Spruce is the "queen" of the forest, leading the popularity rating among landscape art masters. This sacred tree, which acts as a charm of the site and a powerful source of bioenergy, is valued not only for its unique healing properties, but also for its extraordinary decorativeness. Needle foliage of emerald, dark green and even blue shades is able to transform plant compositions, giving a unique zest to the landscape design of the site.
Variants of the use of spruce in landscape design
Few people can remain indifferent to the luxury of color and the frozen beauty of needles of conifers. It is not surprising that spruce in landscaping is used quite often. It looks great as container landings for framing garden paths and for stony gardens.
The conifer is ideal for creating multi-level compositions, harmoniously combining with undersized shrubs and flowering perennials
Trees with needle foliage of a saturated green hue look interesting in combination with bright flowers of one- and perennial plants. Perfect for creating compositions: Japanese anemones, pansies, aquilegia, phlox and hosts. Conifers are an ideal basis for creating evergreen sculptures that can make the appearance of the garden richer and more colorful.
Among the main advantages of using spruce in the design of the site, it is worth highlighting:
- The conifer will delight with the saturation of the shades of needle green in the summer, without fading under the sun, and the winter, contrasting with the whiteness of the snow.
- The phytoncides secreted by the plant are able to purify the air productively, having a healing effect on the human body.
- Spruce is perfect for any landscape design style.
- Fluffy branches are convenient to use in the manufacture of crafts: the creation of paintings, herbariums, New Year's compositions.
But spruce, like any other plant, has its drawbacks. For example, this conifer is able to grow greatly, darkening the territory and draining the soil. Therefore, for the design of gardens using types of fir trees having a dwarf form.
Spruce is also convenient because it is easy to trim. Thanks to this, even an experienced gardener does not have problems with giving the crown a unique shape
It is advisable to plant spruce along the fence. In a short period of time, the conifer grows magnificent, and its thick legs form a solid and dense wall.
Varietal variety of decorative forms
In modern parks and gardens, more than 20 types of fir trees. The main thing when choosing the type of conifer is the configuration of its crown and the size of the plant in adulthood.
In landscape design, 3 types of fir trees are most common:
- Common - a typical species represented by more than 50 garden forms. Low-growth forms created on its basis reach a height of 1.2 m, and mid-growth - 3 and more meters. A wide color palette of needles, starting with golden and ending with rich green, on branches gathered in pyramidal or pillow-shaped crowns makes conifers of this species welcome guests in garden plots.
- Prickly - More than 70 varieties are represented in the culture. Most of them are medium and tall trees up to 40 meters high with a beautiful conical crown. Although there are dwarf forms up to 2 m high. The needles are very prickly: hence the name of the species. It can be bluish-white, blue-steel, silver and bluish-green.
- Sizaya - totals more than 20 decorative forms. The name of the species was due to the ash-gray color of the bark and the bluish tint of the needles. Dwarf forms of this species have a spherical and nest-shaped crown shape, and tall ones are conical. The color palette of needles is quite wide, starting with yellowish-golden and gray-blue and ending with bright green.
Spruce, like any plants, are divided into three groups: dwarf, medium and tall. When gardening personal plots, the most popular are dwarf and mid-sized representatives of conifers.
Among the variety of coniferous ornamental plants in landscape design, creeping and dwarf varieties are especially popular.
Dwarf varieties
Among the undersized forms are plants, the sizes of which in adulthood are several times smaller in comparison with the original maternal species. For example, in natural conditions, ordinary spruce, referred to as Picea abies, is a 50-meter beauty with a neatly designed crown, the width of which reaches 8-10 meters.
The decorative form of this tall conifer, known as Picea abies “Nidiformis” or “pillow-shaped” spruce, reaches no more than two meters in height with a crown width of 2-3 meters.
The main advantage of dwarf forms of conifers is the minimum annual growth of young shoots, which in most cases is limited to 10-15 cm
Among modern varieties created on the basis of ordinary spruce, conifers, whose crowns have a nest-shaped or spherical shape, are famous for the greatest decorativeness.
For the formation of low borders and the design of stony gardens, the miniature shrub Picea abies “Nidiformis” is perfect.
Dwarf spruce "Nidiformis" in adulthood reaches a height of only 40 cm, forming a sprawling crown with a diameter of up to one meter
Located in a fan-shaped thin graceful shoots "Nidiformis" adorned with soft and short needles of delicate emerald hue.
No less attractive is Little Gemm. Shoots extending from the middle of the crown, framed by dark green thin needles, form an accurate hemispherical "pillow". It looks especially interesting in the form of a standard form, planted in a floor container or flowerpot.
The branches of the miniature beauty Picea abies “Little Gem” are formed by the soft short needles of a rich dark green hue
Picea abies “Will's Zwerg” has a beautiful narrow-conical, dense crown shape. The plant is interesting due to the soft green shade of young needles covering milk shoots, which contrasts favorably with the dark green of old needles. The evergreen shrub is well suited for small garden gardens.
Spruce “Will's Zwerg” looks interesting in group compositions and as a tapeworm when arranging gardens with a small area
“Glauka Globosa”, derived by breeding by means of breeding, is famous for its extraordinary decorativeness. A dwarf plant does not have a distinct trunk. Its sprawling branches, dotted with millions of fine needles of an elegant silver-blue hue, form a beautiful spherical crown. Cones formed on the branches, reminiscent of Christmas decorations, give the tree a special appeal.
The blue beauty “Glauca Globosa” is often used to decorate urban landscapes, often acting as an elegant addition to park alleys.
You can not ignore the picturesque creeping on the ground undersized varieties. The miniature “Nana” resembles a soft pillow, and “Echiniformis” is identified with a bun, the round shapes of which appear as the original framing of garden paths.
Most species of spruce trees themselves are shade tolerant, but often their dwarf forms are very sensitive to lack of light.
Mid-sized species
When creating a personal design, it is also customary to use medium-sized conifers whose height reaches no more than 15 m. A low single tree with a clearly defined crown looks picturesque against the background of a lawn "carpet" or house walls. Spectacular driftwood or white stone will help to complete the picture.
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Spruce trees with spreading crowns are able to create a shady area for relaxation, filled with a special atmosphere of home comfort and unity with wildlife
Blue spruce is one of the most popular types of conifers, revered by designers not only for its unpretentiousness in care, but also for the bewitching change of shades of needle foliage throughout the year. Only 20% of the representatives of this species have a pronounced color of the sky, the rest are rich in green and bluish tones.
Blue beauties are not able to withstand temperature fluctuations in the northern regions and feel comfortable only in temperate latitudes. Spruce with blue needles looks advantageously along garden paths, against the background of wooden buildings or stone buildings.
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A bright representative of this species is Picea pungens “Blue Diamond”, which means “blue diamond”.
The graceful beauty “Blue Diamonds” with a tall thin barrel and a neatly shaped conical crown is often used for mixed mixborders.
To diversify the collection, weeping species of fir trees will help. Given their aspiration to the aquatic environment, conifers can be safely involved in the design of the shores of water bodies.
Full-sized weeping spruce trees reach a height of 10-15 meters with a width of 2-3 meters. Thin branches, hanging down, bend around the curved trunk of the plant, giving it a weeping shape.
Serbian spruce “Glauka Pendula” with flexible thin shoots hanging down the trunk - a win-win option when implementing non-standard solutions in garden compositions
More suitable for our climate Canadian spruce. Konika is famous for frost resistance and unpretentiousness in leaving. It is interesting for landscape design in that it has a decorative conical shape of the crown, for a year it gives a small increase and harmoniously fits into the design of even very small sections.
“Piccolo” - a bright, elegant variety with emerald green needles, casting in the sun with a light bluish tint, looks spectacular in group plantings
Against the background of plain green “sisters” Picea pungens “Maigold” stands out, who replenished the collection of varietal beauties in 1988. It will look great as a solitaire.
Young shoots sparkling in the sunshine make the coniferous beauty “Maygold” look like a queen wrapped in a golden mantle
The crown of the tree, reaching a height of 6 m, has a loose pyramidal shape. The cream-yellow needles on young shoots gradually change color after a few weeks, acquiring an equally attractive bluish-green hue.
Combinations of conifers
If the area allows, then to create a picturesque and original picture, it is better to use spruces of different types and varieties.
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Tall trees successfully fit into any landscape in the role of tapeworms, more compact forms of conifers can be safely combined with other plantings
To make the conceived composition harmonious and attractive, masters of landscape art are advised to take into account a number of key points:
- The composition should not be too colorful. For a group of three conifers, use two colors. When composing a composition of five evergreen stands, use only three colors.
- When composing a multi-level composition, including 20-30 plants, place elements in groups, choosing them by color.
- The Christmas-shrub ensemble requires competent emphasis: the foreground is occupied by low-growing plants, the back is occupied by medium-sized conifers.
- Arrangement of an ordinary or Moorish lawn in the near-trunk area of the conifers will help to avoid the feeling of density of Christmas tree plantings.
Juicy needles of a dark shade will emphasize the beauty of a flowering shrub located nearby. In addition to flowering plants, shrubs with unusually colored foliage will become a good addition to the coniferous beauty: weigela, mock orange, barberry.
Fir-trees perfectly combine with other coniferous varieties and flowering perennials, creating a picturesque picture that looks elegant at any time of the year
Guidelines for spruce care
Proper planting and care is a guarantee that coniferous beauties will delight with their presentable appearance almost all year round.
Wanting to decorate their plot with one or more fir trees, experienced gardeners advise to adhere to certain rules:
- Landing time. It is better to plant conifers in early spring or early autumn, when the plant has not yet entered or has already passed the phase of vigorous growth. To preserve young shoots from frost and rodents, it is advisable to mulch the trunk area for the winter with peat.
- Placement Under natural conditions, spruce develops well near the river valley, where it receives enough moisture to power a powerful root system. But at the same time, she does not like wetlands, and therefore needs the arrangement of drainage.
- Soil composition. All types of fir trees love fertile alkaline and acidic soil. They are intolerant of heavy soil types. When planting conifers in depleted soil, the planting pit should first be enriched by adding 100 g of complex mineral fertilizer. With a lack of oxygen and nutrition, the plant may even die.
It is worth considering that the spruce strongly affects the surrounding flowers and shrubs, so it is better to place it at a small distance from sun-loving plants. Do not plant conifers close to each other, as their branches will limit the access of sunlight.
Observing these simple rules when selecting varieties and making plant compositions, you can create a cozy and picturesque design on your site that will delight your eyes throughout the year.
