Species · Conifers like juniper and pine
White spruce
Picea glauca
White spruce, and especially its dwarf 'Conica' cultivar, grows into naturally dense, fine-textured foliage with minimal training, which is why it is a common starter conifer despite spruce as a genus being demanding about humidity. It dislikes hot, dry indoor air and does best kept outdoors year-round in a temperate climate.
Care at a glance
- Watering
- Check daily, water when the top centimetre is dry. Roughly every 2 days in spring, 2 in summer, 3 in autumn and 7 in winter.
- Light
- Full sun, six hours or more.
- Winter
- Very cold-hardy in the ground; still shelter the pot below this. Protect it when the forecast drops below -12 °C.
- Feeding
- Every 21 days, Apr to Sep, paused in the hottest weeks.
- Repotting
- Every 3 to 4 years, as buds swell, in Apr.
- Growth
- Slow growing. Hardy in zones 2 to 6.
The work calendar
| Work | JJan | FFeb | MMar | AApr | MMay | JJun | JJul | AAug | SSep | OOct | NNov | DDec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prune | Mar | Apr | Sep | Oct | ||||||||
| Wire | Jan | Feb | Mar | Oct | Nov | Dec | ||||||
| Pinch | May | Jun |