Picea pungens “The Blues” has attractive steel blue foliage which emerges silvery blue in spring. A lovely dwarf weeping evergreen accent tree that will reach 6 ft in 10 years; a sought after tree, it makes a stunning visual impact on the landscape; very hardy and adaptable.
It’s thanks to Larry Stanley we have that beautiful cultivar available. He (Larry Stanley of Stanley and Sons Nursery) discovered a branch mutation on another pungens cultivar, a mutation that dropped downward. Stanley propagated the shoot and staked it, and eventually found that all the side branches would droop downward. The grower can produce a narrow weeping tree by continuous staking; or if staking is abandoned, the leader will eventually wander sideways,
I’ll bet that the majority of growers would have pruned out the freak branch instead of propagating it.
I saw this tree on a gardening show and fell in love immediately. I planted one in my rock garden, and I have a few for sale
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