Alberta Spruce

Alberta Spruce

April 7, 2019

I got a response to my craigslist ad about rescuing unwanted trees.  The woman said it was a conifer about 15" tall.  I figured it would be a quick project, and a welcome one since I had no conifers in my collection.  It is some type of small needled pine.  She told me that it was a volunteer of a larger pine.  It grew in the ground for three years, was in a pot for a year or two in a pot since they were planning to move, and then was in the ground for 2 years in her new place.  The tree was small and the foliage was healthy.  It took just a minute to dig out.  It had been raining recently so, the soil clung to the root mass.

I prepped this bulb pan which seemed like the best option for the size.

Here is the tree after potting it up.   The tree seemed to have a fair amount of feeder roots.  I trimmed them up lightly and teased off about 1/2 of the ground soil, making sure to leave plenty around the base.  I opened up some gaps in the native soil and was able to tease in the substrate. I also added mycorrhizae starter and watered it in with superthrive and fish emulsion.

Styling was fun, and easy in comparison to some of the challenging stump projects that I have taken on.  Bar branches was the main challenge and one place by the apex where 4 branches were growing.  I thinned out the heaviest branches as I went up to help with the overall scale of the tree.

Moving my up from the base

It has been a while since I wired almost all the branches on a tree, so this was a fun exercise in placement and working to keep the depth as I thinned it out.  

Proposed front

Left

Back

Right

I will see how it responds.  I did little root work, but ended up removing 1/2 or more of the foliage.  In the above image you can see the branch going to the right is a bit heavy relative to the two below it.

Early May, 2020

May 25, 2020