Hi All!

I am attempting to buy from 3 to 5 ft Colorado Blue Spruce trees. If
you can recommend a place where I can buy trees of such size that would
be highly appreciated.

Overall plan is to plant those in Austin, Texas. Has anyone else tried
this? Any luck?

Thank you for your help!

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi All!

I am attempting to buy from 3 to 5 ft Colorado Blue Spruce trees. If
you can recommend a place where I can buy trees of such size that would
be highly appreciated.

Overall plan is to plant those in Austin, Texas. Has anyone else tried
this? Any luck?

Thank you for your help!


How many local nurseries have you called on the phone?

Actually 5 of them. And 9 state (texas) christmas tree farms.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Actually 5 of them. And 9 state (texas) christmas tree farms.


And what were the results of those phonecalls? Did anyone sell the plant you
want, or not? If NOT, did they explain why not? If you called actual
nurseries (not places like Home Depot) and found that nobody sells these
plants, it could be because they don't grow well in your area. Or, you
might've just been unlucky and called nurseries whose stock isn't very
complete.

Go to this web page and call these people. They should have someone on their
staff who can advise you about whether the plant in question can or should
be grown in Austin:
http://austin-tx.tamu.edu/

It's possible that your climate's not right for the Colorado blue spruce.
Or, perhaps there's a local issue with a disease or insect which attacks the
spruce. The cooperative extension service is your single best source for
local plant info.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi All!

I am attempting to buy from 3 to 5 ft Colorado Blue Spruce trees. If
you can recommend a place where I can buy trees of such size that would
be highly appreciated.

Overall plan is to plant those in Austin, Texas. Has anyone else tried
this? Any luck?

Thank you for your help!

It's native to cool mountain climates, but has drought resistance -

- Here's some information you might find interesting :

"Colorado blue spruce is an introduced plant to the Minnesota landscape and
this tree is very popular. Unfortunately for this species, popularity leads
to stress related problems. Colorado blue spruce's native range is in the
Rocky Mountains between 6,000 to 10,000 feet - a cool climate.
While this species is said to be somewhat drought tolerant,
Minnesota's drier, warmer continental climate places this species under a
fair amount of stress"



Since the tree "considers" Minnesota a drier, WARMER climate, God knows what
it will "think about" the climate in Austin,Texas.

It probably has a problem competing with the Minnesota palm trees....??

and from the Kansas extension service --

The most common reason for spruce decline is environmental stress. Simply
put, Colorado blue spruce is not at home on the plains. Spruces do not like
the hot dry summer conditions combined with the drying effects of the
southwest winds. It is dry in the mountains but it is cool and dry, not hot
and dry.
The second problem spruce has in Kansas City is our extremely dry fall
and winter conditions coupled again with the drying winds. The mountains
are good, but there is plenty of moisture and much less fluctuating
temperatures.
Lastly, spruce suffers in our climate because of our heavy clay soils.
During wet periods such as the one we are experiencing now the soils drain
very slowly damaging the root system. Rocky mountain soils have low clay
content and drain at a faster rate.

fwiw...

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
Actually 5 of them. And 9 state (texas) christmas tree farms.


And what were the results of those phonecalls? Did anyone sell the plant you
want, or not? If NOT, did they explain why not? If you called actual
nurseries (not places like Home Depot) and found that nobody sells these
plants, it could be because they don't grow well in your area. Or, you
might've just been unlucky and called nurseries whose stock isn't very
complete.

Go to this web page and call these people. They should have someone on their
staff who can advise you about whether the plant in question can or should
be grown in Austin:
http://austin-tx.tamu.edu/

It's possible that your climate's not right for the Colorado blue spruce.
Or, perhaps there's a local issue with a disease or insect which attacks the
spruce. The cooperative extension service is your single best source for
local plant info.

Amen to that. TAMU has one of the best hort sites on the Web.
Here's a detailed zone map for Texas:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/cemap/hardiness.html

If local nurseries don't sell a popular tree like this, there is usually a
really good reason. In this case, the blue spruce is generally rated for
zones 3-7 meaning that you are out of luck in Austin. You might want to
consider a Deodar cedar, a lovely tree with needles that can have a
blueish-green cast to them. Check out Outstanding Trees for Texas
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/e...pe/table5.html

Cheers!

-- Karen

The Garden Gate http://garden-gate.prairienet.org
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