Images Depict Mature Plants
Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce
Picea pungens 'Fat Albert'
Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce trees combine beauty and function. Their distinctive blue-gray foliage is a stunning addition to your landscape and they also make a strong and dense windbreak. Fat Albert can also be used for a privacy screen if speed of growth is not a factor.
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Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce Trees for Sale Online
Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens 'Fat Albert') is a popular evergreen conifer tree with a handsome naturally pyramidal form with rigid tiered branches covered with stiff gray-blue needles. Spruce trees make a perfect evergreen windbreak or tall screening tree and can be used as a specimen plant in more significant landscapes. Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce Trees are known for their striking blue needles and are an excellent choice for living Christmas trees. Fat Albert is a hardy evergreen tree of a more compact size, making it ideal for smaller gardens and container plantings.
- Low maintenance, no pruning necessary
- Distinctive silver-blue foliage
- Compact Spruce that will not overtake the garden
- Natural pyramidal growth
- Long-lived specimen
- Year-round evergreen foliage
| Hardiness Zone: | 3 to 8 |
|---|---|
| Mature Height: | 40 Feet |
| Mature Width: | 15 to 20 Feet |
| Classification: | Conifer / Evergreen |
| Sunlight: | Partial to full sun |
| Habit: | Densely branched, cone shaped |
| Foliage: | Silvery-blue green |
| Pruning Season: | Prune in late spring to maintain shape |
| Soil Condition: | Any well drained soil |
| Water Requirements: | Water well until established |
| Uses: | Extremely attractive when used as in the mixed border, foundations, or planted in mass |
How to Care for Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce
Follow these guidelines for the best results:
HOW TO PLANT FAT ALBERT COLORADO BLUE SPRUCE?
We suggest when planting your newly purchased Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce that you dig a hole twice as wide as the root system but not deeper. Depending on the quality of your existing soil you may need to add a locally sourced compost or topsoil to the back-fill soil. We do not recommend using straight topsoil or compost as a back-fill soil because more times than not these products will retain entirely to much moisture and will cause the root system to rot. Adding compost or topsoil will help the young feeder roots of Fat Albert to spread through the loose, nutrient rich soil, much easier than if you used solely the existing soil which more times than not will be hard and compacted. The most common cause of plant death after transplanting is planting the new plant to deep. That is why we do not recommend planting in a hole any deeper than the soil line of the plant in the pot. A good rule is that you should still be able to see the soil the plant was grown in after back-filling the hole. Bio-tone starter fertilizer is a great starter fertilizer that provides plants with mycorrhizae fungus. It is a naturally occurring beneficial fungus that colonizes on the new growing roots of plants. It creates a barrier between the roots of the plant and fungus and pathogens that can cause root rot. We love this product and use it on all plants we install in our own gardens. Bio-tone is a gardeners best friend and can help guarantee your success.
HOW TO FERTILIZE FAT ALBERT COLORADO BLUE SPRUCE TREES?
Plants such as Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce grow best if they are fertilized once in the spring and again in early summer. Colorado Blue Spruce favors nutrient rich soil and ample fertilization. Colorado Blue Spruce benefits from an fertilizer which can help raise the acid level of the soil such as Holly-Tone by Espoma. When selecting a fertilizer for your Spruce, if soil pH is not an issue a simple balanced fertilizer can be used such as Tree-tone. Don’t fertilize Colorado Blue Spruce Trees after August in the North. Fall is the time for spruce to begin preparing for dormancy. Fertilizing at this time may stimulate new growth that will be too tender to withstand the winter. In the South, a late summer into September application would be about right. As mentioned one spring application of a balanced fertilizer should more than suffice. Either chemical fertilizers or organic matter can be used successfully. Since an organic method of applying manure and/or compost around the roots, produces excellent results and also improves the condition of the soil, this would be an excellent first line of attack. Organic additions to the soil can also be combined with a shot of chemical fertilizer for maximum effect.
HOW TO WATER FAT ALBERT COLORADO BLUE SPRUCE?
After back filling and lightly compacting the 50/50 mix of existing soil and compost give the Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce Tree a good deep watering. This is not to be rushed. Most of the water you put on the plant at first will run away from the plant until the soil is soaked. A general rule of thumb is to count to 5 for every one gallon of pot size. For example a one gallon pot would be watered until you count to 5 a three gallon pot would be 15 and so on. Check the plant daily for the first week or so and then every other day there after. Water using the counting method for the first few weeks. You’ll want to water the bushes regularly after planting until they’ve been well established. We like to tell folks that when watering Spruce or any plant for that matter its best not to water the foliage of the plant. Water at the base of the plant near the soil line only. Gator bag Jr. can be used to help aid in this process and also provide plants with a good soaking due to the slow release of the water into the root-zone of the plant. Soaker Hoses can also be used to water when planting a long hedge.
HOW TO MULCH FAT ALBERT COLORADO BLUE SPRUCE?
We highly recommend that you mulch your Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce with either a ground hardwood mulch or a ground cypress mulch depending on your local availability. Any type of mulch will do but cypress or hardwood mulch will be of a higher quality and provide better nutrition overall as they breakdown. Mulching helps to keep weeds away which will compete with your new investment for water and nutrients. A 2 to 3 inch layer of mulch is sufficient but remember to take care not to cover any part of the stem of the plant with mulch. It's better to leave a one inch gap of space between the mulch and the stem or trunk of the plant.
