii'). Now, consider some trees with a columnar, or fastigiate habit. Columnar White Pine (Pinus strobus 'Fastigiata'), Lombardy Poplar (Populus nigra 'Italica') and several upright to columnar forms of Red Maple (Acer rubrum) are some examples of trees that have a narrow, upright, columnar form. Almost all trees with this habit have branches that grow upwards at very narrow angles to the main trunk. The Weeping White Spruce is so unusual because it develops into a tall, very narrow, almost columnar form. It has a very strong, dominant leader. Yet, instead of the upright branching found on most columnar plants, Weeping White Spruce's branches hang very pendulously from the trunk. You can view an excellent specimen of Weeping White Spruce in the Pinetum in the southwest corner of the Bickelhaupt Arboretum. There is also a younger specimen in the Heartland Collection in the northeastern portion of the Arboretum. Also in the Heartland Collection is a form of Weeping Serbian Spruce (Picea omorika 'Pendula Bruns') that is also a gorgeous specimen, and one of the few trees with the same unusual combination of characteristics as our Plant of the Month. The Weeping White Spruce makes a dramatic vertical accent to use where horizontal space is limited, or even where it isn't! A pair flanking either side of an entrance to a garden would be stunning. It also looks great used in a small naturalized grouping of three to five trees. This tree is extremely hardy (Zone 2) and durable. Plant in full sun where the soil is moist but well drained. A thirty year old specimen would be approximately 30-35' tall by 7-8' wide. It is heavily covered with light grey-green needles. D. Hill Nursery in Illinois originally propagated the Weeping White Spruce from a tree found in a native stand near Guelph, Ontario. One was planted at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois in 1958. This selection was then practically forgotten and almost lost to cultivation. In 1982, Jean Iseli, founder of Iseli Nursery, Inc., in Boring, Oregon 'rediscovered' this tree at the arboretum and fell in love with it. It has been in cultivation ever since, and has been growing more popular every year, with good reason, I might add!
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