Blue Spruce Sapling Trees

• Variety: Blue Spruce, the silver-blue form of the Colorado Spruce
• Latin name: Picea pungens Glauca Group
• Sold as: Bareroot saplings, 15/25 and 20/40cm tall
• Mature size: To about 15m tall, 4 to 8m wide
• Time to full size: 20 to 50 years
• Foliage: Evergreen. Stiff, pointed, silvery-blue needles
• Cones: Green at first, ripening to pale brown and hanging
• Position: Full sun
• Soil: Moist but well-drained, neutral to acid
• Hardiness: H7, hardy in the severest British winter
• Delivered: Bareroot, November to April. Collection from Castle Cary also available

Blue Spruce is the Colorado Spruce in its silver-blue coat: a conical evergreen with stiff, waxy needles, slow enough to enjoy for years as a garden specimen and reaching about 15 metres in time. It is rated H7, wants full sun and a moist, neutral to acid soil, and doubles as a living Christmas tree.

Blue Spruce Sapling Trees

Blue Spruce is a natural variant of the Colorado spruce, being a medium-sized tree with blue tinted, grey-green needles. Especially beautiful by water, it also makes a good no drop Christmas tree. To 15m

See our other evergreens, our range of sapling trees and hedging, or our range of trees.

Delivery season: Spruces are delivered bareroot from late autumn to early spring, November to April.
Choosing a size: Small plants are cheaper and more forgiving of less than ideal aftercare, so they're best for a big planting project. If instant impact is your priority, or if you are only buying a few plants for ornamental use in a place where it's convenient to water them well in their first year, then you may as well use bigger ones. All our sapling trees are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Growing Blue Spruce

It's not fussy about soil, but will be most vigorous on rich, moist, slightly acidic sites. Good drought tolerance when established. Suitable for exposed, windy sites.

Planting Companions

For a Christmas tree plot, grow it beside the traditional Norway Spruce and the soft-needled Nordmann Fir. Serbian Spruce is another ornamental Spruce for a garden, and the rest are with our conifers. Dust the roots with Rootgrow as you plant.

Why Ashridge for Hedging and Young Trees?

Hedging and young trees are not a sideline here: your Blue Spruce saplings are grown for us by specialist growers. Bareroot plants are lifted to order while dormant and guaranteed for 12 months. Ashridge has sold plants since 1949 and is a Which? Best Plant Supplier 2025.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big does a Blue Spruce grow?

To about 15 metres tall and 4 to 8 metres across, over several decades. Named garden selections of the blue form stay far smaller, but these are seed-raised saplings of the full-sized tree.

Why is it blue?

The needles are covered in wax, which gives them the silvery-blue cast. Seed-raised trees vary a little in how blue they are.

What soil does it need?

Moist but well-drained, and neutral to acid. It is not a tree for thin chalk.

Can you use it as a Christmas tree?

Yes. It holds its needles well indoors. Grown in the ground it makes a good outdoor tree to decorate year after year.

Does it need pruning?

No. Spruces keep their own shape.

When are the plants delivered?

Bareroot only, from November to April, while the plants are dormant. You can order at any time of year and your plants are lifted and sent once the season opens.