Picea Pungens Edit or Colorado Spruce Edit (Edith)

Picea Pungens Edit is an RHS AGM-winning small evergreen Colorado spruce cultivar. It has exceptionally dense blue foliage that’s shade-tolerant and copes with extreme weather. Excellent as an ornamental windbreak and a natural shelter for birds.

Picea Pungens is the Colorado Spruce from the higher Rocky Mountain regions of North America. It’s exceptionally hardy, tolerating cold winters and hot summers there. This variety “Edit” is often spelt Edith because it was developed in Hungary in 1985 where the name Edith is spelt Edit.

It’s a very slow-growing conifer with horizontally layered rigid foliage that’s so icy-blue it’s almost pale grey. New growth is silvery before maturing to match the darker established growth. In autumn, rich brown cones appear.

Needles grow densely without gaps in the foliage. This results in bird-friendly first-rate windbreaks and privacy screens, as well as ornamental no-fuss structures that provide year-round colour. If you’re looking for a blue evergreen you won’t find a bluer shade.

Height and Spread of Picea Pungens Edit
Colorado Spruce Edit reaches 2.5 metres by 1.2 metres in 10 years.

How Hardy is Picea Pungens Edit
Colorado Spruce Edit holds the RHS hardiest H7 label. In free draining soil it tolerates extreme cold and copes with drought. It is relatively pollution hardy and pests are rarely a problem.

How To Use Picea Pungens Edit
This dense spruce is an excellent windbreak, privacy screen, or low-maintenance addition to a wildlife-friendly garden. Its icy blue foliage is unusual among evergreens, so it brings variety to a foliage garden.

Use it as a stand-alone ornamental for year-round colour, or plants several together to create shelter from the weather.

How To Care For Picea Pungens Edit
Colorado Spruce Edit is very easy to grow and requires barely any attention once it’s established. Choose a sunny to partially shaded spot in free-draining soil and it will thrive.
It prefers neutral to acidic soil, so in alkaline gardens fill the planting hole with ericaceous compost and mulch it every year with acidic pine or bracken mulch.
Water it well until it’s established, because the number one killer of new plants is lack of water, especially larger shrubs and trees.
Pruning isn’t required, but if branches are damaged or growing at odd angles they can be removed at any point in the year.